Brazil Stun France In World Junior Teams Opener

Tournament No.9 seeds France fell to an unlikely defeat to 17th seeds Brazil as the 2025 World Junior Team Championships got underway at Black Ball Sporting Club in Cairo.

The opening day's ties saw teams look to make the best possible start to their Group stage campaigns, with everything to play for in the hunt for a favourable second round draw.

Both Brazil and France were called into action twice today in men's Group F, with France defeating Kuwait 3/0 in the morning while Brazil lost to Pakistan by the same scoreline.

The No.17 seeds shook off that defeat in spectacular fashion, though, to leave the group wide open.

With the day's string order 3-1-2, it was Owen Hendricks who was up first, and the third string delivered when his country needed him most as he fought back from two games down to defeat French counterpart Axel Diet 3/2.

France quickly restored parity via Amir Khaled-Jousselin, with the first string taking out Bernardo Dias 11-2, 11-1, 11-2 to make the third match between Owen Hendricks' brother Viggo Hendricks and Axel Daujon a decider.

To the ecstatic cheers of the Brazil bench, it was Hendricks who came out on top in an intense battle, with the 17-year-old clinching an epic opening game 19-17 and then powering on 11-7, 11-6 to win it for Brazil.

Afterwards, Brazil coach Fabio Cechin said: "I'm so happy for them and so, so proud. We came here as underdogs but had a bit of a strategy to put all our money on specific matches and I think it's paid off!

"We wanted them to believe that we can compete at this level and they bought into the idea. They've tried so hard and have pushed themselves to the limits."

Elsewhere in the men's draw, there was another seedings upset as No.14 seeds Poland got the better of No.11 seeds New Zealand, with Mateusz Ptaszek, Jan Samborski and Franciszek Michniewicz beating Brodie Bennett, Oliver Dunbar and Maximus Mathews.

Most other higher-seeded teams were able to enjoy smoother progress.

Hosts Egypt made assured starts to their title defence across both events, calling upon the previous day's individual world championship winners Mohamad Zakaria and Amina Orfi as the men's side saw off five-time champions Australia in the morning and the women's side breezed past New Zealand in the afternoon.

Elsewhere, Macau's women's team made their World Squash Junior Team Championship debut, with the bottom seeded side losing 3/0 to Australia, though first string Ianna Chi Ian Cao emerged with credit after a competitive 3/1 defeat to Emily Lamb.