The growing reach of Squash around the world has never been more emphatically demonstrated than by the seeding for this month’s WSF World Junior Squash Championships in Poland.
The top eight seeds for the men’s event hail from seven different nations and four separate continents-with players from Jordan and Qatar seeded in the elite group for the first time in the U 19 event’s 33-year history, and 16-year-old 5/8 seed Diego Elias becoming the event’s first ever representative from Peru.
More than 150 players from a record 37 nations will compete in the 2013 Men’s & Women’s World Junior Individual Championships and the Women’s World Junior Team Championship at the new 15-court Hasta La Vista Club in Wroclaw that began July 16 and runs through July 27-the event’s first staging in Poland.
The three titles are expected to remain in Egyptian hands. however. Fares Mohamed Dessouki is the men’s favorite, while a historic first is predicted of the top women’s seed Nour El Sherbini. The 17 -year-old from Alexandria, who became the sport’s youngest ever world champion in 2009 by winning the title aged just 13, is now set to outdo greats like world number ones Nicol David and Ramy Ashour by claiming the title for an unprecedented third time!
Egypt is also seeded to win the biennial world junior team title for the fourth time in a raw-in a further first for successive titles.
“This breadth of challengers for our world titles really is very global,” said World Squash Federation President N Ramachandran. “It clearly demonstrates how many countries have worked hard on their junior programs. I am delighted to see this. The result is that these World Juniors promise to be more exciting than ever.”
