Kuwait & Scotland Make World Championship Top 16 Play-Offs

Kuwait and Scotland earned unexpected places in the last sixteen play-offs in the 22nd Men's World Team Championship after wins over Hong Kong and Venezuela, respectively, in the final qualifying round of the World Squash Federation event at Squash Center Denmark in the city of Odense in Denmark.

In a further remarkable upset, 11th seeds South Africa beat sixth seeds and six-time champions Pakistan to finish as winners of Pool F.

But it was outsiders Kuwait's day as the 17/24 seeds toppled Hong Kong 2/1 in Pool A - banishing the 15th seeds to the play-offs for the 17-24th place play-offs. Bader Al Hussaini put Kuwait in the driving seat with an 11-3, 11-9, 11-8 win over Hong Kong's rising star Leo Au, the 19-year-old Asian Junior champion.

Kuwaiti number one Abdullah Almezayen clinched his country's success by beating Dick Lau 11-6, 14-12, 11-6. Kuwait will now face defending champions England for a place in their first quarter-final.

Scotland, also 17/24 seeds, made their breakthrough in Pool H by beating India, the No9 seeds, on the first day. The former semi-finalists, who finished in 18th place last time, had no trouble beating outsiders Venezuela 3/0, with Chris Small, Alan Clyne and Stuart Crawford wrapping up victory in less than an hour to take second place in the Pool behind Italy. Scotland will now line up against Canada.

It was a powerful performance from South Africa which saw the team which finished in 11th place last time battle from behind to beat a strong Pakistan team led by world No14 Aamir Atlas Khan. Clinton Leeuw began the rout, recovering from 2/1 down to beat Pakistani Yasir Butt, ranked more than 40 places higher in the world, 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8.

But it was Stephen Coppinger who claimed the biggest scalp, the world No57 battling to a 10-12, 2-11, 11-9, 11-1, 12-10 win in 55 minutes over Atlas Khan. Farhan Mehboob restored some pride in the Pakistani squad with a straight games win over the now retired South African stalwart Rodney Durbach.

There were notable individual performances on the day - none more so than Dutchman Lauren Jan Anjema's first ever win over distinguished Australian David Palmer, a two-time world individual champion. The win boosted the confidence of the squad - but Netherlands went on to lose 2/1 to fourth seeds Australia, but finished in second place in Pool D.

Anjema's 75-minute 11-6, 8-11, 11-8, 12-10 victory over Palmer marked the Australian number one's first ever defeat for his country since making his debut in 2001.

Defending champions England suffered a major setback when squad number one Nick Matthew twisted his ankle midway through his second game against top-ranked German Simon Rosner. The world No5 from Sheffield was rushed to hospital for an X-ray, which showed that nothing was broken.

Second seeds England carried on to beat Germany 2/1 - but further participation in the event by the squad's top string looks bleak.

Final qualifying round - Pool A:
[1] EGYPT bt [25/28] SERBIA 3/0
Wael El Hindi bt Ivan Djordjevic 11-6, 11-0, 11-8 (20m)
Karim Darwish bt Dennis Drenjovski 11-7, 11-5, 11-5 (18m)
Ramy Ashour bt Daniel Zilic 11-2, 11-5, 11-9 (16m)

[17/24] KUWAIT bt [16] HONG KONG 2/1
Bader Al Hussaini bt Leo Au 11-3, 11-9, 11-8 (47m)
Abdullah Almezayen bt Dick Lau 11-6, 14-12, 11-6 (49m)
Salem Fayez Mohammed lost to Max Lee 6-11, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11 (35m)

Final positions: 1 Egypt, 2 Kuwait, 3 Hong Kong, 4 Serbia

Pool B:
[2] ENGLAND bt [15] GERMANY 2/1
Adrian Grant bt Raphael Kandra 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 (32m)
Nick Matthew lost to Simon Rosner 11-4, 3-3 ret. (20m)
Peter Barker bt Jens Schoor 11-6, 11-4, 11-2 (29m)

[17/24] AUSTRIA bt [25/28] JAPAN 2/1
Stefan Brauneis bt Shimizu Takanori 3-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-5 (44m)
Aqeel Rehman bt Yuta Fukui 4-11, 11-3, 11-9, 4-11, 11-9 (65m)
Jakob Dirnberger lost to Tsukue Shinnosuke 6-11, 10-12, 10-12 (25m)

Final positions: 1 England, 2 Germany, 3 Austria, 4 Japan

Pool C:
[3] FRANCE bt [14] IRELAND 3/0
Renan Lavigne bt Keith Moran 11-8, 11-3, 11-4 (27m)
Gregory Gaultier bt Liam Kenny 11-9, 11-4, 11-6 (37m)
Thierry Lincou bt Arthur Gaskin 11-9, 11-1, 11-8 (28m)

Final positions: 1 France, 2 Ireland, 3 Denmark

Pool D:
[4] AUSTRALIA bt [13] NETHERLANDS 2/1
Aaron Frankcomb bt Rene Mijs 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 (68m)
David Palmer lost to Laurens Jan Anjema 6-11, 11-8, 8-11, 10-12 (75m)
Cameron Pilley bt Piedro Schweertman 11-0, 11-6, 13-11 (31m)

Final positions: 1 Australia, 2 Netherlands, 3 Wales

Pool E:
[5] MALAYSIA bt [12] USA 3/0
Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan bt Preston Quick 11-3, 15-13, 12-10 (41m)
Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt Julian Illingworth 11-6, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6 (48m)
Ong Beng Hee bt Gilly Lane 10-12, 11-4, 11-7, 11-9 (51m)

Final positions: 1 Malaysia, 2 USA, 3 Finland

Pool F:
[11] SOUTH AFRICA bt [6] PAKISTAN 2/1
Clinton Leeuw bt Yasir Butt 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8 (51m)
Stephen Coppinger bt Aamir Atlas Khan 10-12, 2-11, 11-9, 11-1, 12-10 (55m)
Rodney Durbach lost to Farhan Mehboob 7-11, 2-11, 5-11 (25m)

[17/24] SWEDEN bt [25/28] KENYA 3/0
Joakim Larsson bt Hartaj Bains 11-5, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4 (43m)
Rasmus Hult bt Hardeep Reel 11-1, 11-4, 11-8 (29m)
Carl-Johan Lofvenborg bt Rajdeep Bains 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 (27m)

Final positions: 1 South Africa, 2 Pakistan, 3 Sweden, 4 Kenya

Pool G:
[7] CANADA bt [10] NEW ZEALAND 3/0
Shawn Delierre bt Martin Knight 7-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3, 11-7 (75m)
Jonathon Power bt Kashif Shuja 11-4, 11-6, 11-6 (34m)
Shahier Razik bt Campbell Grayson 11-6, 11-9, 11-3 (41m)

Final positions: 1 Canada, 2 New Zealand, 3 Spain

Pool H:
[8] ITALY bt [9] INDIA 2/1
Jose Facchini bt Gaurav Nandrajog 11-7, 11-7, 11-5 (32m)
Davide Bianchetti bt Ritwik Bhattacharya 13-11, 11-7, 11-8 (35m)
Amr Swelim lost to Harinder Pal Sandhu 9-11, 9-11, 9-11 (42m)

[17/24] SCOTLAND bt [25/28] VENEZUELA 3/0
Chris Small bt Juan Pablo Sanchez 11-3, 11-4, 11-4 (16m)
Alan Clyne bt Francisco Valecillo 11-0, 11-3, 11-1 (15m)
Stuart Crawford bt Juan Pablo Rothie 11-4, 7-11, 11-0, 11-3 (25m)

Final positions: 1 Italy, 2 Scotland, 3 India, 4 Venezuela