Egypt have won their tenth WSF Women’s World Junior Team Championship title and their eighth in succession after a 2-0 win against No.2 seeds Malaysia at Melbourne Sports Centres.
Malaysia came into today’s tie with revenge on their minds, having lost to Egypt in the final of the last two editions of the tournament, with their first string Aira Azman also losing to Egyptian first string Amina Orfi in the final of the individual championship earlier this week.
The No.2 seeds chances were boosted by news ahead of the tie that Egypt were without two players due to illness, meaning the defending champions were represented by their No.1 Amina Orfi, No.3 Zeina Zein and No.5 Nadien El Hammamy.
Zein, up first due to the 2-1-3 string order today, picked up the gauntlet almost flawlessly from original second string Fayrouz Aboelkheir as she put in a brilliant performance to settle any Egyptian nerves.
After taking a 2-0 lead against Sehveetrraa Kumar, the Egyptian was pegged back in game three 11-2.
The 18-year-old soon found the perfect response, however, delivering a stunning 11-0 win in game four to give her side the lead.
In the second match, Orfi was at her clinical best as she kept Azman at arm’s length throughout.
The 16-year-old kept her cool and took advantage of Azman’s errors in the first two games to take a 2-0 lead, before putting the Malaysian to the sword with an 11-2 win in game three.
Afterwards, Egypt’s coach, former World No.4 Omneya Abdel Kawy, said: “To be honest I was really nervous because we had some issues before the tie. The whole team wasn’t 100 percent well. With Nour [Megahed] having a fever yesterday we had to remove her and Fayrouz wasn’t well today. So we had to take a technical and a safety decision.
“Amina wasn’t too well, either, she was really stiff and we were so worried that she couldn’t play her best.
“Thank goodness Zeina played really, really well. She played amazing squash and she took the pressure away.
“Amina had to push and kept going. She’s so strong [mentally]. I can’t say anything else! She kept pushing herself day in, day out and wanted to play every match even when her back was so stiff and that gave me the confidence that even if she can’t play her best, she will play, do her best and win it!
“It’s so special [to win a tenth title]. It’s our aim to keep winning titles through every generation and keep the factory going!”
At the trophy presentation, World Squash Federation President Zena Wooldridge and Squash Australia CEO Rob Donaghue congratulated the athletes and thanked everyone who had made this year’s WSF World Junior Squash Championships possible.
A replay from the final will be shortly be available for free on www.worldsquash.tv.
Earlier in the day, playoff ties were played to decide final standings. Among the day’s winners include Hong Kong, China, who beat Canada to finish fifth and Australia, who overcame a weakened India team to finish seventh.
Teams, draws and results can be viewed on Tournament Software.
Result: WSF Women’s World Junior Team Championship – Final (29 July)
[1] Egypt 2-0 [2] Malaysia
Amina Orfi bt Aira Azman 3-0: 11-7, 11-8, 11-2 (34m)
Zeina Zein bt Sehveetrraa Kumar 3-1: 11-3, 11-5, 2-11, 11-0 (27m)
Nadien El Hammamy w/d Thanusaa Uthrian
Standings, 2023 WSF Women’s World Junior Team Championship
1 – [1] Egypt
2 – [2] Malaysia
3 – [3] USA and [5] England
5 – [4] Hong Kong, China
6 – [7] Canada
7 – [8] Australia
8 – [6] India
9 – [9] New Zealand
10 – [10] Scotland
11 – [12] Singapore
12 – [11] South Africa
13 – [13] Ireland
14 – [14] Chinese Taipei
