Kuwait Celebrate World Semi-finals Debut

Kuwait celebrated their first appearance in the semi-finals of a World Team Championship when they upset fourth seeds Germany 3-0 in the quarter-finals of the PIA Men's World Junior Team Championship at the Mushaf Squash Complex in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The young squad - all of whom are 17 or younger - will meet favourites and defending champions Pakistan in one semi-final, whilst the other will feature second seeds Egypt and third seeds England.

In the first tie of the day, hosts Pakistan cruised to a 3-0 victory over seventh seeds Canada in front of a large and wildly cheering crowd of school-uniformed kids!

No2 seeds Egypt also did not hang around long against New Zealand, the eighth seeds. Campbell Grayson did not look as though the experience of playing Ramy Ashour was one to be treasured and quickly succumbed to the skills of the newly-crowned champion. The giant Egyptian Ahmed El Swaify completed the 3-0 win by defeating Michael Bill.

England, as expected, lost at No1 to India's Saurav Ghosal - Chris Simpson going down 0-3. They then fielded No4 player Joel Hinds against the talented but lackadaisical Sandeep Jangra and the workmanlike Joel soon evened the match. In the decider, the strength and consistency of James Wright triumphed over the flair of Vikas Jangra - as former champions England claimed a 2-1 win to put them into the last four.

The final match was Germany against sixth seeds Kuwait, a much-fancied team of young players (all eligible again in the next championship in two years) showing the benefits of national coach Amir Wagih. It was a tough tie: Simon Rosner at No1 was expected to win for Germany, but the two weeks in Islamabad are taking their toll and he did not have enough left in the tank against the fast and deceptive little left-hander Abdullah Almezayen.

German No3 Matthias Maierhofer then played Kuwait No4 Sulaiman Al Khamees. This was a well- contested marathon which the Kuwaiti won 10-9 9-3 6-9 9-6 to clinch the historic win for his country.