For the first time in program history, the U.S. Junior Men’s Team will return home with silver medals after their maiden appearance in the WSF World Junior Team Championships final Friday, August 1, at the Black Ball Sporting Club in New Cairo, Egypt.
The 2025 World Junior Team Championships marked the second year that both the men’s and women’s events were held together, and for the second year in a row both U.S. squads reached the podium alongside each other.
The second-seeded U.S. men progressed to the finals with a 2-1 quarterfinal win over France, and a 2-0 semifinal win over five seeds India. Team USA met a formidable top-seeded Egyptian side who had yet to lose an individual match all tournament. Led by No. 1 and world No. 14 Mohamed Zakaria and U.S. Junior Open U19 champion Marwan Assal, Egypt clinched an eighth World Junior Men’s Team title with wins over Alexander Dartnell and Christian Capella.
The U.S. men celebrate their first ever silver medal, improving on three bronze medal performances within the last decade.
“This means the world to us, it’s been about ten years in the making, with generations of juniors coming through the pipeline,” said Karim Ibrahim, US Squash Director of Junior National Teams. “When we equalled our highest finish last year with third in Houston, that was bittersweet for us and we came here wanting to go all the way and challenge in the final. And these players deserve it they’ve worked extremely hard for it.”
The U.S. Junior Women’s Team entered the team competition seeded third, and fulfilled their seeding by reaching the semifinals where they lost out against two seed Hong Kong on Thursday. The U.S. women bring home bronze medals and record a third consecutive podium finish since 2023.
Individually, Team USA saw six of nine players reach the round of sixteen, and eight of nine players fulfill or exceed their individual seedings. Christian Capella, a 5/8 seed, ended his junior squash career by reaching his first World Juniors quarterfinals before losing out against top-seeded Zakaria.
Egypt’s top seeds Amina Orfi and Zakaria–ranked world No. 5 and world No. 14 professionally–retained their individual titles.
Off court, Team USA took in the sights and history of Egypt, visiting the Great Pyramids and Sphinx. The U.S. delegation were also hosted by the U.S. Embassy with the Egyptian national team, and were featured in local press.
