India upset Republic of Korea to reach first World Squash Junior Team Championship semi-final for 13 years

India’s men’s team produced their best performance of the 2025 World Squash Junior Championships so far as the No.5 seeds reached the semi-finals for the first time since 2012 by eliminating No.3 seeds and 2024 finalists Republic of Korea at Black Ball Sporting Club, Cairo.

The World Squash Junior Championships bring together the world’s best squash talents aged under 19, with the men’s and women’s individual championships having taken place from July 21-26 and the men’s and women’s team championships being contested between July 27 -01 August.

Last year, in Houston, USA, India were defeated by Republic of Korea in a hard-fought three-match quarter-final encounter.

Today, though, they had their revenge.

Yusha Nafees gave India a deserved lead when he defeated Jeong-Uk Ryu in straight games.

Last year’s individual finalist Joo-Young Na hit back for the No.3 seeds in match two, finally producing his best squash after a mixed campaign as he recorded three consecutive 11-4 wins over Sandhesh Palanivel Ravikumar to take the tie into a decider.

Cheered on by H.E Suresh K Reddy, India’s Ambassador to Egypt, KS Arihant was able to deliver the decisive breakthrough, with the 18-year-old fighting his way through an intensely physical 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 11-7 win over Jeong-Hyeok Lee to send the India bench into raptures.

India will face USA in the semi-final tomorrow after the No.2 seeds defeated France 2-1, with Jack Elriani and Oscar Okonkwo delivering wins either side of a defeat for Alexander Dartnell against Amir Khaled-Jousselin.

Afterwards, India coach Harinder Pal Sandhu said: “It means a lot for us, but even more for Indian Squash. The SRFI [Squash Racquets Federation of India] and Sports Authority of India have been backing us for so many years and given so much support.

“This has been a long time coming, we were so close last year and that was hurting us all.

“We’ve been waiting for a year for this and the individual players have taken on the responsibility. They play every match as though it’s the decider in the World Juniors, and you’re playing for your country.”

The other men’s semi-final will see old rivals Egypt and England lock swords once again, with top seeds and defending champions Egypt beating No.12 seeds Czechia and No.4 seeds England beating five-time champions and No.6 seeds Pakistan.

That will be one of two Egypt-England clashes tomorrow after the women’s sides also set up a semi-final showdown.

Egypt’s women’s side, winners of the last nine championships, continued to crush all opposition as they cruised past an India side missing first string Anahat Singh, with Nadien Elhammamy and Amina Orfi crushing Anika Dubey and Unnati Tripathi before Sohayla Hazem beat Navya Sundararajan in the dead rubber.

England, meanwhile, dominated a Canada side to return to the top four after a sixth-place finish last year ended their run of five straight semi-final appearances.

Emily-Coulcher Porter started strongly for England with a 3-1 win over Spring Ma, which was followed by a 3-0 win for Mariam Eissa over Spring’s twin sister Ocean Ma. The two sides opted to play the best-of-three dead rubber, with Canada’s Tsz Ling Alyssa Ho beating Olivia Owens 2-1.

The other women’s semi-final looks set to be a classic as No.2 seeds Hong Kong, China face No.3 seeds USA.

The US women, finalists last year but with a new-look team this year, were forced to do things the hard way by a stubborn France team.

In the opening tie on the glass court, France’s Inès Guyot played her best match of the championship so far to beat Samantha Jaffe, before USA turned the tie around with wins from Jaffe’s twin sister, Alexandra Jaffe, and Charlotte Pastel over Lauren Baltayan and Leelou Laporte.

Hong Kong, China, meanwhile, proved far too strong for No.8 seeds Australia, with Ena Kwong easing past Sarbani Maitra 11-3, 11-1, 11-3 and Tsz-Ching Cheung beating Joanne Joseph 11-4, 11-1, 11-7.

The semi-finals of the World Squash Junior Team Championships take place tomorrow, 31 July, with play beginning at 10:00 (GMT+3).

The action will be streamed live on WORLDSQUASH.TV (outside of Egypt), Myco and partner channels including the Olympic Channel.

Keep up with all the action from World Juniors at wsfworldjuniors.com and worldsquash.sport

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Results: 2025 World Squash Junior Team Championships Women’s Quarter-Finals

[1] Egypt 3-0 India [7]

Nadien Elhammamy bt Anika Dubey 3-0: 11-2, 11-4, 11-5

Amina Orfi bt Unnati Tripathi 3-0: 11-1, 11-3, 11-0

Sohayla Hazem bt Navya Sundararajan 2-0: 11-9, 11-5

[4] England 2-1 Canada [5]

Emily Coulcher-Porter bt Spring Ma 3-1: 11-7, 11-4, 1-11, 11-2

Mariam Eissa bt Ocean Ma 3-0: 11-6, 11-1, 11-7

Olivia Owens lost to Tsz Ling Alyssa Ho 13-11, 8-11, 8-11

[3] USA 2-1 France [6]

Samantha Jaffe lost to Inès Guyot 1-3: 7-11, 11-1, 8-11, 8-11

Alex Jaffe bt Lauren Baltayan 3-0: 11-5, 11-8, 11-7

Charlotte Pastel bt Leelou Laporte 3-0: 11-3, 11-7, 11-7

[2] Hong Kong, China 2-0 Australia [8]

Ena Kwong bt Sarbani Maitra 3-0: 11-3, 11-1, 11-3

Tsz-Ching Cheung bt Joanne Joseph 3-0: 11-4, 11-1, 11-7

Helen Tang w/d Hannah Slyth

Results: 2025 World Squash Junior Team Championships Men’s Quarter-Finals

[1] Egypt 2-0 Czechia [12]

Marwan Asal bt Vojtech Martinovsky 3-0: 11-6, 11-5, 11-3

Mohamad Zakaria bt Martin Stepan 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-8

Adham Roshdy w/d Simon Rynt

[4] England 2-0 Pakistan [6]

Dylan Roberts bt Anas Ali Shah 3-0: 11-7, 11-6, 11-5

Alexander Broadbridge bt Abdullah Nawaz 3-0: 14-12, 11-2, 11-9

Ismail Khalil w/d Muhammad Umair Arif

[5] India 2-1 Republic of Korea [3]

Yusha Nafees bt Jeong-Uk Ryu 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-9

Sandhesh Palanivel Ravikumar lost to Joo-Young Na 0-3: 4-11, 4-11, 4-11

Arihant Kalamangalam Sunil bt Jong-Hyeok Lee 3-1:11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 11-7

[2] USA 2-1 France [9]

Jack Elriani bt Thomas Garcia 3-0: 11-1, 11-8, 11-2

Alexander Dartnell lost to Amir Khaled-Jousselin 1-3: 7-11, 11-8, 2-11, 6-11

Oscar Okonkwo bt Axel Daujon 3-0: 11-5, 11-9, 11-7

Draw: 2025 World Squash Junior Team Championships Women’s Semi-Finals

[1] Egypt v [4] England

[3] USA v [2] Hong Kong, China

Draw: 2025 World Squash Junior Team Championships Men’s Semi-Finals

[1] Egypt v [4] England

[5] India v [2] USA