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TODAY: 15-Jun, the FINAL
Playing order
3, 1, 2
full schedule
on the RESULTS page
FINAL:
[2] England 2-1 [1] Egypt
Daryl Selby 3-0 Tarek Momen
11/5, 11/3, 11/7
(52m)
Nick Matthew 1-3 Ramy Ashour
11/5, 6/11, 9/11, 9/11 (63m)
James Willstrop 3-1 Karim Darwish 11/3,
11/13, 11/3, 11/4 (69m)
3rd/4th:
[3] FRANCE 2-0 [4] AUSTRALIA
Mathieu
Castagnet 3-2 Ryan Cuskelly 8/11, 11/8, 7/11, 11/9, 11/6 (123m)
Grégory Gaultier 3-0 Cameron Pilley
11/9, 11/4, 11/4 (52m)
Quick reports from Steve, Fram's full reports to follow on the
blog....
Finals Day ...
The seventh and final day of the World Teams in Mulhouse
started at 10am, just over eight hours after the last ball of
the semi-finals was struck.
Playoff victories were celebrated by, Germany, India,
Scotland and Canada with other matches taking place at
Club Espace 3000.
Then at 15.00 the fantastic French crowd assembled once more to
support Les Bleus in their bid to beat Australia for third place
...
It's third for France
 The
home crowd might have been ultimately disappointed in last
night's semi-final, but it didn't affect their enthusiasm of
their voices as they got behind Mathieu Castagnet from the start
of his match with Ryan Cuskelly.
With Castagnet feeding off the crowd, as well as urging them
on, he fought back from losing the first, then the third, to
force a decider.
With Cuskelly visibly suffering, either with cramp or the
effects of a dead leg that came about as Castagnet charged in
for a dropshot which forced the Aussie to take a short injury
break, the Frenchman was always ahead in the and fifth, when he
clinched it the place erupted.
 The
top string between Gregory Gaultier and Cameron Pilley was a
simpler affair with Gaultier generally in charge. The crowd were
just as supportive, but less noisy, as Gaultier advanced France
to a podium position.
 The
ending was a little anticlimactic as first Gaultier thought he'd
won at 10-4, then Pilley returned the serve low into the tin.
Gautlier's and the French team's reaction was a little delayed,
but when it came it was a good one, as they piled on top of the
world number two in the middle of the court!
So we never did get to see Thierry Lincou
v David Palmer, but since this match took a while the final
started 30m late, so it's probably a good job a decider wasn't
required!
England dethrone
Egypt in Paderborn revenge
 It
was the third string on first today, and Daryl Selby had
declared before the event that he fancied his chances against
any other number three in the event.
Tarek Momen was a late replacement for Egypt, and was their
fourth man with Omar Mosaad being rested, but he's still world
number ten and held a 3-2 head to head advantage over Selby.
 In
the event though it was the Englishman who controlled the match
from start to finish, trailing only in the early stages of the
third and not allowing Momen to display his range of shots and
extreme mobility.
The Egyptian may have been nervous, he doesn't usually make this
many simple errors, but Selby was solidity personified as he
took England into the lead.
"The focus of my training for the last six months has been for
this match," said Selby. "Watching James and Nick last night was
an inspiration - the amount of effort they put in was
phenomenal. I just wanted to put in the same - and if that helps
us win the title I'll be happy.
"I couldn't have dreamed of a better performance - my good
friend Peter [Barker] would have been watching - as I watched
him last time do the same thing to Hisham [Ashour].
 Ramy
Ashour, rested yesterday, looked well out of sorts in his first
game against Nick Matthew, as the Englishman took the lead with
something to spare and led 4-1 in the second too.
Then the Egyptian seemed to wak up, and the crowd were treated
to more of his dazzling play and sparkling winners.
 Matthew
hung in though, but he must surely have been feeling the effects
of his two-hour-plus late-night marathon in the semis.
Ashour took the next two games and after a tight opening to the
third raced through to 10-5 match balls. He needed all of them,
but finished it with a trademark killshot that Matthew, despite
his valiant attempted comeback, had no chance with.
What next ? A decider between Karim Darwish and James Willstrop
... just like two years ago in Paderborn ...
 Actually
it wasn't like last time at all. Willstrop had beaten Darwish
eight times in a row since Paderborn, and started off the match
in great style, racing to take the first game.
Darwish made the second more competitive, trailed most of the
way, but managed to save game balls before taking it 13/11.
The effort seemed to take its toll as Willstrop romped through
the third as he had the first, and after a tough opening to the
fourth the Englishman raced away again to gain revenge for that
heartbreak of two years ago and bring the title back to England.
"It doesn't get much bigger - does it?" said James. "We've
worked so hard for this - we've had unbelievable support from
England Squash back home, and Nick made an amazing contribution
last night.
"We had so many disappointments along the way after last year -
so it's nice to get the trophy back."
"It's good to win something you deserve to win - and I think we
deserved to win this title tonight.
"Our goal is to win things - it was very disappointing to lose
the final two years ago in Paderborn and also the women's world
final in Nimes last year.
"And it was good to see James exorcise his demons of Paderborn.
"I hope this will inspire some of the younger players back home
- we need them to realise that they can also wins things.
"And of course this win is important as we look forward to next
year's Commonwealth Games."
Chris Robertson
our view of the presentations from the press room which,
despite photographing every match on all seven days on all three
glass courts,
we weren't allowed onto court for ... |
Canada beat USA for 11th
Rosner clinches 5th for Germany
11/9 in the 5th
for Saurav
and India finish 7th
Lobban clinches 9th for Scotland with 2-1 over Pakistan
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