British Junior Open: Tushar and Neel in semifinal

Tushar became the tournament's lowest seeded player across all categories this year to reach the semifinal.

Tushar Shahani will face the top seed Egyptian Omar El Torkey in his next match.

Tushar Shahani and Neel Joshi have kept India's presence going in the ongoing British Junior Open squash by reaching the semifinal in the U-17 and U-15 boys' categories respectively .

The Mumbai lad, Tushar, who has lately been a little down in his performance level seemed to put all that behind as he made it to the last four at the expense of Delhi's Saksham Choudhary, currently the number one ranked U-17 player in India.

Both players were seeded 9/16 and Tushar made the most of an early lead to complete a 11-6, 11-7, 10-12, 11-5 win and in the process became the tournament's lowest seeded player across all categories this year to reach the semifinal.

Tushar now has the tough task of facing the top seed Egyptian Omar El Torkey next late on Saturday.

In the U-15 section it was a bit of a mixed luck. There were two Indians aspiring for the semi-final spot. The 3-4 seed Neel, also from Mumbai, proved his worth where unseeded Arnaav Sareen could not match up to the Egyptian Ahmed Aly, the 3-4 seed. Aly won 5-7, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9.

However Neel despite a struggle pulled it off against another Egyptian the 5/8 seed Ahmed Ismail. The scores of 11-9, 10-12, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9 reflected the closeness of this near one hour match. Neel will face the second seed Malaysian Muhammad Amir Amirul Azhar in the last four.