Egypt Silence Critics To Make World Junior Quarter-Finals

Top seeds Egypt recovered from a painful Pool defeat to South Africa with a barnstorming win over No.2 seeds Malaysia to book their place in the men's quarter-finals of the WSF World Junior Team Championships in Houston, USA.

The pre-tournament favourites, who earlier went down 2/1 to 13/16 seeds South Africa after defaulting one match due to an administrative issue and a defeat for Omar Azzam to Luhann Groenewald, made a real statement of intent in the last 16 round with two straight-game victories in a tie that many had earmarked as a potential final ahead of the shock Pool result.

First, Marwan Abdelsalam blitzed past Nickhileswar Moganasundharam before individual World Junior Champion Mohamad Zakaria eased to an 11-5, 11-4, 11-4 win over Harith Danial, a bronze medal winner in the individual event.

Egypt coach Andrew Shoukry said: "There was so much pressure on us. After the result, on social media and other platforms a lot of people were going very hard, criticising us and the players. I want to thank the Egyptian Squash Federation who supported us. They said not to listen to it and keep focusing on what you're doing.

"I'm not surprised with the performance of the boys today, not even a one percent doubt that we'd make it. I'm really happy with the performance of every one of the players."

Shoukry added his praise for the consistency of the women's team, coached by Omneya Abdel Kawy, with the defending champions easing into the last eight of the women's draw with a 3/0 victory over England to top Pool A.

Egypt's men's side will face England in the next round after the defending champions beat European rivals France, while the women's team will play Pool B runners up New Zealand.

Hosts USA, meanwhile, delighted the home crowd by reaching the quarter-finals of the women's and men's events.

In the women's draw, USA's Charlotte Pastel, individual bronze medal winner Caroline Fouts, and Riya Navani proved too strong for Japan's Kathryn Herring, Akari Midorikawa and Mahiro Nishio, with all three recording straight-game wins to put them top of Pool B, meaning they will play Pool A runners up England.

Coincidentally, the men's side also faced off against Japan, with the No.7 seeds severely tested by the 9/12 seeds, with Alexander Dartnell and Rishi Srivastava delivering wins either side of a loss for Rustin Wiser against Ren Makino.

"It's really exciting to have both teams in the quarter-finals. It's quite an accomplishment for us, we have a young women's team and a slightly young and inexperienced men's team. It means a lot for US Squash and the amount of work we have put in to be here," said US Squash Director of Junior National Teams Karim Ibrahim.

Elsewhere, there were signs of a changing of the guard in the men's event, with Colombia, Republic of Korea and South Africa all reaching the quarter-finals for the first time after wins over Kuwait, New Zealand and Hong Kong.