Au confirms talent with silver in British juniors
Annie Au Wing-chi has won the silver medal in the under-19 final at the British Junior Open, Hong Kong's best result in one of the world's top junior tournaments.
Au, 18, (pictured) became the first Hong Kong player to win a medal at the event, losing narrowly to Camille Serme of France in the final.
The 69-minute match started in Au's favour as she took the first two games, but Serme fought back to win the match and title 7-9, 2-9, 9-3, 9-3, 9-7. In each of her other matches, Au won in straight games and took no more than 28 minutes to win.
'She's improving a lot,' Hong Kong Squash executive director Karl Mak Ming-lok said of Au. 'She's not a tall girl, but she's very fast on her feet and she has very good racquet skills. She's a talented player.'
Hong Kong sent seven players to last week's event in Sheffield, including Au's younger brother, Leo Au Chun-min, who finished seventh in the boys' under-19 category.
For Annie Au, who was ranked 49th in the world, the silver medal can be added to a list of successes over the past year.
This past summer, she finished second in the Hong Kong Closed Championship, losing to Rebecca Chiu Wing-yin in five games. At the time, Au said her goal had been to win just one game and that she wanted to work on the mental side of her game.
Since that tournament, Au has won a gold medal at the 2007 Hong Kong Junior Open and finished third at the world junior championship in August, where she lost to Serme in the semi-finals. Serme is ranked 52nd in the world.
Mak said he was proud of Au's achievement, both for the player and for the development of squash in Hong Kong. However, he added that her good results did not come as a shock to those following her progress.
'We're not really surprised because we can see that she's [been] at her top form in recent months,' Mak said.
