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Day ONE:
Quick update #2 from Dan Zilic ..
the Serbian view
In the second
session of the day almost all matches went to plan:
On court 1 Hong Kong dispatched us (Serbia) 3:0.
Dennis Drenjovski was close to win the first game but lost 11:9
and never managed to come quite as close again in the following
game, so he lost to Dick Lau 3:0 eventually. Marko Matanovic,
who has been playing squash for less than two years, lost to Anson Kwong but put up a good fight and Ivan played really well to
take the first game of Max Lee in a tie-breaker, but paid the
price for his big efforts and lost 3:1 in the end. Nonetheless,
we are happy with our debut and we can't really ask for much
more when playing teams full of professionals.
Next door Pakistan looked impressive taking on Kenya.
I don't know any of the Kenyan players but they can all hit the
ball pretty well - the Pakistanis were having none (or little)
of it and won all their matches 3:0.
Court 3 saw crowd favourites Egypt take on Kuwait.
I saw glimpses of El Hindi beating Al-Husaini and the crowd
really enjoying themselves - this was followed by Darwish
winning 3:0 quickly and Ramy finishing things off at two. There
was a large female gathering outside while the match was taking
place - which I think some other teams were quite jealous of.
The one surprise of the second round of matches was Steve
Coppinger losing to double-handed backhand man Rasmus Hult 3:1 -
but Jesse Engelbrecht and Clinton Leeouw rectified the
shock-loss with two 3:0 wins to give South Africa the win
over Sweden.
Right now the evening matches are being played - Germany
is facing arch-rivals Austria on center court and Simon
Rösner just went up 1:0 up for the Germans. England
should make mince-meat of Japan, the same as Italy
against Venezuela (the Italians are resting Davide
Bianchetti (at one) so Marcus Berrett had the honour of leading
his team out.
Match of the round is Scotland against India - I
heard that Saurav Ghosal had an unfortunate trip/slip in the
hotel or club yesterday so he is not playing. This means Ritwik
is playing at one and Alan Clyne is getting the better of him
right now. So Scotland are within a good chance of causing some
upset.
Day ONE:
Quick update #1 from Dan Zilic
On the centre court Denmark played against Ireland. Ireland are
missing John Rooney due to flu so Keith Moran slipped into the
team.
Anyway, Rasmus Moeller Nielsen started really well against
Liam Kenny and was 1:0 and 10:6 up, but he let the game and
match slip out of his hands after that and Liam ran out a
winner.
Rasmus looked pretty impressive with some good
aggressive play, but Liam picked up his game and put Ireland 1:0
in front. Veteran Derek Ryan selaed the win with a convincing
3:0 win over Danny Knudsen and Arthur Gaskin is currently 2:1 up
against the Kristian Frost.
On the back-courts some battles are still taking place. Wales
lost to the Netherlands 1:2. Anjema beat Rob Sutherland and
Peter Creed then won 3:1 against Sebastian Weenink, but Jethro
wasn't able to overcome Piedro Schweertman.
New Zealand are set to beat Spain but not as clear as one would
have thought. Kashif Shuja, I was told, was 11:0 and 7:1 up vs.
David Vidal, but despite winning game 2 lost the next three
games. I just saw a few rallies but the Spaniard hit some
beautiful winners. Martin Knight levelled the tie and Campbell
Grayson is the favourite at 2.
The last match taking place is USA against Finland. Olli
Tuominen beat Julian Illingworth 3:1. Tuomi at 3 was 3:0 up and
had two match-balls in game 3 against Christopher Gordon, but
the tall American fought back and won the match 3:2. The decider
is played between Mustonen and Lane and could be quite tight.
Campbell Grayson just about
overcame Alejandro Garbi so NZ escaped with a tight win. And
Gilly Lane managed to beat Henrik Mustonen in 3 to secure the
USA's first win.
Next round matches are starting at 4 - the big won being Serbia
against Hong Kong of course (I am resting today so our super-sub
Marko gets to make his debut);)
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Day One Results:
A: EGY 3-0 KUW, HKG 3-0 SRB
B: GER 3-0 AUS, ENG 3-0 JPN
C: IRL 3-0 DEN
D: NED 2-1 WAL
E: USA 2-1 FIN
F: RSA 2-1 SWE, PAK 3-0 KEN
G: NZL 2-1 ESP
H: SCO 3-0 IND, ITA 3-0 VEN
Detailed results
Double blow
for India
Cyrus Poncha reports
Indian squash ran out of luck this week - minutes before we were
boarding our flight from India to Denmark Siddharth Suchde
called me and said he got an MRI of his knee, stating as his
knee cap is moving and he is in tremendous pain and cannot play
the WMT.
We then activate our reserve Gaurav Nandrajog, who
managed to get his visa within a day (incredible). So Gaurav
arrives and we go for the opening ceremony.
After that Saurav Ghosal, walking down the steps, misses
one and we instantly see his ankle the size of a tennis ball -
ice & strapping thanks to 'J' the Hong Kong physio.
Saurav is certainly out for a few days ...
India lost their first match,
0-3 against Scotland |
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16-Sep-09:
Egypt seeded to reclaim
World Team title in Denmark
Defending champions England are seeded to reach the
final of the 2009 Men's World Team Squash Championship in
Denmark next month - but Egypt are expected to win
the title for the first time for ten years.
 The
championship, in its 22nd edition since the inaugural event
in 1967, will be held in Denmark for the first time, from 27
September to 3 October. The venue will be the Squash
Center Denmark in the city of Odense, the birth city of
Hans Christian Andersen.
Led by world number one Karim Darwish, Egypt will be keen to
make amends for a shock fourth place finish in the previous
championship (in 2007) as they bid to repeat their 1999
success at this year's event.
England, bidding to become the first country since Pakistan
in 1987 to win the biennial title three times in a row, will
be led by the new British Open champion Nick Matthew. The
world No5 clinched the title for the second time this week
in the event's first all-English final for 70 years.
 France
and Australia are seeded three and four, respectively.
France, runners-up in 2003, have yet to win the title –
whilst Australia, beaten finalists in 2007, boast eight
title triumphs between 1967 and 2003.
Six-time champions Pakistan are seeded six - behind
Malaysia - and thus expected to record their best
finish since 1997.
Italy, who will be making their first appearance in
the event since 2003, are named as eighth seeds. Led by
Davide Bianchetti, the Italian squad will include former
Englishman Marcus Berrett and ex-Egyptian Amr Swelim – both
of whom will be making their debuts for their new country.
Serbia will be making their debut in the championship
which was launched 42 years ago.
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