Kijan Sultana registered four victories on his way to finishing fourth in the Slovak Junior Open which was held in Trnava last weekend.

Competing in the U-13 category, the 11-year-old Sultana was grouped with Nataniel Hernas (Poland), Sean Louis Carmona Garcia (Germany) and Matus Matas (Slovakia).

Sultana was off to a positive start as he had the better of Hernas 12-10, 11-3, 11-4 before easily disposing of Carmona Garcia 11-4, 11-2, 11-2.

Next up for Sultana was Slovakia’s top player Matas.

The match developed into a balanced affair with Matas taking the honours in four sets 11-9, 5-11, 11-4, 11-9.

In the positional play-offs, Sultana was in top form as he cruised past Czech Republic player Frantisek Prochazka 11-4, 11-3, 11-4.

The Maltese junior then played against Poland’s Aleksander Fordonski, who is classified 16th in the European rankings.

Sultana, who is 97th in the European list, was undaunted by the big difference in rankings. He performed brilliantly in a hard-fought match that went to a fifth and deciding set..

Sultana went all out to take an early lead which he administered well to win the game and the match 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-5, to finish fourth in the overall standings.

In a statement, Malta Squash said that, in the next few months, Sultana will be striving to work his way up in the European rankings for the Under 13 age-group.

Sultana has just joined the National Sports School and this will help him to increase his squash training programme over the coming years.

Sultana is coached by Brad Hindle Deguara and is supported by the Maltese Olympic Committee and Malta Squash.