The world’s largest individual squash tournament–the 2023 U.S. Junior Open Squash Championships–culminated with Team USA recording a tournament-high six titles headlined by both U19 titles courtesy of Caroline Fouts and Rishi Srivastava Tuesday, December 19, at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia.
The 2023 U.S. Junior Open fielded 1,019 players representing forty-five nations. After three days of play, Tuesday’s finals narrowed the field down to twenty players representing four nations–the United States, Egypt, India and Pakistan.
View all results on the U.S. Junior Open tournament page. Live stream replays will be available December 23 on the US Squash Youtube Channel. View tournament photography on the US Squash Smugmug page.
Fouts and Srivastava–the reigning U.S. Junior Champions–fulfilled their top seedings to earn their first U19 titles. Fouts didn’t drop a game all tournament and defeated two seed Riya Navani in the final to earn her first U.S. Junior Open title since the U13 in 2017.
“It’s really nice to come back and play some good squash again against some good players, and really come out and show that I’ve been working really, really hard in the offseason and just getting the job done,” Fouts said. “I think that I really optimized every moment on court just playing clean and playing some smart squash. I didn’t exert too much energy when I didn’t need to, so I was able to play my freshest and cleanest squash in the finals. Thank you to my coach Luke Butterworth and everyone at LB Squash for really believing in me and helping me be the best that I can be on and off court.”
After recording a fifth place finish in 2022, Srivastava earned his first U.S. Junior Open title in any age division with a four-game final win over Pakistan’s 9/12 seed Huzaifa Ibrahim.
“It’s a lot to digest right now, I’m just really thankful of the support team I’ve had over the last few months to help me really get ready for this,” Srivastava said. “Josh Simon, my coach, has really helped me relax and stay calm during the matches and really help my preparation. But much of it is the shot making ability and it’s really helped me and of course, my parents, I wouldn’t be here without them. My dad is really the man behind this, helping me with my recovery nonstop, trying to make sure I get my hydration in. I’m in the recovery foods in the ice baths and doing all the recovery stuff I need in order to last four days, because I think a tournament this long, I think like 85% of what comes out on top is because of recovery work.”
Fouts and Srivastava are the first Americans to win the U19 titles alongside each other since Timmy Brownell and Reeham Sedky in 2014.
Egypt took top honors in the U17 divisions with two first-time champions. Marwan Assal–the younger brother of 2021 U.S. Open champion Mostafa Asal–dethroned top seed and compatriot Youssef Salem in a three game final. Top seed Ruqayya Salem reached the GU17 final without dropping the game, and lost just one against Team USA’s two seed Dixon Hill in a four game final.
Aryaveer Dewan made tournament history by becoming the first Indian BU15 champion. The BU15 was the only final not to feature one of the top two seeds as four seed Dewan defeated Team USA’s three seed Brendan Tagliarini in three games. Charlotte Sze earned her first U.S. Junior Open title without dropping a game, including a final win against U.S. teammate and three seed Isabella Tang.
Both U13 finals proved to be some of the best on finals day with two dramatic five-game finals. Vivienne Sze, younger sister of Charlotte, earned her third consecutive U.S. Junior Open title and defended her GU13 crown by saving a match ball to win 12-10 in the fifth against Egypt’s two seed Sandy Hassan. Egypt’s BU13 two seed Aly Abdel-Fattah upset top seeded compatriot Aly Teleb 14-12 in the fifth game.
The U11 divisions featured two all-American finals. Kaylee Li fulfilled her GU11 top seeding with a four-game final win over surprise finalist Kyra Wang, who reached the final with two five-game upsets. Two seed Lars Daly earned the BU11 title dropping just one game all tournament and a 3-0 final win against compatriot Anderson Morgan.
