Local talent Annie Au Wing-chi became the first Hong Kong player ever to win a title at the British Junior Open Squash Championships in Sheffield last week. The British Open is regarded as the world's leading age-group squash tournament and for Annie to win the under-15 title is a remarkable achievement. The victory adds to the Scottish Junior Open girls' under-15 title Annie won two weeks ago in Edinburgh. In the British semi-final, unseeded Annie again came up against Malaysian Low Wee Wern, the same opponent she had surprisingly beaten in the Scottish final. Annie had no problems repeating the feat as she eased past her rival in straight sets, 10-9, 9-4, 9-2, at the Hallamshire Squash Club. In the final, the prospect of Annie defeating her Egyptian opponent, top seed Shahenda Osama, seemed a slim one. But speedy Annie rose to the challenge and shocked Osama with another straight-sets victory - 9-4, 9-4, 9-4. 'Annie is the first Hong Kong player to win a British Junior Open title at any level since the championships began in 1980, so it is a wonderful achievement,' said Heather Deayton, Executive Director of Hong Kong Squash. Annie's brother, Leo Au Chun-ming, an under-15 finalist in Scotland, reached the semi-finals in England and placed fourth overall. Joey Chan Ho-ling, who won the girls' Scottish Open under-15 title last year, was runner-up in the under-17 event in Edinburgh this time, and came fifth in the British Open. Dick Lau, the Hong Kong under-19 champion, came 13th in the boys' under-19 competition in England. Six local juniors and two coaches travelled to the United Kingdom for the two competitions. Local squash has been inspired by the success of Asian number one Rebecca Chiu Wing-yin, 24, who has steered herself into the world top 20 since winning gold for the SAR at last year's Asian Games in South Korea. The juniors celebrated a wealth of success at the Hong Kong Junior Open last August when they won six out of the 10 titles on offer. The event saw a record number of entries and included competitors from India, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Macau playing for honours at under-11, u-13, u-15, u-17, and u-19 level. Last July, Ho-ling - a Form Three student at Jockey Club Ti-I College - won the Dutch Junior Open in Amsterdam and the Pioneer Junior Cup in Germany.