Team USA’s Andrew Douglas and Marina Stefanoni have advanced through the first three rounds of the 2017 WSF World Junior Championships to the main draw round of sixteen in Tauranga, New Zealand.
Elle Ruggiero and Elisabeth Ross entered the 128-player draw with first round matches Wednesday morning, July 18, and both players recorded three-game wins to advance to the second round with the ten other U.S. representatives later that afternoon.
The U.S. had a strong second round showing with five boys and two girls advancing to the third round. Douglas, Harrison Gill, Cole Becker advanced in three games, while both Tiber Worth and Salim Khan recovered from losing the first game to win in four.
Stefanoni and Grace Doyle both advanced in three games, while Ross and Ruggiero took a game off a two and 5/8 seed, respectively, in close four-game losses.
In Thursday’s round of thirty-two, Stefanoni remained on track with another three-game win against England’s Jasmine Hutton, and Douglas came back from a game down to defeat Belgium’s Sanjay Jeeva in four games.
Stefanoni now awaits Egypt’s 3/4 seed Nada Abbas on the glass court Friday at 5:45pm local time, 1:45am ET, while Douglas takes on England’s 9/12 seed Tom Walsh on Devoy Court 1 at 1am ET. Both matches are streaming live on www.wsfworldjuniors.com.
Becker nearly pulled off a major upset against Egypt’s 9/12 seed Mohamed Elshamy, falling short 12-10 in the fifth game.
Worth, Gill and Khan all exited the main draw against seeded opponents, but continue play in the 17-32 place consolation draws.
Doyle, who lost against a 5/8 seed in the third round, Ruggiero and Ross continue play in the girls Special Plate, Emme Leonard and Laila Sedky continue play in the girls Plate and Eric Kim is the lone U.S. representative competing in the boys 33-64 playoff.
Follow more updates from Team USA on the World Juniors Blog. For more information and tournament coverage, visit www.wsfworldjuniors.com.