We’d normally have the matches and results here, but with so many matches that can only be from the quarter-finals onward, so here’s a quick roundup of the age groups …
B11 : down to last 16, Ben Lamond beats a 9/16 seed
B13 : down to last 16, Maxence Imbert beats a 9/16 seed
B15 : down to last 32, Abdullah Ali and Rahul Sanjay beat 17/32 seeds
B17 : down to last 32, James Averill beats a 17/32 seed
B19 : down to last 32, all seeds through
G11 : 32 draw, no matches today
G13 : down to last 16, Zeina Abdelaal beats 5/8 and Ruby Vaughan Palmer & Judy Liu beat 9/16s
G15 : down to last 16, Wing Kai Gladys Ho beats a 9/16 seed
G17 : down to last 16, Alex Jaffe and Spring Ma beat 9/16 seeds
G19 : down to last 16, all seeds through
British Junior Open 2023 gets underway in Birmingham
Day one of the 2023 British Junior Open got underway today from four different venues across Birmingham with 620 matches taking place with players looking to progress through to the second and third rounds of the competition.
In the boys under 19 category, both top seeds and World Junior Championships finalists Rowan Damming and Finnlay Withington scored victories to progress to round three. World Champion Damming from The Netherlands has to recover from a game down to overcome France’s Matteo Carrouget. Whilst, Lancashire’s Withington needed just three games to defeat Luxembourg’s Amir Samimi on the all-glass court at the University of Birmingham.
World No.93 and girls under 19 top seed Amina Orfi wasted no time in securing her place in the next round as she beat Korea’s Dami Kim 11-3 in all three games. She’ll now face South Africa’s 9/16 seed Savannah Ingledew in the next round. No.2 seed and fellow Egyptian Fayrouz Aboelkheir also progressed to the next round after defeating South Africa’s Erin Classen. World No.47 Aboelkheir now plays Australia’s Madison Lyon for a spot in the last 16.
In the boys under 17 category, England’s James Averill became the only surprise player through to the last 32 as he overcame 17/32 seed Tsz Shing Tam in four games. Averill took the opening two games and despite dropping the third game managed to regroup and close out the match in four games. He’ll join all the other seeds in the next round including top seeds Youssef Salem and Adam Roshdy.
The only upset in round two of the girls under 17s came from Canada’s Spring Ma, who overcame Malaysia’s 9/17 seed Anrie Chu You Goh in four games, winning 11-8 in the fifth game. She now plays World No.208 and 3/4 seed Nour Khafagy for a spot in the quarter finals. Egypt’s top two seeds Barb Sameh and Salma El Sheikh both recorded comfortable wins to reach the last 16, both winning 3-0.
All but one of the top eight seeds in both the boys and girls under 15s and 13s categories progressed through to the third round. That upset was caused by Zeina Abdelaal who beat 5/8 seed Ameerah Ismail in emphatic style to reach the next round.
The action continues tomorrow across Birmingham with play starting at 09:00 (UK time).
