Home of WSF World Junior Squash Championships 18 – 29th July 2023, Melbourne Australia
Day two of the WSF World Juniors at Enjoy Squash in Bielsko-Biala saw the Men's and Women's draws each reduced to the last sixteens with the top seeds all staying on course.
Egypt grab five women's spots
The majority of the women's matches were quick affairs, the top four seeds Nouran Gohar, Hania El Hammamy, Rowan El Araby and Siva Subramaniam all winning in under 20 minutes.
The only seeding upset came as Egypt's Zeina Mickawy got the better of England's 9/16 seed Lucy Turmel in three close games. Mickawy was Egypt's original reserve player, added to the draw when Habiba Mohamed withdrew injured, but had she been in from the start she would almost certainly have been seeded. She now meets top seed, defending champion and world #5 Gohar.
Egypt claimed a fifth spot in the last sixteen as 5/8 seed Amina Yousry also won three close games against an English opponent, in this case Elise Lazarus.
Young American Marina Stefanoni also beat an English opponent, but was pushed all the way before clinching the win 11/9 in the decider The longest match of the round saw Switzerland's Celine Walser hold off a determined comeback from Pakistan's Sadia Gul, winning an often contentious five-game encounter in just under an hour.
Pakistanis progress in men's draw
The men's top four seeds – Egypt's Saadeldin Abouaish and Youssef Ibrahim, Malaysia's Iain Yow Ng and Pakistan's Israr Ahmed – all progressed in straight games, but all were made to work for the wins.
Four of tomorrow's matches will feature unseeded players though, the biggest upset coming in the last match of the day as Pakistan's Kashif Asif beat 5/8 Karim Madgy. After losing the first two games the Egyptian fought back from 6-9 down to take the third, but Asif was unstoppable in the fourth as he claimed the upset 11/1.
England's Tom Walsh followed up his upset win of yesterday to move through to a match against second seed Ng, while Abbas Shoukat beat 9/16 seed Sam Scherl in straight games to set up an all-Pakistan match with Ahmed, while India's Adithya Raghavan came through an intense five-setter to beat English 9/16 seed Kyle Finch.
With a less intense schedule tomorrow we'll try to bring you a few more detailed reports … stay tuned !!
Today's Results
Plenty of photos in the Gallery
