Team USA is seeded to record its best ever finish of fifth place at the biennial Men’s World Team Championship, as the U.S. Men’s National Team prepares to face the world’s best, December 11-17, in Tauranga, New Zealand.
The U.S. enters the field of twenty-four nations as the five seeds and Group B favorites alongside 9/12 seeds Czechia and 21/24 seeds the Cook Islands. Two wins in the group stage would see the U.S. fulfill their seeding as they enter the 1-12th place playoffs.
The U.S. squad will feature world No. 43 Timmy Brownell, world No. 46 Shahjahan Khan, world No. 54 Andrew Douglas and world No. 67 Spencer Lovejoy. All team matches will be a best of three format and rotating orders of play each day.
Only Douglas, the 2023 U.S. Champion, will be returning for his second tournament appearance, while Brownell, Khan and Lovejoy are all set to make their debuts in the world’s premier team event. The event had been previously set to be hosted by New Zealand in 2021, and both Khan and Douglas had been named in the U.S. squad.
Team USA’s best finish at the Men’s World Team Championship was sixth place in 2011. The U.S. most recently recorded a thirteenth place finish on home soil in 2019.
“This is a very capable group of players eager to make their mark on the world’s biggest stage,” said Ong Beng Hee, the Ganek Family US Squash Head National Coach. “All four players will be called upon when needed and I have no doubt they will rise to the occasion. We are positioned well and if we play to our full potential can make history for Team USA.”
Five of the six courts in action will be streaming live for free on worldsquash.tv. For more tournament coverage visit wsfmensteams.com.
As anticipated, Egypt enter the tournament as top seeds. The defending champions, who are in Group A alongside Malaysia and Ireland, have named with a strong squad of World No.1 Ali Farag, world No. 4 Mostafa Asal, world No. 7 Mazen Hesham and world No. 12 Youssef Soliman, with Soliman a late addition to the squad following an injury to Karim Abdel Gawad.
Seeded to face Egypt in the final are five-time champions and 2019 runners up England. The No. 2 seeds, drawn against South Africa and debutants Philippines in Group B, will be represented by brothers Mohamed ElShorbagy and Marwan ElShorbagy–who won the 2011 and 2017 team championships, respectively, with Egypt – alongside Patrick Rooney and two-time WSF Men’s World Team Championship silver medalist Adrian Waller.