Hong Kong Secure World Junior Team Championship Quarter-Final Slot

Hong Kong produced a fine upset in today's final qualifying rounds of the Prince Men's World Junior Team Championship to claim an unexpected place in the quarter-finals in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

The ninth seeds beat Pool A rivals Netherlands, the No8 seeds - Max Lee of Hong Kong fighting back from two games down in the pivotal match against Dutchman Tom Hoevenaars to secure the tie 2/1. Hong Kong's reward is a quarter-final clash with Malaysia, the fourth seeds who finished at the top of Pool D after dismissing fifth seeds Canada 2/1.

Meanwhile top seeds Egypt, second seeds Pakistan, and third seeds England joined Malaysia by winning their respective pools - and will join pools runners-up India, Canada, Germany and Hong Kong in the last eight.

Hosts New Zealand had pulses running hot earlier in the day when it looked like they might topple their higher-seeded rivals Australia. New Zealand's No1 Evan Williams defeated Australia's Nathan Stevenson in four games to begin the tie but Australia rallied and took the final two matches to clinch the tie.

Final qualifying round:
Pool A
[1] Egypt bt [8] Netherlands 3/0 (Ramy Ashour bt Bastiaan Meulenbelt 9-0 9-0 9-2; Omar Mosaad bt Sander Kock 9-1 9-4 10-8; Mohd Ali Anwar Reda bt Frank Hartkoren 9-4 9-1 9-1)
[9] Hong Kong bt [16] Finland 3/0 (Max Lee bt Pyry Poikolainen 9-7 9-4 9-0; Leo Au bt Karri Salonen 9-0 9-1 9-0; Fung Ji Yang bt Aatos Mannroos 9-1 9-1 9-1)
[9] Hong Kong bt [8] Netherlands 2/1 (Max Lee bt Tom Hoevenaars 4-9 4-9 9-3 9-5 9-2; Leo Au bt Bastiaan Meulenbelt 9-3 9-6 10-8; Alan Tsang lost to Sander Kock 3-9 2-9 1-9)
[17] Japan bt [16] Finland 3/0 (Yuuta Fukui bt Pyry Poikolainen 5-9 9-1 9-1 9-5; Bumpei Kawano bt Petteri Siren 9-0 9-0 9-1; Shinnosuke Tsukue bt Aatos Mannroos 9-3 9-4 9-7)
Final placings: 1 Egypt; 2 Hong Kong; 3 Netherlands; 4 Japan; 5 Finland

Pool B:
[7] India bt [10] South Africa 2/1 (Sandeep Jangra bt Richard Colburn 9-7 9-5 9-2; Harinder Pal Sandhu bt Jason Cole Niven 9-3 7-9 9-5 9-7; Naresh Kumar lost to Rudi Willemse 9-5 1-9 5-9 4-9)
[15] Ireland bt [18] Zimbabwe 3/0 (Rory Byrne bt Deepesh Patel 9-4 9-5 9-6; Conor O'Hare bt Ahmed Hassan 9-2 9-6 7-9 9-2; Chris O'Kane bt Ainsley Gannaway 9-1 9-0 9-2)
[2] Pakistan bt [7] India 3/0 (Aamir Atlas Khan bt Sandeep Jangra 9-0 9-0 9-4; Yasir Butt bt Naresh Kumar 9-2 9-0 9-0; Bilal Zaman bt Vikram Malhotra 9-6 9-0 9-8)
[10] South Africa bt [15] Ireland 2/1 (Richard Colburn lost to Rory Byrne 9-7 7-9 9-1 3-9 1-9; Richard Dodd bt Chris O'Kane 9-1 7-9 9-5 9-5; Rudi Willemse bt Conor O'Hare 7-9 9-0 9-3 9-3)
Final placings: 1 Pakistan; 2 India; 3 South Africa; 4 Ireland; 5 Zimbabwe

Pool C:
[3] England bt [14] USA 3/0 (Joe Lee bt Trevor McGuinness 9-3 9-5 9-0; James Snell bt Reed Endresen 9-3 9-1 9-4; Adrian Waller bt Todd Harrity 9-1 9-3 9-2)
[6] Germany bt [11] Switzerland 3/0 (Simon Rosner bt Nicolas Mueller 9-6 9-5 9-5; Norman Junge bt Benjamin Fischer 9-10 2-9 10-8 9-6 9-0; Florian Silbernagl bt Reiko Peter 9-0 9-7 9-0)
Final placings: 1 England; 2 Germany; 3 Switzerland; 4 USA

Pool D:
[4] Malaysia bt [5] Canada 2/1 (Choong Kam Hing lost to Keith Pritchard 4-9 5-9 6-9; Ivan Yuen bt David Letourneau 10-8 9-4 9-1; Mohd Asyraf Azan bt Andrew McDougall 9-2 10-8 9-0)
[12] Australia bt [13] New Zealand 2/1 (Nathan Stevenson lost to Evan Williams 9-3 3-9 5-9 6-9; Matt Reece bt Josh Thom 5-9 9-6 9-1 9-2; Rex Hedrick bt Christopher Lloyd 1-9 10-8 9-5 6-9 9-1)
Final placings: 1 Malaysia; 2 Canada; 3 Australia; 4 New Zealand