England Tested By USA In World Team Opener

Former champions England, the third seeds, were given a stern test by lower-seeded USA in today's opening qualifying tie in the PIA Men's World Junior Team Championship, but eventually came through 2/1 at the new Mushaf Squash Complex in Islamabad.

In the opening match Christopher Gordon, the reigning US Junior (U19) National champion, upset England's Chris Simpson, twice a British U17 National champion, in an arduous 82-minute tussle which was a great result for the rapidly-improving American. Fortunately for England, the USA's second and third strings were less of a threat and Englishmen Tom Richards and James Wright dropped just four points in their two matches to make sure of victory.

Elsewhere the early matches produced a much longer than anticipated stay on court for ninth seeds Australia against a very spirited Scotland team, and 13/18 seeds Mexico upset the seedings with a 2/1 win over 11th seeds Netherlands in which Mexican No1 Erick Tepos came back from 1/2 down to beat his Dutch equivalent in a five-game 80-minute marathon.

1st qualifying rounds:

Pool A:
[1] PAKISTAN bt [13/18] SWITZERLAND 3-0 (Khalid Atlas Khan bt Kevin Brechbuhl 9-0, 9-3, 9-3; Yasir Butt bt Cyrill Ortuer 9-1, 9-2, 9-1; Farhan Mehboob bt Benjamin Fischer 9-4, 9-0, 9-2)
[1] PAKISTAN bt [12] WALES 3-0 (Khalid Atlas Khan bt Lewys Hurst 0-9, 9-1, 9-0, 9-1; Yasir Butt bt Ben Hardwidge 9-6, 9-1, 9-3; Farhan Mehboob bt Peter Creed 9-2, 9-1, 9-3)

Pool B:
[2] EGYPT bt [19/22] KENYA 3-0 (Mahmoud Adel bt Amar Shah 9-4, 9-2, 9-4; Ahmed El Swaify bt Chiraag Shah 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Omar Abu Zid bt Ronak Shah 9-0, 9-0, 9-1)
[13/18] MEXICO bt [11] NETHERLANDS 2-1 (Erick Tepos bt Sebastiaan Weenink 10-9, 4-9, 7-9, 9-1, 9-7; Jesus Pena lost to Bastiaan Meulenbelt 7-9, 0-9, 9-5, 8-9; Cesar Salazar bt Martijn Kock 1-9, 9-2, 9-0, 9-2)
[11] NETHERLANDS bt [19/22] KENYA 3-0 (Martijn Kock bt Amar Shah 9-5, 9-2, 9-1; Marc Te Witt bt Poojan Dodhia 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Bastiaan Meulenbelt bt Ronak Shah 9-2, 9-3, 9-7)
[2] EGYPT bt [13/18] MEXICO 3-0 (Mahmoud Adel bt Erick Tepos 9-4, 7-9, 9-4, 6-9, 9-6; Ahmed El Swaify bt Edmundo Garcia 9-2, 9-1, 9-0; Omar Abu Zid bt Jesus Pena 9-3, 9-0, 9-0)

Pool C:
[3] ENGLAND bt [13/18] USA 2-1 (Chris Simpson lost to Christopher Gordon 9-3, 4-9, 6-9, 5-9;
Tom Richards bt Suleyman Saleem 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; James Wright bt Joseph Raho 9-0, 9-0, 9-2)
[10] MALAYSIA bt [19/22] IRAN 3-0 (Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan bt Masud Ekhlas 9-0, 9-2, 9-3; Elvinn Keo bt Mohammad Jafari 9-2, 9-2, 9-4; Muhammad Azfar Azan bt Mohammad Jahri 9-0, 9-0, 9-0)
[13/18] USA bt [19/22] IRAN 3-0 (Christopher Gordon bt Mohammad Jahri 9-0, 9-4, 9-1; Joseph Raho bt Babak Shahabi 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; Garnett Booth bt Mohammad Jafari 9-1, 9-0, 9-2)
[3] ENGLAND bt [10] MALAYSIA 3-0 (James Wright bt Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan 9-3, 9-2, 9-3; Joel Hinds bt Elvinn Keo 9-1, 9-2, 9-0; Tom Richards bt Muhammad Azfar Azan 9-4, 9-1, 9-1)

Pool D:
[9] AUSTRALIA bt [13/18] SCOTLAND 3-0 (Matthew Karwalski bt Alan Clyne 2-9, 3-9, 10-9, 9-2, 9-6; Steven Robinson bt Jamie Macaulay 9-3, 9-3, 4-9, 9-6; Ryan Cuskelly bt Graham Melvin 9-7, 2-9, 10-8, 10-8)
[4] GERMANY bt [13/18] SCOTLAND 2-1 (Simon Rosner bt Alan Clyne 9-6, 9-2, 9-3; Matthias Maierhofer lost to Jamie Macaulay 9-5, 6-9, 1-9, 9-2, 5-9; Jens Schoor bt Graham Melvin 9-0, 9-3, 10-8)

Pool E:
[5] INDIA bt [13/18] IRELAND 3-0 (Saurav Ghosal bt Samuel Olwill 9-7, 9-2, 9-0; Sandeep Jangra bt Brian Healy 9-3, 9-0, 9-3; Vikas Jangra bt Niall Caheny 9-5, 9-6, 9-2)
[8] NEW ZEALAND bt [19/22] SINGAPORE 3-0 (Campbell Grayson bt Vivian Rhamanan 9-2, 9-1, 9-0; Michael Bill bt Richard Hill 9-0, 9-1, 10-8; Whaiora Moeke bt Kenneth Chan 9-2, 9-1, 9-0)

Pool F:
[6] KUWAIT bt [19/22] ZIMBABWE 3-0 (Abdullah Almezayen bt Craig Heath 9-0, 9-0, 9-5; Salem F Mohammed bt Deepesh Patel 9-1, 9-6, 9-0; Ali B Al-Ramzi bt Casper Coetzee 9-1, 9-1, 9-1)
[7] CANADA bt [13/18] HONG KONG 2-1 (Robin Clarke lost to Dick Lau 6-9, 1-9, 1-9; Keith Pritchard bt Raymond Chui 9-0, 9-3, 8-10, 9-4; Michael Auer bt Anson Kwong 9-1, 10-8, 0-9, 10-8)