Top seeds Egypt recovered from a painful defeat to South Africa with a barnstorming win over No.2 seeds Malaysia in the round of 16 to book their place in the quarter-finals of the men’s event of the WSF World Junior Team Squash Championships.

The pre-tournament favourites, who yesterday went down 2-1 to [13/16] seeds South Africa in the pools stage after defaulting one match and a defeat for Omar Azzam to Luhann Groenewald, made a real statement of intent today with two straight-game victories in a tie that many had earmarked as a potential final ahead of yesterday’s shock result.

First, Marwan Abdelsalam blitzed past Nickhileswar Moganasundharam 11-7, 11-2, 11-5 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.

Andrew Shoukry, Egypt coach, said: “There was so much pressure on us [after yesterday]. 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 to the consistent excellence 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 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 in the round of 16, with the No.7 seeds severely tested by the [9/12] seeds, as Alexander Dartnell and Rishi Srivastava delivered 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,”  US Squash Director of Junior National Teams Karim Ibrahim said.

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, China.

The quarter-finals of the 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championships take place tomorrow, 21 July, from 10:00 (GMT-5). Head to WORLDSQUASH.TV to watch all the action live and free.

Click here to view all the results from day three of the team events and click here to view the schedule for tomorrow, including in the consolation draws.

Draw: 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championships – Women’s Quarter-Finals
[1] Egypt v [9/10] New Zealand
[4] Hong Kong, China v [5/6] Canada
[5/6] India v [3] Malaysia
[7/8] England v [2] USA

Draw: 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championships – Men’s Quarter-Finals
[13/16] South Africa v [7] USA
[4] Republic of Korea v [6] India
[5] Colombia v [3] Pakistan
[8] England v [1] Egypt

The 2024 WSF World Junior Squash Championships are taking place at Houston Squash Club, Texas, from 12-23 July. Find all the key information here. 

Keep up with all the action at wsfworldjuniors.com.

For the latest WSF news, follow the World Squash Federation on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and X (formerly Twitter) or subscribe to the WSF Newsletter.