Top Seeds England & Egypt To Meet In World Final

Favourites England will face second seeds Egypt in the final of the Big Time World Team Championships after both teams survived dramatic deciders in their ties against Canada and France, respectively, in today's semi-finals in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Former world number one Peter Nicol put England ahead with a commanding 9-4 9-2 9-6 victory over the Canadian number two Graham Ryding in the opening rubber. But James Willstrop, the new world number two, was unable to repeat the win he achieved over former world champion Jonathon Power in last week's World Open in Hong Kong.

Playing in his first world championships as the England No1, the 22-year-old went down 3-9 7-9 4-9 to Power as fifth seeds Canada levelled the tie against the top seeds.

Matthew, the world No10 from Sheffield, raced to a 5-0 lead in the opening game of the decider against Shahier Razik. But the Canadian No3 slowed the game down and drew level at 8-8 before the Englishman reclaimed the upper hand to win the game.

Matthew maintained his authority from the beginning of the second game and soon wrapped up a 10-8 9-2 9-0 victory to confirm England's place in the final for the first time since 1997.

Later, Egypt's second string Karim Darwish also put his country ahead, beating France's number two Gregory Gaultier 9-3 9-3 9-4 in the pair's first meeting since Darwish beat the Frenchman to win the World Junior title in Italy more than five years ago.

The battle between the two top strings brought France back into contention, as world No1 Thierry Lincou recovered from a game down to beat world champion Amr Shabana 0-9 9-6 9-3 10-8.

It took 82 minutes to resolve the decider, with Egypt's world No19 Wael El Hindi fighting back from a game down to defeat Frenchman Renan Lavigne, ranked 14 places lower, 3-9 9-4 9-6 9-6 to take Egypt into the final for the third time in six years.

In the play-offs for lower positions, hosts Pakistan went down 2/1 to Malaysia as their Asian rivals gained revenge for the earlier pool defeat. Pakistan will now face Wales to battle for 7th place while Malaysia will take on Australia in a bid to finish in the top five for the first time.

Germany continued to defy their seeding after beating tenth seeds India 3/0. Seeded in the 13/18 group, Germany will now face 12th seeds South Africa in the play-off for 9th place to achieve their best finish for eight years.

Semi-finals:
[1] ENGLAND bt [5] CANADA 2-1 (Peter Nicol bt Graham Ryding 9-4, 9-2, 9-6; James Willstrop lost to Jonathon Power 3-9, 7-9, 4-9; Nick Matthew bt Shahier Razik 10-8, 9-2, 9-0)
[2] EGYPT bt [3] FRANCE 2-1 (Karim Darwish bt Gregory Gaultier 9-3, 9-3, 9-4; Amr Shabana lost to Thierry Lincou 9-0, 6-9, 3-9, 8-10; Wael El Hindi bt Renan Lavigne 3-9, 9-4, 9-6, 9-6)
5th - 8th place play-offs:
[4] AUSTRALIA bt [8] WALES 3-0 (Stewart Boswell bt David Evans 7-9, 9-2, 9-0, 9-1; Anthony Ricketts bt Alex Gough 9-3, 9-1, 9-3; Joseph Kneipp bt Gavin Jones 10-8, 9-6)
[6] MALAYSIA bt [7] PAKISTAN 2-1 (Ong Beng Hee bt Mansoor Zaman 9-4, 9-5, 9-4; Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt Shahid Zaman 0/0 ret; Timothy Arnold lost to Farhan Mehboob 0-9, 2-9)
9th - 12th place play-offs:
[13/18] GERMANY bt [10] INDIA 3-0 (Simon Baker bt Saurav Ghosal 9-10, 4-9, 9-4, 9-2, 9-0; Simon Rosner bt Ritwik Bhattacharya 9-7, 6-9, 9-7, 10-9; Patrick Gaessler bt Siddharth Suchde 9-5, 9-3)
[12] SOUTH AFRICA bt [9] NETHERLANDS 2-1 (Michael Tootill bt Dylan Bennett 9-5, 9-3, 9-5; Rodney Durbach lost to Laurens Jan Anjema 2-9, 3-9, 0-9; Clinton Leeuw bt Marc Reus 9-4, 9-3, 9-2)
13th - 16th place play-offs:
[13/18] SCOTLAND bt [13/18] KUWAIT 2-1 (Harry Leitch lost to Bader Al Hussaini 9-7, 9-6, 6-9, 7-9, 9-10; John White bt Abdullah Almezayen 9-6, 9-0, 9-0; Stuart Crawford bt Nasser Al Ramezi 6-9, 9-3, 9-2, 6-9, 9-3)
[19/22] USA bt [11] NEW ZEALAND 2-1 (Julian Illingworth bt Callum O'Brien 9-2, 4-9, 9-6, 2-2, ret; Preston Quick bt Kashif Shuja 9-1, 6-9, 9-6, 10-8; Christopher Gordon lost to Campbell Grayson 6-9, 1-9)
17th - 20th place play-offs:
[13/18] FINLAND bt [19/22] IRAN 3-0 (Matias Tuomi bt Poya Ahmad Abadi 9-0, 9-0, 9-0; Olli Tuominen bt Majid Rohani 9-4, 9-3, 9-0; Erno Teitti bt Mohamad Hassan Jafari 9-2, 9-0, 9-2)
[19/22] SPAIN bt [13/18] IRELAND 3-0 (Iago Cornes bt Arthur Gaskin 9-4, 9-6, 9-2; Borja Golan bt Liam Kenny 9-4, 3-9, 6-9, 9-3, 9-3; David Vidal Villamide bt Brian Byrne 9-4, 9-4)