Egypt & England To Renew Rivalry In Men's World Team Final

Egypt and England will contest a WSF World Team Championship final rematch after their men's teams overcame France and Switzerland, respectively, at Hong Kong Football Club.

The two sides have contested the last five finals and the rivals will lock horns once more after Egypt recovered from a slow start and England produced their best performance of the tournament so far.

The Egypt win marks a historic achievement for Egyptian Squash, with the nation set to contest the men's and women's finals after the women's team joined USA in the other final after winning their semi-final against Belgium - this year's competition being the first to feature the men's and women's events together.

Although Egypt and France had not played against each other since 2011 - a 2/1 win for Egypt in the semi-finals of the competition - first strings Ali Farag and Victor Crouin went into the opening match knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses well, having played each other three times in the last two years.

Farag went into the match with a perfect record against Crouin, but it was the Frenchman who dominated early on against a laboured-looking Farag, with Crouin taking a 2/0 lead after stunning 11-1, 11-6 wins before Farag eventually settled to fight back 12-10, 11-4, 11-6.

The second match was a more comfortable affair for the favourites, as world No.2 Mostafa Asal overcame Baptiste Masotti in straight games.

Asal looked confident early on against the world No.24, keeping ahead of the French No.2 throughout as he took the opener 11-8 and then doubled his lead with an 11-4 win.

Masotti battled hard in game three, forcing Asal into lung-busting court coverage that drew gasps and applause from the crowd, but could not break his opponent's defences as Asal wrapped up the victory with an 11-9 win.

Mazen Hesham and Sebastien Bonmalais opted to play the best-of-three dead rubber, with Bonmalais triumphing 2/1.

"It means so much to me, I haven't felt so much ecstasy for a long while. Playing for Egypt is something else," Farag said.

Five-time champions England, who have lost in the final to Egypt in the last three editions of the championships, overcame Switzerland - playing in the semi-finals for the second year in a row after previously never advancing beyond the round of 16 - thanks to masterful performances from Egyptian-born brothers Mohamed ElShorbagy and Marwan ElShorbagy.

Mohamed ElShorbagy had struggled at times this tournament, with the 33-year-old's loss to Spain's Iker Pajares raising eyebrows at Hong Kong Football Club.

This time, he came up against Dimitri Steinmann, who defeated ElShorbagy comprehensively at last week's Hong Kong Open.

To the delight of the England bench, ElShorbagy was at his devastating best, blasting his way into a 2/0 lead with brutal 11-2 and 11-4 wins, with Steinmann unable to keep up with ElShorbagy's aggression.

Steinmann upped the tempo in game three as he battled to rescue the situation and found a foothold in the match with an 11-3 win, but ElShorbagy kept calm to see out the match with an 11-4 win in game four.

Mohamed's younger brother Marwan then finished the job, with the 31-year old playing some brilliant squash as he defeated Nicolas Mueller.

The 31-year-old look confident and played the cold court conditions perfectly to take the first two games 11-9, 11-9 before powering through in the third 11-4.

"Egypt are the defending champions, they have the best players in the world, to be honest. The pressure is on them to win the final, and I'm just going to enjoy being in the final with them," said Marwan.