An administration blunder led to Egypt being toppled by South Africa at the 2024 WSF World Junior Team Championships.
South Africa beat top seeds Egypt 2-1 in Pool A, having needed only one win to produce the surprise result.
This was due to the top seeds’ teamsheet not being submitted to tournament organisers, meaning that the default lineup of Egypt’s first three players had to be played.Â
This wasn’t in the script! 🤯
🇿🇦 Luhann Groenewald takes down Omar Azzam to deliver a shock win for South Africa over top seeds Egypt, after Egypt had defaulted one match and Marwan Assal had levelled
Watch the WSF World Junior Team Championships on https://t.co/4yHWM4F8R0 pic.twitter.com/13FZS6S7J1
— World Squash (WSF) (@WorldSquash) July 19, 2024
This put first string Mohamad Zakaria in the lineup with Team Egypt opting to default their singles champion’s match and promote Omar Azzam to first string and Marwan Assal to second string.
After being severely tested in spells by Connor Earl, Assal was able to level the tie for Egypt with an 11-5, 12-10, 11-4 win in the first match.
This meant that the match between South Africa’s Luhann Groenewald and Egypt’s Omar Azzam would be winner-takes-all.Â
Azzam gave his side the lead with a hard-fought 12-10 win in the opener, before being pegged back 11-7 in game two.
The 18-year-old regained the lead once more with another tie-break win but was unable to close out, with Groenewald – whose unorthodox two-handed technique and relentless running caused no end of trouble for Azzam – taking the decider into a fifth game with an 11-8 victory.
After the brutal action of the opening games, the decisive clash was a stop-start affair. To the delight of the South African bench, it was Groenewald who was best able to deal with the intense pressure, with the 17-year-old clinching the match with a stroke decision, prompting wild celebrations from his teammates.
Afterwards, South African coach Jimmy Schlebusch said: “He played so well, he worked hard and stuck to his game. He changed things, it was awesome and he fought so hard!
Groenewald added: “To pull through for my country is unbelievable and so was the support. I think my team supporting me was the one thing that got me through that match.”
The other surprise result today was for [9/10] seeds New Zealand in the women’s draw, who secured a much-needed a win against [7/8] seeds Japan to keep their qualification hopes alive after a heavy defeat to hosts USA in the opening round.
Japan, who overcame Colombia 2-1 yesterday, started well through Mahiro Nishio, who took down Anabel Romero Gemmell in straight games to give her side a platform.
Ella Lash then struck back for New Zealand, earning an 11-6, 5-11, 11-6, 11-5 win to make for a high stakes third rubber between New Zealand’s Ella Hill and Japan’s Kathryn Herring.
In an epic five-gamer in which both players had multiple match balls, it was Hill who emerged victorious, clinching an exhausting 16-14 victory in game five.