Upsets On Opening Day Of World Junior Championships in Houston

The 2024 WSF World Junior Squash Championships began with a bang as the world's top junior talents started their campaigns to be crowned world champion in Houston, Texas, in the USA.

With a staggering 146 matches taking place across 13 courts - including two spectacular show courts - at Houston Squash Club, fans were treated to a bounty of exciting action, with rounds one and two of the men's and women's events taking place.

In the shock of the day, unseeded Canadian Youssef Sarhan took down Colombia's 5/8 seed Jose Santamaria 3/1. Sarhan, who beat Khaled Walead Al Fouzain of Kuwait 3/0 in the morning session, clinched two bruising opening games with Santamaria 15-13, 17-15. The Colombian gained a foothold in the match with an 11-5 win in game three, but could not hold off the resurgent Sarhan in game four, with the Canadian taking it 11-9 to set up a third round clash with USA's Nathan Rosenzweig, who cruised past Chinese Taipei's Pan Hong-Rui in round two after a round one bye.

A Canadian caused a further men's upset when unseeded Wasey Maqsood removed England's 9/16 seed Yusuf Sheikh 11-2, 11-6, 11-5.

A number of the clashes went the distance today, with six going to five games. Picks of the bunch included Hong Kong's Valerie Huang's surprise round one win over Canadian Maria Min; Welshman Ioan Sharpe's epic 19-17, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4 victory over New Zealand's Freddie Jameson; and Canada's Ocean Ma's comeback from 0/2 down to beat England's Mariam Eissa.

For the hosts, it was a largely successful day, with all six of their players progressing in the men's draw and all but one making it through in the women's.

The hosts' sole casualty on the opening day was Alexandra Jaffe, who crashed out to defending women's champion Amina Orfi, with the Egyptian top seed - who is aiming to be the first woman to win a hat-trick of successive World Junior Championship titles - recording a comfortable 3/0 win.

Defending men's champion Hamza Khan also progressed in three games, though the Pakistani was made to work for all three by England's Dylan Roberts, with No.2 seed Khan recording a 12-10, 13-11, 11-7 win to progress.

Men's top seed Mohamad Zakaria, who lost out to Khan in last year's final, looked in top form as he stormed past Kuwait's Abdullah Ali in just 18 minutes to make his mark on the championships early.