England and Malaysia to Play for Third

[Also: teams competition MEDAL DRAW]

USA, IRELAND WIN TW0 - Will Play for Thirteenth

Inspired by the genius of its No.1 player Ramy Ashour, Egypt was poised to complete the double at the 14th Prince world junior men’s squash championships in Palmerston North.
The top seeded Egyptians are on track to take the teams’ title for the first time since Christchurch in 1994 to go alongside the engaging Ashour’s securing of the individual championship for an unprecedented second time.

Pashley couldn't get started against Ashour. Photo 2006 © e-pics.

Egypt and the second seeded Pakistan won their semifinals with ridiculous ease, against the No. 3 and No.4 seeds, England and Malaysia respectively to set up a replay of the final two years ago in Islamabad. On that occasion Pakistan won 2-1, its second successive triumph.

Neither finalist has been challenged for a moment in the teams’ series but on form in the individual championship the Egyptians curry most favour with its semifinal linup of Ashour, Omar Mossad Abozeid and Tarek Momen all reaching the semifinals, and Ashour and Abozeid played the final.

Four of the likely six players in the final, Ashour and Abozeid, and Pakistan’s Yasir Ali Butt and Farhan Mehboob, played in the Islamabad final, assuredly joined by Momen, and Pakistan’s Aamir Atlas Khan.

Egypt’s successful coach Amir Wagih believes his players are ready to complete the task, and it is hard to argue with that. Ashour will surely beat Atlas Khan in his last major junior tournament before tackling the senior tour on a more fulltime basis, and it is difficult to see the Pakistanis, probably the weedy Butt and nimble Mehboob, being good enough to both win their matches.

It is Egypt’s sixth final. It won its first in 1994, beating England 3-0, and it lost the next three finals, all to England, before the defeat to Pakistan in 2004. Pakistan has won three finals, 1982 in Malaysia, and again in 2002 in India and 2004 on home soil.

Egypt conceded just 19 points in overwhelming England 3-0 in their semifinal on the all-glass court at Arena Manawatu. Ashour blew away poor Tom Pashley 9-4 9-0 9-2 in 25 minutes, and though Momen made a number of errors he was still good enough to dispose of the hulking Adrian Waller 9-6 9-0 9-4 in 37 minutes. The dead third match was reduced to the best of three games, and Abozeid was untroubled accounting for Joe Lee 9-0 9-3.
England No.1 Pashley worked off thoroughly frustrated at his inability to make any impact on Ashour, tossing his racket after he had walked dejectedly off-court.

“It was so hard playing Ramy for the first time. I didn’t know where my next point was coming from,” he said. “It was hard to get in to any sort of rhythm, he never gave me any chance to get in to my game.”

Pakistan was similarly devastating against Malaysia when it gave up a paltry 21 points. Malaysian No.1 Elvinn Keo was largely ineffectual in losing 9-4 10-8 9-1 to Atlas Khan in half an hour, and the talented Mehboob toyed with a bemused Muhammad Asyraf Azan in winning 9-2 9-0 9-3 in 24 minutes. The third match was also reduced to an exhibition affair, which was won by a laidback Butt 9-3 9-0 over Choong Kam Hing.

Pakistan blitzed Malaysia. Photo 2006 © e-pics.

England and Malaysia now play off for third and fourth. Germany and India will compete for fifth and sixth after contrasting passages in the fifth to eighth bracket. While the sixth seeded Germans made short work of Hong Kong 3-0 India had a protracted struggle before holding off Canada 2-1.

Canada’s consistent No.1 Keith Pritchard again did the business in winning first against India’s Sandeep Jangra 9-2 9-6 6-9 10-8 in 53 minutes. However, the two Davids, Glass and Letourneau, whittled after promising starts losing their matches in four and five games respectively.

Letourneau started solidly in the deciding match against the turbaned Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, winning the first two games before the Indian lifted his game, and made the Canadian look quite cumbersome. The result was a 2-9 7-9 9-5 9-2 9-4 win to Sandhu in 65 minutes. Should the Canadians beat Hong Kong in the playoff for seventh and eighth it will enable it to improve one placing on its finish of two years ago.

“We knew it would be tough against India but we thought Dave (Letourneau) would win it for us,” said assistant Canadian coach Trevor Borland. “He made a lot of unforced errors. Dave (Glass) was not nearly as aggressive as he normally is, and he tended to let his opponent put him off after winning the second game.”

The United States had two victories in the 13th to 18th playoffs, 3-0 against bottom team Zimbabwe, when Trevor McGuinness was able to play again, and 2-1 against Japan after the US conceded the third match to save the struggling Mark Froot. He won the first game of his dead match, and in to the second it was decided he withdraw looking toward its final match against Ireland.

The teams will be playing off for 13th and 14th. Victory would allow the US to finish one place higher than it did in 2004 in Islamabad (although three team that finished ahead of the USA in Islamabad are not competing here in Palmerston North.)

Autograph time for the enthusiastic fans in Palmerston North. Photo 2006 © e-pics.

14th WORLD JUNIOR MENS CHAMPIONSHIPS, TEAMS
SEMINFINAL RESULTS:
EGYPT 3 - ENGLAND )
Ramy Ashour [1] (EGY) beat Tom Pashley [17-32] (ENG)    9-4 9-0 9-2 [25mins]
Omar Mosaad [3] (EGY) beat Joe Lee [9-16] (ENG)    9-1 9-2  [16mins]
Tarek Momen [5-8] (EGY) beat James Snell [17-32] (ENG)    9-6 9-0 9-4 [37mins]

PAKISTAN 3 - MALAYSIA 0
Aamir Atlas Khan [2] (PAK) beat Elvinn Keo(MAS)    9-4 10-8 9-1 [30mins]
Yasir Butt [5-8] (PAK) beat Choong Kam Hing [17-32] (MAS)    9-3 9-0 [14mins]
Farhan Mehboob [5-8] (PAK) beat Muhd Asyraf Azan [9-16] (MAS)    9-2 9-0 9-3 [24mins]

FIFTH-EIGHTH PLACEMENTS:
INDIA 2 - CANADA 1
Keith Pritchard [9-16] (CAN) beat Sandeep Jangra [9-16] (IND)    9-2 9-6 6-9 10-8 [53mins]
Harinder Pal Sandhu [17-32] (IND) beat David Letourneau [17-32] (CAN)    2-9 7-9 9-5 9-2 9-4 [65mins]
Naresh Kumar(IND) beat Dave Glass [17-32] (CAN)    9-3 1-9 9-3 9-2 [58mins]

GERMANY 3 - HONG KONG 0
Simon Rosner [4] (GER) beat Max Lee [9-16] (HKG)    9-0 9-4 9-5 [28mins]
Norman Junge(GER) beat Leo Au(HKG)    9-5 5-9 9-3 [24mins]
Carsten Schoor(GER) beat Alan Tsang(HKG)    9-1 9-0 9-5 [39mins]

NINTH-TWELFTH ROUND ROBIN PLACEMENTS: [Round Robin details]
NETHERLANDS 2 - SWITZERLAND 1
Nicolas Mueller [9-16] (SUI) beat Tom Hoevenaars [17-32] (NED)    9-4 5-9 2-9 9-3 9-7 [67mins]
Bastiaan Meulenbelt(NED) beat Benjamin Fischer(SUI)    2-9 7-9 9-7 10-8 9-5 [83mins]
Frank Hartkoren(NED) beat Reiko Peter(SUI)    3-9 9-5 9-1 9-5 [36mins]

AUSTRALIA 2 - SOUTH AFRICA 1
Richard Colburn(RSA) beat Zac Alexander(AUS)    9-3 4-9 9-7 9-0 [44mins]
Nathan Stevenson [17-32] (AUS) beat Jason Cole Niven(RSA)    9-1 9-4 9-1 [25mins]
Rex Hedrick(AUS) beat Rudi Willemse(RSA)    1-9 3-9 9-4 9-4 9-6 [55mins]

13TH - 18TH PLACEMENTS: [Round Robin details]
JAPAN 2 - FINLAND 1
Pyry Poikolainen [17-32] (FIN) beat Yuuta Fukui(JPN)    9-6 6-9 9-4 9-2 [29mins]
Bumpei Kawano(JPN) beat Petteri Siren(FIN)    9-0 9-3 9-2 [22mins]
Shinnosuke Tsukue(JPN) beat Aatos Mannroos(FIN)    9-7 1-9 9-5 9-1 [37mins]

IRELAND 2 - NEW ZEALAND 1
Rory Byrne [17-32] (IRL) beat Evan Williams [9-16] (NZL)    9-6 9-4 5-9 9-6 [44mins]
Josh Thom(NZL) beat Conor O'Hare(IRL)    9-2 9-0 9-2 [12mins]
Chris O'Kane(IRL) beat Christopher Lloyd(NZL)    9-5 10-8 9-1 [30mins]

USA 3 - ZIMBABWE 0
Trevor McGuinness [17-32] (USA) beat Deepesh Patel(ZIM)    9-1 9-1 9-0 [16mins]
Reed Endresen(USA) beat Ahmed Hassan(ZIM)    9-1 9-7 9-4 [28mins]
Todd Harrity(USA) beat Ainsley Gannaway(ZIM)    9-4 9-4 9-3 [35mins]

USA 2 - JAPAN 1
Trevor McGuinness [17-32] (USA) beat Yuuta Fukui(JPN)    9-2 9-0 9-4 [21mins]
Bumpei Kawano(JPN) beat Mark Froot(USA)    9-10 9-3 Retired [24mins]
Todd Harrity(USA) beat Shinnosuke Tsukue(JPN)    9-2 9-1 9-3 [25mins]

IRELAND 3 - ZIMBABWE 0
Rory Byrne [17-32] (IRL) beat Deepesh Patel(ZIM)    9-0 7-9 7-9 9-5 9-1 [46mins]
Conor O'Hare(IRL) beat Ahmed Hassan(ZIM)    9-5 9-7 9-0 [21mins]
Chris O'Kane(IRL) beat Zardeen Wazir(ZIM)    10-8 9-2 9-3 [22mins]

NEW ZEALAND 3 - FINLAND 0
Evan Williams [9-16] (NZL) beat Pyry Poikolainen [17-32] (FIN)    6-9 9-7 9-0 9-3 [30mins]
Josh Thom(NZL) beat Petteri Siren(FIN)    9-0 9-4 9-2 [20mins]
Lui Syder(NZL) beat Aatos Mannroos(FIN)    7-9 9-2 9-1 9-1 [35mins]