Scotland Fall To Malaysia In Pakistan World Championships

Scotland failed to convert a surprise first string win in today's second qualifying round tie in the Big Time World Team Championships in Islamabad, Pakistan, and ultimately went down 2/1 to sixth seeds Malaysia to ensure that the team will finish outside the top twelve for the first time in six years.

Stuart Crawford, a 24-year-old from Edinburgh who is ranked 270 in the world, played one of the best games of his life in fighting back from 2/1 down to beat Malaysia's third string Timothy Arnold, ranked more than 130 places higher, 3-9 9-1 9-10 9-5 9-1.

Scotland, seeded in the 13/18 group, looked set for an upset as the hard-hitting world No9 John White took to the court against the Malaysian No1 Mohd Azlan Iskandar. But, in his first match against the Scot, Iskandar trounced the player ranked six places higher 9-4 9-3 10-8.

In the decider, Malaysia's former top string Ong Beng Hee, the Asian champion, easily beat 20-year-old Harry Leitch 9-5 9-0 9-0.

Elsewhere in Pool F, hosts Pakistan looked likely to join Malaysia in the play-offs for the top 12 positions when they beat Spain 3/0.

Favourites England maintained their clean sheet in Pool A with a 3/0 win over 12th seeds South Africa, while second seeds Egypt also claimed their second 3/0 win, beating Germany.

The rampant defending champions Australia, the fourth seeds, crushed Finland 3/0, losing just 15 points in three matches!

2nd qualifying round

Pool A:
[1] ENGLAND bt [12] SOUTH AFRICA 3-0 (Nick Matthew bt Clinton Leeuw 9-1, 9-2, 2-9, 9-3; Lee Beachill bt Rodney Durbach 9-2, 10-8, 9-0; Peter Nicol bt Rowan Smith 9-2, 9-0, 9-0)
[13/18] KUWAIT bt [19/22] AUSTRIA 3-0 (Abdullah Almezayen bt Aqeel Rehman 9-2, 9-0, 9-2; Bader Al Hussaini bt Jakob Dirnberger 9-7, 9-7, 9-2; Nasser Al Ramezi bt Andreas Freudensprung 9-6, 7-9, 9-7, 9-0)

Pool B:
[2] EGYPT bt [13/18] GERMANY 3-0 (Wael El Hindi bt Patrick Gaessler 9-3, 9-0, 9-0; Karim Darwish bt Simon Rosner 9-2, 9-2, 9-3; Mohammed Abbas bt Simon Baker 9-3, 9-0, 9-1)
[11] NEW ZEALAND bt [19/22] IRAN 3-0 (Kashif Shuja bt Majid Rohani 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Martin Knight bt Mohamad Hassan Jafari 9-4, 9-0, 9-0; Campbell Grayson bt Poya Ahmad Abadi 9-1, 9-0, 9-0)

Pool C:
[3] FRANCE bt [10] INDIA 3-0 (Renan Lavigne bt Siddharth Suchde 9-5, 4-9, 9-4, 9-2; Thierry Lincou bt Ritwik Bhattacharya 9-1, 9-1, 9-0; Gregory Gaultier bt Saurav Ghosal 9-3, 9-1, 9-5)

Pool D:
[4] AUSTRALIA bt [13/18] FINLAND 3-0 (Joseph Kneipp bt Hameed Ahmed 9-3, 9-6, 9-1; Anthony Ricketts bt Olli Tuominen 9-0, 9-4, 9-0; Stewart Boswell bt Erno Teitti 9-1, 9-0, 9-0)
[9] NETHERLANDS bt [19/22] USA 2-1 (Tom Hoevenaars lost to Christopher Gordon 9-1, 8-10, 4-9, 9-6, 0-9; Laurens Jan Anjema bt Preston Quick 9-5, 9-2, 9-2; Dylan Bennett bt Julian Illingworth 1-9, 9-4, 9-5, 3-9, 9-5)

Pool E:
[5] CANADA bt [8] WALES 3-0 (Matthew Giuffre bt Ricky Davies 9-5, 9-7, 5-9, 9-3; Graham Ryding bt David Evans 9-5, 9-4, 9-4; Shahier Razik bt Gavin Jones 5-9, 4-9, 9-0, 9-3, 9-3)

Pool F:
[6] MALAYSIA bt [13/18] SCOTLAND 2-1 (Timothy Arnold lost to Stuart Crawford 9-3, 1-9, 10-9, 5-9, 1-9; Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt John White 9-4, 9-3, 10-8; Ong Beng Hee bt Harry Leitch 9-5, 9-0, 9-0)
[7] PAKISTAN bt [19/22] SPAIN 3-0 (Farhan Mehboob bt Alejandro Garbi Caro 9-0, 9-4, 9-3; Shahid Zaman bt Borja Golan 9-5, 4-9, 9-2, 5-9, 9-7; Mansoor Zaman bt Iago Cornes 9-3, 9-1, 9-0)