Hamza to defend his title in WSF World Jr Squash Championships

The tournament will feature almost 250 top junior squash players at Houston Squash Club from July 12-23

KARACHI:

Pakistan’s Hamza Khan will defend his title as world leading junior squash players would descend on Houston, USA this July for the 2024 WSF World Junior Squash Championships.

Almost 250 of the world’s best junior squash players would feature in the championships, to be contested at Houston Squash Club from July 12 to 23.

The championships would feature individual events for the men’s and women’s draws and, for the first time in World Juniors history, concurrent men’s and women’s team events, with a total of 248 athletes aged 18 and under set to compete across the four competitions, said a press release.

Among the star names confirmed for this year’s World Juniors are Egyptian 16-year-old Amina Orfi, who won the last two editions and has already reached World No.11 on the professional circuit, her compatriot and World No.16 Fayrouz Aboelkheir, India’s Asian U17 Champion Anahat Singh, England’s European U19 Champion Amelie Haworth and New Zealand’s Oceania U19 Champion Ella Lash.

In the men’s draw, Pakistan’s Hamza Khan returns to defend his title, with Egypt’s Mohamed Zakaria, who lost out to Khan in last year’s final, Colombia’s Pan American U19 Champion Juan Torres and Egypt’s Marwan Assal – younger brother to former World No.1 and two-time World Junior Champion Mostafa Asal – among those joining him.

Hosts USA, meanwhile, have named a 12-strong contingent as they seek a first individual junior title since Amanda Sobhy’s 2010 victory in Cologne, Germany. Among the medal hopefuls in the women’s draw are World No.63 Caroline Fouts and Pan American U19 Champion Samantha Jaffe, while Pan American U19 Bronze Medallist Alexander Dartnell and US U19 No.1 Rishi Srivastava will be targeting home court victories in the men’s.

In the team events, which have seen a tournament record 42 squads entered, defending women’s champions Egypt – winners of the last eight editions – have named a strong side with three of last year’s winners returning as Fayrouz Aboelkheir, Amina Orfi and Nadien Elhammamy are joined by Janna Galal.

Defending men’s champions England, meanwhile, have an entirely new squad to the one which defeated Egypt in Nancy, France in 2022, with Abdallah Eissa, Bailey Malik, Dylan Roberts and Yusuf Sheikh tasked with delivering a sixth men’s title for their country.

Hosts USA will be represented by Alexander Dartnell, Zane Patel, Rishi Srivastava and Rustin Wiser in the men’s team event, and Caroline Fouts, Dixon Hill, Samantha Jaffe and Riya Navani in the women’s.

This year’s event would also see debuts for the Philippines and Macau, China, with both Federations sending a men’s team for the first time.