Top Seeds Sail Through Opening World Encounters

The top five seeds sailed through their opening encounters unscathed on today's opening day of action in the Big Time Men's World Team Championship in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Favourites England despatched 13/18 seeds Kuwait 3/0 in Pool A, with 22-year-old Qatar Classic champion James Willstrop, from Yorkshire, successfully making his debut as the squad No1 by beating Abdullah Almezayen 9-4 9-2 9-2.

Defending champions Australia, the fourth seeds, also maintained a clean sheet in Pool D as they defeated USA 3/0.

There was a first day surprise in Pool B when Germany, seeded in the 13/18 group, beat 11th seeds New Zealand 2/1. Australian-born Simon Baker put Germany ahead by beating Campbell Grayson 9-6 10-8 6-9 9-5. Stefan Leifels then made sure of victory with a 10-9 9-10 5-9 10-8 9-3 victory over the New Zealand No1 Kashif Shuja. Callum O'Brien gained a consolation point for the Kiwis when he beat Simon Rosner 6-9 9-6 7-9 9-7 9-7.

1st Qualifying round:

Pool A:
[1] ENGLAND bt [13/18] KUWAIT 3-0 (Nick Matthew bt Nasser Al Ramezi 9-3, 9-3, 9-3; James Willstrop bt Abdullah Almezayen 9-4, 9-2, 9-2; Lee Beachill bt Bader Al Hussaini 9-6, 9-3, 9-3)
[12] SOUTH AFRICA bt [19/22] AUSTRIA 3-0 (Rowan Smith bt Andreas Freudensprung 9-0, 9-1, 9-1; Rodney Durbach bt Aqeel Rehman 9-0, 9-1, 9-1; Michael Tootill bt Jakob Dirnberger 9-4, 9-3, 9-5)

Pool B:
[13/18] GERMANY bt [11] NEW ZEALAND 2-1 (Simon Baker bt Campbell Grayson 9-6, 10-8, 6-9, 9-5; Stefan Leifels bt Kashif Shuja 10-9, 9-10, 5-9, 10-8, 9-3; Simon Rosner lost to Callum O'Brien 9-6, 6-9, 9-7, 7-9, 7-9)
[2] EGYPT bt [19/22] IRAN 3-0 (Wael El Hindi bt Mohamad Hassan Jafari 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Karim Darwish bt Majid Rohani 9-0, 9-0, 9-1; Mohammed Abbas bt Poya Ahmad Abadi 9-1, 9-0, 9-2)

Pool C:
[3] FRANCE bt [13/18] IRELAND 3-0 (Jean-Michel Arcucci bt Neal Murphy 9-4, 9-4, 9-1; Gregory Gaultier bt Liam Kenny 9-6, 9-1, 9-0; Renan Lavigne bt Arthur Gaskin 9-3, 9-4, 9-5)

Pool D:
[4] AUSTRALIA bt [19/22] USA 3-0 (Joseph Kneipp bt Beau River 9-0, 9-0, 9-3; Anthony Ricketts bt Preston Quick 9-6, 9-3, 9-7; Stewart Boswell bt Julian Illingworth 9-1, 9-1, 9-0)
[9] NETHERLANDS bt [13/18] FINLAND 2-1 (Marc Reus lost to Hameed Ahmed 9-10, 0-9, 6-9; Laurens Jan Anjema bt Olli Tuominen 9-7, 4-9, 9-1, 6-9, 9-3; Dylan Bennett bt Matias Tuomi 9-0, 9-3, 9-6)

Pool E:
[5] CANADA bt [13/18] HONG KONG 3-0 (Matthew Giuffre bt Roger Ngan 9-6, 9-5, 9-7; Graham Ryding bt Wai Hang Wong 9-5, 9-0, 9-5; Shahier Razik bt Dick Lau 9-2, 9-5, 9-2)

Pool F:
[6] MALAYSIA bt [19/22] SPAIN 2-1 (Timothy Arnold lost to David Vidal Villamide 6-9, 1-9, 9-3, 10-8, 2-9; Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt Borja Golan 3-9, 9-1, 9-6, 9-1; Ong Beng Hee bt Iago Cornes 9-0, 9-5, 9-0)
[7] PAKISTAN bt [13/18] SCOTLAND 2-1 (Farhan Mehboob bt Alan Clyne 9-6, 9-1, 9-2; Shahid Zaman lost to John White 6-9, 6-9, 8-10; Mansoor Zaman bt Stuart Crawford 9-2, 9-2, 9-1)