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Giant-Killers Hong Kong Progress To World Quarters
Playoff Report #1, from Vienna, Austria
October 22, 2003
By Howard Harding All content © 2003 Squashtalk

Hong Kong produced their best ever victory in the history of the Men's World Team Squash Championship when they upset Asian rivals Malaysia, the seventh seeds, in the last sixteen knockout stage in Vienna, Austria, to guarantee a last eight finish for the first time.

This is Hong Kong's tenth appearance in the event since making their debut in 1979 - when they achieved their highest ever 13th place finish. The only team seeded outside the top sixteen to make the last sixteen, Hong Kong lost the opening match when Malaysia's world No7 Ong Beng Hee beat the team's unranked Faheem Khan 9-5 9-1 9-7. Hong Kong levelled the tie when squad No3 Roger Ngan raced to a 9-6 9-2 9-0 win over Kelvin Ho.

The decider between the two second string players should have been a formality: Malaysia fielding fast -improving Mohamed Azlan Iskandar, a young player with a PSA Tour title already under his belt, and Hong Kong a recently-crowned National champion Wong Wai Hang, who is little known elsewhere in the world. Wong, however, showed determination from the outset and after 77 minutes claimed the biggest scalp of his life in a 9-4 7-9 9-7 9-0 scoreline - and lifted his country into the sport's big league with a 2/1 victory.

Hong Kong now face top seeds and defending champions Australia, who despatched Netherlands 3/0 without conceding a game.

All the other last sixteen ties produced 3/0 wins for the higher seeded teams - with second seeds England beating former champions Pakistan, third seeds France overcoming Ireland, and fourth seeds Egypt triumphing over South Africa.

The pick of the quarter-final ties is surely England versus fifth seeds Canada, in which one of the sport's greatest rivalries is likely to be enacted in the top string line-up when England's reigning world No1 Peter Nicol faces Canada's former world No1 Jonathon Power.

The play-offs for the lower places produced two notable upsets when unseeded Kuwait consigned 13th seeds Finland to their lowest ever finish in twelve appearances in a 2/1 defeat - and event newcomers Hungary crushed 17/24 seeds Mexico 3/0.

RESULTS: Men's World Team Squash Championship, Vienna, Austria

Last sixteen round:
[1]AUSTRALIA 3 [12]NETHERLANDS 0 (David Palmer bt Tommy Berden 10-8, 9-4, 9-6; Anthony Ricketts bt Lucas Buit 9-6, 9-0; Paul Price bt Dylan Bennett 9-0, 9-2, 9-0)
[17/24]HONG KONG 2 [8]MALAYSIA 1 (Faheem Khan lost to Ong Beng Hee 5-9, 1-9, 7-9; Wong Wai Hang bt Moh''d Azlan Iskandar 9-4, 7-9, 9-7, 9-0; Roger Ngan bt Kelvin Ho 9-6, 9-2, 9-0)
[4]EGYPT 3 [11]SOUTH AFRICA 0 (Karim Darwish bt Rodney Durbach 9-3, 9-2, 9-1; Amr Shabana bt Craig van der Wath 9-3, 8-10, 9-2; Mohamed Abbas bt Gregory La Mude 9-1, 9-2, 9-0)
[7]WALES 3 [16]GERMANY 0 (Alex Gough bt Simon Frenz 9-7, 9-1, 9-10, 9-1; David Evans bt Stefan Leifels 9-3, 9-1; Gavin Jones bt Oliver Post 9-2, 9-4, 9-6)
[6]SCOTLAND 3 [15]SWITZERLAND 0 (John White bt Lars Harms 9-2, 9-6, 9-3; Martin Heath bt Andre Holderegger 9-3, 9-3; Neil Frankland bt Kevin Villiger 9-6, 9-0, 9-0)
[3]FRANCE 3 [10]IRELAND 0 (Thierry Lincou bt John Rooney 9-1, 9-1, 9-2; Gregory Gaultier bt Graeme Stewart 9-3, 9-3; Jean-Michel Arcucci bt Niall Rooney 9-2, 9-6, 9-4)
[5]CANADA 3 [14]SWEDEN 0 (Jonathon Power bt Christian Drakenberg 9-0, 9-1, 9-2; Graham Ryding bt Henrik Löfvenborg 9-4, 9-4; Shahier Razik bt Badr Abdel Aziz 9-6, 9-2, 9-2)
[2]ENGLAND 3 [9]PAKISTAN 0 (Peter Nicol bt Mansoor Zaman 9-3, 9-5, 9-0; Lee Beachill bt Farrukh Zaman 9-1, 5-9, 9-6; James Willstrop bt Majid Khan 7-9, 9-1, 9-2, 9-5)
17th-30th place play-offs:
KUWAIT 2 [13]FINLAND 1 (Bader Alhosaini lost to Olli Tuominen 5-9, 4-9, 0-9; Ali Alramezi bt Hameed Ahmed 9-6, 9-2, 9-0; Abdullah Almezayem bt Matias Tuomi 9-0, 10-8, 9-7)
HUNGARY 3 [17/24]MEXICO 0 (Andras Torok bt Eric Galvez 6-9, 9-7, 9-3, 0-9, 9-6; Mark Krajcsak bt Armando Zarazua 9-5, 9-5; Sandor Fulop bt Mauricio Sanchez 7-9, 9-0, 7-9, 9-3, 9-4)
[17/24]ITALY 3 BERMUDA 0 (Andrea Capella bt Nicholas Kyme 9-6, 9-5, 6-9, 1-9, 10-8; Francesco Busi bt James Stout 9-2, 9-0; Andrea Torricini bt Sam Stevens 9-6, 9-0, 9-2)
[17/24]CZECH REPUBLIC 3 SLOVENIA 0 (Jan Koukal bt Gasper Fecur 9-4, 9-5, 9-0; Milos Pokorny bt Damir Bezan 9-5, 4-9, 9-0; Martin Stepan bt Klemen Gutman 7-9, 9-3, 9-6, 9-7)
[17/24]USA 3 RUSSIA 0 (Preston Quick bt Alexei Severinov 9-0, 9-1, 9-3; Damian Walker bt Maxim Shokin 9-3, 9-4; Tim Wyant bt Andrei Bratter 9-1, 9-1, 9-1)
[17/24]AUSTRIA 3 KOREA 0 (Leopold Czaska bt Yong-Chun Chong 9-3, 9-0, 9-1; Clemens Wallishauser bt Dong-Woo Kim 9-4, 9-0; Andreas Fuchs bt Jaung-Gue Park 9-1, 9-3, 9-3)