Pakistan Reclaim World Championship Title In Zurich

8 Aug 2008

It was a case of double revenge for Pakistan in the final of the Men's World Junior Team Championship in Zurich, the biennial World Squash Federation championship being held for the first time in Switzerland.

The second seeds not only beat defending champions Egypt to avenge their loss in the previous final in 2006, but squad number one Aamir Atlas Khan led his country to victory by defeating new world champion Mohamed El Shorbagy to reverse the result of the earlier individual final.

It was the two nations' third successive meeting in the final - and Pakistan made a perfect start when 18-year-old Aamir Atlas Khan, the favourite to win last week's individual world crown, recovered from a game down to beat rival El Shorbagy 7-9, 9-2, 9-1, 9-1 in 48 minutes.

It took a further 64 minutes for Pakistan to win the title - squad number three Mohd Shoaib Hassan, from Lahore, grinding out a 9-5, 9-6, 9-2 win over Egypt's Karim Abdel Gawad to clinch their upset over the event favourites.

The 2/0 win negated the need to play the third rubber, in which Waqar Mehboob, the Pakistan second string, was due to face Andrew Wagih Shoukry.

With previous title wins in 1982, 2002 and 2004, Pakistan are now celebrating their fourth Men's World Junior Team success - equalling the achievement of England (1990, 1996, 1998 and 2000) but one behind Australia (1980, 1984, 1986, 1988 and 1992).

The battle for bronze saw third seeds England take on surprise opponents India, the fifth seeds who had reached the semi-finals for the first time in their history. An upset seemed on the cards when Vikram Malhotra, the Indian number one from Mumbai, beat British Junior champion Joe Lee 9-6, 9-0, 0-9, 9-3.

But it took 70 minutes for order to be restored when England's third string Alex Ingham defeated Chennai-based 16-year-old Ravi Dixit 4-9, 9-3, 9-2, 9-6. Adrian Waller then made sure of a third-place finish for England - making up for their lowest-ever fourth place in 2006 - when he despatched Aditya Jagtap 9-0, 9-4, 9-4 in just 20 minutes.

Seventh seeds Germany won the play-off for fifth place, beating sixth seeds Malaysia 2/1 to record their best finish since 1988!

And in the seventh place play-off, tenth seeds Canada fought back from a match behind to upset fourth seeds France to end a four-event sequence of eighth-place finishes!

Local hero Nicolas Mueller claimed his sixth successive individual win in the team championship for Switzerland - this time beating South African Thoboki Mohohlo in straight games - but the hosts lost 2/1 to South Africa in the play-off for 13th place.

Czech Republic achieved the best finish of the four countries making their debut in the championships by beating Spain in the play-off for 19th place. Guatemala and Ecuador took 24th and 25th places, respectively, while fellow newcomers China - fielding a squad of 15 and 16-year-olds - ended in 31st place.

Final:
[2] PAKISTAN bt [1] EGYPT 2-0
Aamir Atlas Khan bt Mohamed El Shorbagy 7-9, 9-2, 9-1, 9-1 (48m)
Mohd Shoaib Hassan bt Karim Abdel Gawad 9-5, 9-6, 9-2 (64m)
Waqar Mehboob v Andrew Wagih Shoukry (dead rubber - match not played)

3rd place play-off:
[3] ENGLAND bt [5] INDIA 2-1
Joe Lee lost to Vikram Malhotra 6-9, 0-9, 9-0, 3-9 (37m)
Alex Ingham bt Ravi Dixit 4-9, 9-3, 9-2, 9-6 (70m)
Adrian Waller bt Aditya Jagtap 9-0, 9-4, 9-4 (20m)

5th place play-off:
[7] GERMANY bt [6] MALAYSIA 2-1
Florian Silbernagl lost to Ivan Yuen 9-4, 7-9, 3-9, 4-9 (58m)
Norman Junge bt Jo Wen Ng 9-2, 9-4, 10-9 (46m)
Raphael Kandra bt Mithran Selvaratnam 9-3, 9-3, 9-3 (35m)

7th place play-off:
[10] CANADA bt [4] FRANCE 2-1
Kelly Shannon lost to Gregoire Marche 3-9, 1-9, 9-4, 5-9 (38m)
Fred Reid bt Lucas Serme 7-9, 9-5, 9-1, 10-9 (55m)
Andrew Schnell bt Antoine Petrucci 9-0, 9-1, 9-1 (23m)

9th place play-off:
[11] AUSTRALIA bt [12] USA 2-1
Matthew Hopkin lost to Todd Harrity 5-9, 1-9, 4-9 (32m)
Aaron Fyfe bt Thomas Mattsson 3-9, 9-3, 9-7, 9-7 (50m)
Jacob Alexander bt Alex Domenick 9-7, 10-8, 9-4 (41m)

11th place play-off:
[9] NEW ZEALAND bt [8] HONG KONG 2-1
Evan Williams lost to Leo Au 2-9, 2-9, 4-9 (30m)
Alex Grayson bt Fung Ji Yang 9-1, 9-3, 9-6
Keegan Burkhart bt Nelson Chan 10-8, 7-9, 9-6, 9-5 (55m)

13th place play-off:
[13] SOUTH AFRICA bt [14] SWITZERLAND 2-1
Thoboki Mohohlo lost to Nicolas Mueller 5-9, 2-9, 3-9 (32m)
Dean Russell bt Lukas Burkhart 5-9, 9-5, 5-9, 9-4, 9-7 (90m)
Wian Louwrens bt Patrick Miescher 9-3, 9-4, 9-1 (36m)

15th place play-off:
[15] KUWAIT bt [17/24] FINLAND 2-1
Shamlan A Ali lost to Henrik Mustonen 2-9, 1-9, 2-9 (31m)
Nasser Al-Rashid bt Joonas Honkanen 9-2, 3-9, 9-4, 9-3 (43m)
Ahmad Al-Randi bt Ville Hiltunen 10-8, 9-3, 9-5 (37m)

17th place play-off:
[17/24] BELGIUM bt [17/24] DENMARK 2-1
Sam van Brusselen bt Casper Grauballe 6-9, 3-9, 9-1, 9-5, 9-2 (55m)
Robin Schreurs lost to Philip Tran 6-9, 3-9, 0-9 (35m)
Laurens Mostmans bt Lau Ulrik Kiehn 9-3, 9-3, 9-3

19th place play-off:
[17/24] CZECH REPUBLIC bt [17/24] SPAIN 2-1
Roman Svec lost to Damian Arosa Rodriguez 5-9, 9-6, 5-9, 9-1, 6-9 (74m)
Ondrej Uherka bt Daniel Pascual Martinez 3-9, 9-3, 10-8, 9-0 (51m)
Daniel Mekbib bt Fausto Gomez 9-6, 9-2, 9-2 (41m)

21st place play-off:
[17/24] SWEDEN bt [16] WALES 2-0
Johan Detter bt David Haley 9-1, 9-1, 9-4 (27m)
Gustav Runersjo bt Sam Huxtable 4-9, 6-9, 2-0 ret. (34m)
Alex Christensson v Sam Fenwick (dead rubber - match not played)

23rd place play-off:
[17/24] NETHERLANDS bt [17/24] GUATEMALA 3-0
Rick Penders bt Mauricio Sedano 9-6, 9-6, 9-2 (36m)
Marc ter Sluis bt Bryan Bonilla 9-10, 9-4, 4-9, 9-2, 9-0 (65m)
Tim van der Pluijm bt Roberto Rodriguez 9-0, 0-9, 9-5, 8-10, 9-6 (58m)

25th place play-off:
[25/31] ECUADOR bt [25/31] IRELAND 2-0
Daniel Cueva Mosquera bt Colm Dolan 9-3, 9-5, 2-9, 9-2 (54m)
Orlando Rodriguez Ordonez bt Kevin Davey 4-9, 2-9, 9-4, 10-8, 9-5 (54m)
Francisco Alvaro Asimbaya v Theodore Anderson (dead rubber - match not played)

27th place play-off:
[25/31] BERMUDA bt [25/31] VENEZUELA 2-0
Robert Maycock bt Daniel Prato 5-9, 9-4, 9-2, 9-1
Noah DaBell bt Wilfredo Arcia 9-6, 9-0, 9-5
Micah Franklin v Alejandro Suarez (dead rubber - match not played)

29th place play-off:
[25/31] CAYMAN ISLANDS bt [25/31] ITALY 2-0
Alain Osman Mudeen bt Alberto Matteazzi 9-2, 9-6, 9-2 (31m)
Cameron Stafford bt Dimitri Diamadopoulos 9-2, 9-0, 9-5 (23m)
Jake Kelly v Marco d'Adam (dead rubber - match not played)
31st place: [25/31] CHINA