Twenty-year-old Caroline Fouts recorded the biggest upset of her career against Scotland’s world No. 25 Georgia Adderley, while Marina Stefanoni advanced alongside Fouts on the opening day of the CIB Palm Hills PSA World Championships Friday, May 8, in Giza, Egypt.
The opening day of the world championships saw the top half of the sixty-four-player draws play out with Team USA’s Fouts and Stefanoni in action.
Fouts, who qualified for her second World Championships by winning the Pan American qualifier two weeks ago, entered the tournament having won the largest title of her career last weekend at the $12k Hyder Cup in New York City. Fouts took on Scotland’s Adderley in the first round, and ground out marathon win 9-11, 11-5, 11-1, 8-11, 11-6 in forty-nine minutes.
Fouts, a Harvard sophomore, advances to the World Championships second round for the second time in her young career and will now test herself on the glass court against world No. 1 Hania El Hammamy Sunday at 7:30pm local time, 12:30pm ET.
World No. 16 Stefanoni joins Fouts in the second round in the top half of the draw after a 3-1 win over England’s Alicia Mead. Stefanoni will face Hong Kong’s Sin Yuk Chan on the side courts Sunday at 12pm noon local time, 5am ET.
Team USA’s Olivia Weaver, Amanda Sobhy and Timmy Brownell all join the fold in the second half of the first round Saturday, May 9.
World No. 4 Olivia Weaver enters the bottom half of the draw as the four seed, one week after securing a third straight national title. Weaver will open up her campaign against New Zealand’s former world No. 4 Joelle King. Should Weaver progress as seeded, the American could face the likes of world No. 11 Nele Gilis, world No. 8 Georgina Kennedy and world No. 2 Nour El Sherbini.
Sobhy joins Weaver in the bottom half of the draw as the ten seed with an opening match against Hong Kong’s world No. 64 Toby Tse. Sobhy could potentially face El Sherbini in the third round should both players advance as seeded.
Brownell, world No. 30, enters as the No. 26 seed with a first round match against Japan’s world No. 62 Rynosuke Tsukue at 4:45pm local time, 9:45am ET.
