Hong Kong Go Down Fighting In World Junior Quarter-Finals

The last quarter-final today between Hong Kong and Malaysia in the Prince Men's World Junior Team Championship went right down to the wire in a tie in Palmerston North, New Zealand, that stretched to over three hours.

Malaysia, the fourth seeds, were victorious but ninth seeds Hong Kong - the surprise quarter-finalists led by tournament stand-out Leo Au - were close to securing the upset of the tournament. Au's match with Ivan Yuen went for 97 minutes and finished at 3-9 9-2 5-9 9-3 10-8 to Yuen. With the tie standing at one-all, Mohd Asyraf Azan beat Hong Kong's Fung Ji Yang 9-2 9-6 9-7 to ensure Malaysia a place in the semi-finals.

In other upsets, Germany's Simon Rosner beat the individual event's No2 seed Aamir Atlas Khan, of Pakistan, in straight games. But the European Junior Champion's team-mates could not repeat his success as Pakistan went on to win the 2/1, after wins by Yasir Butt and Farhan Mehboob over Florian Silbernagl and Carsten Schoor, respectively.

Event favourites Egypt coasted to a 3/0 victory over Canada, the fifth seeds, while England, the third seeds, also kept a clean sheet in their 3/0 win over seventh seeds India.

Quarter-finals:
[1] Egypt bt [5] Canada 3/0 (Omar Mosaad bt David Letourneau 9-0 9-0 9-4; Tarek Momen bt Andrew McDougall 9-5 9-1 9-2; Mohd Ali Anwar Reda bt Dave Glass 9-4 9-2 (best of three))
[3] England bt [7] India 3/0 (Tom Pashley bt Sandeep Jangra 10-8 9-2 9-6; Joe Lee bt Harinder Pal Sandhu 9-2 9-2 8-10 9-5; James Snell bt Naresh Kumar 9-3 9-2 (best of three))
[4] Malaysia bt [9] Hong Kong 2/1 (Elvinn Keo bt Max Lee 9-6 6-9 10-9 9-0; Ivan Yuen lost Leo Au 9-3 2-9 9-5 3-9 8-10; Mohd Asyraf Azan bt Fung Ji Yang 9-2 9-6 9-7)
[2] Pakistan bt [6] Germany 2/1 (Aamir Atlas Khan lost to Simon Rosner 5-9 4-9 8-10; Yasir Butt bt Florian Silbernagl 9-4 9-4 9-2; Farhan Mehboob bt Carsten Schoor 9-2 9-1 9-6)