Team USA’s Caroline Fouts, Vivienne Sze and Kaylee Li all recorded top three finishes at the 2024 Dunlop British Junior Open, January 3-7, in Birmingham, England.
Egypt continued their recent domination of the tournament, sweeping all ten divisional titles and boasting sixteen of twenty finalists.
Fouts was one of the four non-Egyptian finalists after the U.S. junior champion reached the final without dropping a game all tournament. Fouts, the GU19 two seed, fell short in the final against Egypt’s top seed and world No. 35 Fayrouz Abouelkheir 11-8, 11-3, 12-10 in thirty-nine minutes.
Both Sze and Li entered the tournament as top seeds in their draws, and exited the main draw in the semifinals. Both players would go on to rebound in the 3/4 playoffs, however, to secure a place on the podium. Li defeated Egypt’s 5/8 seed Ayla Alaa 11-4, 4-11, 11-7, 11-3, and Sze defeated Egypt’s 5/8 seed Joudy Yousry 11-5, 11-7, 10-12, 11-6.
The U.S. contingent enjoyed a strong start to the tournament with thirty-five of fifty-four players reaching the round of sixteen, and a record sixteen quarterfinalists.
“Every member of Team USA can be proud of their performance on court, but more importantly how they supported one another off court. It was a true team effort,” said Karim Ibrahim, US Squash Director of Junior National Teams. “Our depth of quality was clear in every age division and was evidenced by our representation in the third round and quarterfinals. A special congratulations to Caroline, Vivienne and Kaylee for their top three finishes, and a special thank you to the coaching staff and parents for their support throughout the trip.”
The 2024 BJO marks Team USA’s tenth annual trip to England as a team. The BJO is considered to be akin to the World Junior Championships with the world’s top players competing in all age divisions from U11 to U19, while the World Juniors fields just the U19 division.
For more tournament coverage visit britishjunioropen.com.