The New Zealand U-19 Girls Junior Squash Team was ranked sixth in the Squash Junior World Championship in the Netherlands last week, moving two places ahead of the 2013 championship. The players in order of their rankings were Ellie Epke, Abbie Palmer, Juhee Bhide and Nadia Hubbard.

Bhide played her first individual match against Canadian number three Madlen O’Connor losing in a close five setter. She lost her next match against French player Elisa Romba. “Even though I lost, taking these two good players to five sets definitely boosted my confidence,” said Bhide.

The event began on July 31. New Zealand was placed in a group along with England, Belgium, France and Zimbabwe. The Kiwi team won all matches except against England and was placed second in the group.

The quarter-final against fifth seed Malaysian player Zoe Soo was a tough play and after a couple of nail-biting matches, the Kiwis lost very marginally.

The next challenge for the New Zealand team was to beat India to get into the fifth and sixth place play-offs. Number 2 player Abbie Palmer lost narrowly in five sets bringing the score to 1–1. The deciding match was important to place the team into fifth and sixth playoffs. Bhide, after being two sets and three match balls down, climbed her way back to win the third set and consecutively winning the next two sets.

Bhide, Indian-born, says, “It was strange playing for my country (NZ) against my very own (origin) country, but I couldn’t have been happier to get a win for New Zealand.”