British Junior Open 2025: Preview & How to Watch Live

The 2025 British Junior Open is almost upon us and 770 of the world’s best young players are about to arrive in Birmingham to compete for one of the game’s oldest and most prestigious prizes.

It is 99 years since the first British Junior Open (then called the Drysdale Cup) was staged at London’s RAC Club, originally just for U19 boys. Now there are five age categories each for boys and girls and the tournament’s roll of honour includes many players who went on to become all-time greats of the sport, such as Ramy Ashour, Nicol David, Nour ElSherbini, Nouran Gohar, Mohamed ElShorbagy, Gregory Gaultier, Nick Matthew, Raneem El Welily and Cassie Jackman.

Birmingham University Sport and Fitness, featuring an all-glass show court, will share hosting duties from January 2-6 with nearby clubs Edgbaston Priory, Solihull Arden Club, West Warwickshire Sports Complex and a new venue for this year, Sutton Coldfield Squash Club.

There is a particularly open feel to both BU19 and GU19 draws this year, with the awesome Mohamed Zakaria and Amina Orfi, and last year’s champion Fayrouz Abouelkheir not entering. Malaysia’s Harith Danial Jefri and Egypt’s Janna Galal have been named as respective boys’ and girls’ U19 top seeds, with a multi-national cast aiming to deny them silverware.

Galal, who finished fourth in the GU19 in 2024 despite being only 16 at the time, is one of many Egyptians to feature among the title favourites. Adam Hawal tops the bill in the BU17 having reached five semi-finals on the PSA Tour this year, recent Egyptian Junior Open winner Rama El Naggar is GU15 top seed, Moez Tamer Elmoghazy is favourite in the BU13, Habiba Wael is top seed in the GU13 and both U11 top seeds, Anas Tawfik and Laila Mohamed Mohsen, also hail from the land of the Pharaohs.

However, there are expected to be strong title challengers from elsewhere in the form of Indian sensation Anahat Singh (GU17), France’s Lauren Baltayan (GU19) and Amir Khaled-Jousselin (BU17), USA’s Carlton Capella (BU15), Isabella Tang (GU15), Alice Wang (GU11) and Jack Elriani (BU17), England’s Ali Khalil (BU15), Pakistan’s Muhammed Sohail Adnan (BU13) and Malaysia’s BU19 top seed Danial (BU19) and Nik Izz Dameer Norifaizal (BU11).

The event begins on Thursday January 2 with finals day on Monday January 6.

Watch the championships live and for free here on the official website. You can also catch the action on SQUASHTV, Worldsquash.tv and esfsquash.tv. Follow the official BJO socials: Instagram | TikTok | Facebook | X