Seeds Untroubled On Opening Day In Chennai

The top seeded nations came through today's opening day of action in the ICL Men's World Team Championship with straightforward victories in the first qualifying rounds of the 21st staging of the event since 1967 in the Indian city of Chennai.

Favourites Egypt made a successful start in their bid to win the title for a second time by beating Finland 3/0 in Pool A. But newly-crowned World Open champion Amr Shabana was taken to tie-breaks in the first two games before overcoming the experienced Finnish NO1 Olli Tuominen 11-10 (3-1), 11-10 (5-3), 5-11, 11-9 in 40 minutes.

While defending champions England, the second seeds, were not in action, third seeds France swept aside Japan in a 3/0 victory in Pool C.

Hosts India, the tenth seeds, delighted the local crowds with a 3/0 win in Pool G over Bermuda. National champion Saurav Ghosal sealed the team victory with an 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 win over the Bermuda No1 Chase Toogood.

Raja Randhir Singh, the IOC delegate in India and Secretary General of the Olympic Council Asia, officially inaugurated the ICL World Championship.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Singh stated that he supports squash as a medal sport at the Olympic Games. "The statement was greeted with applause by all officials and players present at the ceremony," commented Tournament Director Major Maniam.

1st qualifying rounds - Pool A:
[1] EGYPT bt [17/24] FINLAND 3-0
Mohammed Abbas bt Henrik Mustonen 5-11, 11-7, 11-3, 11-3 (34m)
Amr Shabana bt Olli Tuominen 11-10 (3-1), 11-10 (5-3), 5-11, 11-9 (40m)
Karim Darwish bt Matias Tuomi 11-7, 11-5, 11-3
[16] GERMANY bt [25/29] RUSSIA 3-0
Moritz Dahmen bt Valery Litvinko 11-4, 11-3, 11-1 (26m)
Simon Rosner bt Alexei Severinov 11-2, 11-7, 11-9 (17m)
Johannes Voit bt Sergey Kostrikin 11-1, 11-1, 11-2
Pool B:
[15] HONG KONG bt [17/24] SPAIN 2-1
Max Lee bt Arturo Santo Tomas 10-11 (0-2), 11-2, 11-9, 11-5 (45m)
Dick Lau bt David Vidal 11-10 (3-1), 11-6, 9-11, 10-11 (2-4), 11-3 (80m)
Wai Hang Wong lost to Alejandro Garbi Caro 10-11 (4-6), 8-11, 11-7, 10-11 (0-2) (47m)
Pool C:
[14] USA bt [25/29] VENEZUELA 3-0
Richard Chin bt Richard Prieto 11-4, 11-4, 11-2 (15m)
Julian Illingworth bt Francisco Valecillo 11-4, 11-2, 11-4 (18m)
Christopher Gordon bt Juan Pablo Sanchez 11-3, 11-3, 11-8 (17m)
[3] FRANCE bt [17/24] JAPAN 3-0
Julien Balbo bt Yuta Fukui 11-4, 11-3, 11-8 (26m)
Thierry Lincou bt Jun Matsumoto 11-3, 11-4, 11-9 (18m)
Renan Lavigne bt Takanori Shimizu 9-11, 11-6, 11-10 (3-1), 11-4 (38m)
Pool D:
[13] NEW ZEALAND bt [17/24] SCOTLAND 3-0
Martin Knight bt Harry Leitch 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 (34m)
Kashif Shuja bt Alan Clyne 11-10 (7-5), 11-10 (3-1), 2-11, 8-11, 11-8 (63m)
Joshua Greenfield bt Stuart Crawford 11-5, 11-9, 11-8 (24m)
Pool E:
[5] MALAYSIA bt [17/24] KUWAIT 3-0
Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan bt Mohammed Hajeyah 11-3, 11-7, 10-11 (0-2), 11-4 (45m)
Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt Bader Al Hussaini 11-6, 11-7, 11-9 (34m)
Ong Beng Hee bt Abdullah Almezayen 11-1, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8 (45m)
[12] SOUTH AFRICA bt [25/29] SRI LANKA 3-0
Adrian Hansen bt Anura Nisshanka Hewage 11-5, 11-1, 11-0 (12m)
Jesse Engelbrecht bt Saman Thilakaratna 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 (30m)
Stephen Coppinger bt Navin Samarasinghe 11-4, 11-3, 11-2 (13m)
Pool F:
[11] IRELAND bt [17/24] AUSTRIA 3-0
Derek Ryan bt Andreas Freudensprung 10-11 (5-7), 11-4, 11-8, 11-4 (49m)
Liam Kenny bt Aqeel Rehman 11-2, 11-9, 11-6 (25m)
John Rooney bt Jakob Dirnberger 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 (25m)
Pool G:
[10] INDIA bt [25/29] BERMUDA 3-0
Gaurav Nandrajog bt Robert Maycock 11-3, 11-10 (4-2), 11-8 (25m)
Saurav Ghosal bt Chase Toogood 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 (24m)
Siddharth Suchde bt Melrindo Caines 11-1, 11-2, 11-5 (13m)
[7] PAKISTAN bt [17/24] KENYA 3-0
Farhan Mehboob bt Hartaj Bains 11-2, 11-3, 11-6 (18m)
Aamir Atlas Khan bt Hardeep Reel 11-5, 11-4, 11-6 (23m)
Mansoor Zaman bt Rajdeep Bains 11-1, 11-6, 11-3 (22m)
Pool H:
[9] WALES bt [17/24] SWEDEN 3-0
Jethro Binns bt Gustav Detter 11-10 (3-1), 11-5, 9-11, 11-1
Alex Gough bt Christian Drakenberg 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4 (38m)
David Evans bt Rasmus Hult 11-9, 11-10 (5-3), 11-4
[8] NETHERLANDS bt [25/29] CHINESE TAIPEI 3-0
Piedro Schweertman bt Chuang Kai-Han 11-1, 11-6, 11-0 (13m)
Dylan Bennett bt Chang Chun-Yu 11-2, 11-1, 11-4 (21m)
Tom Hoevenaars bt Huang Hsuen-Chih 11-0, 11-3, 11-2 (13m)