Dutchmen beat Pakistan to move into last eight
CHENNAI, Dec 9: The Netherlands defeated Pakistan 3-0 on a day when the top-seeded teams booked their berths in the last eight of Team World squash championship on Sunday.
The Dutch trio of Laurens Jan Anjema, Dylan Bennett and Piedro Schweertman won their matches against Amir Atlas Khan, Mansoor Zaman and Farhan Mehboob of Pakistan.
India beat Wales 3-0 to book a quarter-final berth though Wales were hampered by a leg injury to their number one Alex Gough.
India now play Egypt while Netherlands take on England, who disposed of Germany 3-0, in quarter-final matches to be played on Monday.
In the other quarter-final matches, Australia meet Canada and France play Malaysia.
India’s Ritwik Bhattacharya brought about his best performance in recent times to down David Evans 11-6, 13-10 (3-0), 11-7. Gough started his campaign against the India number one Saurav Ghosal.
The Indian made Gough run from end to end and back and forth with a mixture of fast paced shots and low returns in front. Thus the first game went in to extra points but Gough won it 11-10 (3-1).
Gough, who had beaten England’s Lee Beachill in the pre-quarter-finals of the Bermuda World Open last week, was looking tired and his movements were slow.
After losing the second game at 11-7 and the third at 11-3, Gough walked up to his rival to shake hands with him, signaling his retirement from the tie.
Results (pre-quarter-finals):
England bt Germany 3-0 (James Willstrop bt Tim Webber 11-6, 11-2, 11-8; Nick Mathew bt Simon Rosner 11-4, 11-6, 11-10 (2-0); Lee Beachill bt Mortiz Dahmen 11-1, 11-7 retired).
India bt Wales 3-0 (Ritwik Bhattacharya bt David Evans 11-6, 13-10 (3-0), 11-7; Saurav Ghosal bt Alex Gough 10-11 (1-3), 11-7, 11-3 retired; Siddarth Suchde bt Jethro Binns 11-8, 7-11, 11-2).
Netherlands bt Pakistan 3-0 (Dylan Bennett bt Mansoor Zaman 10-11 (0-2), 11-10 (3-5), 11-7, 11-8; Laurens Jan Anjema bt Amir Altas Khan 11-3, 11-9, 11-4; Piedro Schweertman bt Farhan Mehboob 11-7, 11-7).
Egypt bt Hong Kong 3-0 (Karim Darwish bt Max Lee 11-4, 11-6, 11-3; Amr Shabana bt Dick Lau 11-7, 11-2, 11-10 (2-0); Mohammed Abbas bt Anson Kwong 11-8, 11-4).
France bt New Zealand 3-0 (Thierry Lincou bt Campbell Garyson 11-9, 11-6, 9-11, 11-3; Gregory Gaultier bt Kashif Shuja 11-4, 11-6, 11-5; Julien Balbo bt Josh Greenfield 11-9, 11-10 (2-0), 11-5).
Canada bt South Africa 2-1 (Razik Shahier bt Stephen Coppinger 11-7, 11-9, 11-4; Jonathan Power bt Jesse Engeibeech 11-4, 11-2, 11-2; Mathew Giuffre lost to Adnan Hansin 11-9, 5-11, 6-11, 6-11).
Australia bt USA 3-0 (Stewart Boswell bt Christopher Gordon 11-3, 11-5, 11-7; David Palmer bt Julian Illingworht 11-5, 11-4, 11-5; Scott Arnold bt Jamie Crombie 8-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-0).
Malaysia bt Ireland 2-1 (Ong Beng Hee bt John Rooney 11-2, 9-11, 9-11, 11-4, 11-5; Mohd Azlan Bin Iskandar bt Liam Kenn 11-4, 11-6, 11-5; Mohd Nafizawan lost to Derek Ryan 11-6, 7-11, 7-11).
Placing Matches (17 to 29):
Austria bt Venezuela 3-0 (Andreas Freudensprung bt Juan Pablo Sanchez 11-6, 11-6, 11-0; Aqueel Rehman bt Fransisco Valecillo 11-5, 11-7, 11-3; Stefan Brauneis bt Luis Hernandez 11-5, 11-3).
Kuwait bt Russia 3-0 (Abdullah Al-Mezayen bt Sergy Kostrykin 11-3, 11-2, 11-2; Bader Al-Hussaini bt Alex Severinov 11-1, 10-11 (0-2), 11-2, 11-6; Mohammed Hajeyah bt Valery Litvinko 11-2, 11-5).
Sweden bt Bermuda 3-0 (Rasmus Hult bt Mel Cairnes 11-7, 11-2, 11-5; Christian Drakenberg bt Chase Toogood 11-4, 11-5, 11-5; Guistav Detter bt Robert Maycock 11-3, 11-5).
Scotland bt Chinese Taipei 3-0 (Stuart Crawford bt Hsuen-Chih Huang 11-4, 11-1, 11-1; Alan Clyne bt Chun-Yu Chang 11-0, 11-2, 11-3; Henry Leitch bt Ching-Han Chen 11-2, 11-3).
Kenya bt Sri Lanka 2-1 (Rajdeep Bains lost to Navin Samarasinghe 5-11, 11-10 (3-1), 5-11, 4-11; Hardeep Reel bt Saman Thilakaratne 11-5, 10-11 (0-2), 11-9, 11-3; Otto Kwach bt Anura Hewage 11-8, 11-4, 11-3).
—AFP