Amman (Jordan), June 23 (IANS) India's Aparajitha Balamurukan made her maiden appearance in the girls under-19 semi-finals of the Asian Junior Squash Championships after defeating higher ranked 3/4 seed Ka Yi Lee from Hong Kong here.

Aparajitha defeated Ka Yi Lee 11-8 11-8 8-11 7-11 11-5.

Joining Aparajitha was 3/4 seeded Anaka Alankamony who defeated fellow-Indian Ankita Sharma in straight games Wednesday night.

There was more joy for the Indians as Ranjit Singh (Boys under 13), Adya Advani (Girls under 15), Kush Kumar (Boys under 17), and Ramit Tandon and Mahesh Mangaonkar (Boys under 19) also reached semi-finals in their respective categories.

The girls under 13 and 17 quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday and India will be strongly represented.

Aparajitha was determined to avenge her loss to Ka Yi Lee earlier this year at the Asian Team Championships in Sri Lanka. The first game saw Aparajitha play flawless drives to rattle her opponent from the back winning it 11-8.

In the second, the Indian became deceptive and Lee was unable to handle the pace and control of Aparajitha. However, the Indian, in her eagerness to finish the match, committed errors by playing more to the front giving Lee openings which were put away.

Lee fought back to win the next two games and levelled the match 2-2. Aparajitha started the fifth game with the same aggression she played the first game and Lee made a series of errors to lose the match.