U.S. Junior Open 2022: Sofia Zrazhevska in the top 32

On December 17-21, Philadelphia hosted the world's largest individual squash tournament - U.S. Junior Open. The American junior competition brought together 954 players from forty-two countries at five squash centers: Arlen Specter, Penn, Drexel University's Kline&Spectre, and Episcopal Academy's Berwyn.

Among the participants of the competition, the Ukrainian squash player - Sofia Zrazhevska performed. The 16-year-old junior reached the top-32 players in her age category by beating American Hine Scarlett with a score of 11-7,11-4,11-3, and then Bourell Lily with a score of 11-4,11-9,6-11 ,11-5. To tell the truth, there were great chances to take the height in the top 16, but unfortunately, due to injury, Zrazhevska ended her final match with a score of 2:2, giving way to Stoddard Alexandra.

After three days of competition, the field was reduced to twenty players representing five countries in the final. Of the ten matches played for the prize places, four were with the participation of the teams of Egypt and the USA.

The Colombian squash player Juan Jose Torres became the champion among juniors, who defeated the current world champion from Holland, Rowan Damming. Team USA's Lucy Stefanoni marked her final appearance at the tournament with her first victory in the women's division on the courts at the Arlen Squash Center.

In addition to the spectacular five-set final among the U19 juniors, three more finals consisted of five games. Belgium's Savannah Moxham won her first US Open junior title with a 6-11, 11-6, 15-13, 8-11, 11-6 win over Egypt's Sohaila Wahba.

In the GU11 final, Egypt's Noor Honeim overcame a marathon 17-19 third game deficit to come from 2-1 down against top seed Amelia Rutherford to win 11-9, 10-12, 17-19, 11-3, 11- 5.

Egypt's 2019 BU13 champion Youssef Salem won his second US Junior Open title in the BU17 category, defeating Colombia's Juan Irizarry in a thrilling 11-5, 7-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9 final.

Five years after winning BU11, Jack Elriani claimed his second title this year by defeating Mark Woloshin in the BU15 All-American final.

GU13 third seed Vivienne Hsieh is one of the squash players to take home the U.S. title for the second year in a row. Junior Open in different age groups, upsetting American compatriot and top seed Isabella Tang by beating her 7-11, 14-12, 11-6, 14-12.

Egypt's Farouq Ahmed and Janna Swaifi have had excellent performances in the tournament, losing just one game en route to their respective titles. Ahmed beat defending champion and top seed Carlton Capella in the BU13 category, while Swaifi defeated Team USA's Riya Navani 3-0 in the final.

You can watch replays of matches from the Specter Center on the US Squash YouTube channel. View U.S. Tournament Results Junior Open. Photos of the tournament are available on the US Squash Smugmug page.