England Advance To Both European Team Finals For 13th Successive Time

Saturday's finals at the 2025 European Team Squash Championships in Poland will be repeat of last year's in Uster as England face France in the men's final and take on defending champions Belgium for the women's title - appearing in both finals for the 13th time since 2011.

The women's final in Wroclaw will be a Belgium-England duel for the third year in succession after Belgian sisters Tinne Gilis and Nele Gilis-Coll were both victorious in straight games in their semi-final against Scotland.

The Scots, making only their second ETC semi-final appearance in 18 years, battled bravely but Ellie Jones and Georgia Adderley couldn't land many telling blows on the stellar siblings.

Nele said afterwards: "Maybe on paper the pressure is on us tomorrow as defending champions, but England has won it for so many years, so for me the pressure is on them.

"The only difference is that we are very confident after last year's win and very hungry. Me and Tinne give each other so much energy so hopefully we can win back-to-back titles."

England reached the women's final for the 45th year out of 46 in this tournament's history after contrasting victories for Jasmine Hutton and Georgina Kennedy in their semi-final against France.

Hutton faced the legendary Camille Serme, a six-time winner of the European Individual title and ex-world no.2, who returned to the pro game last year after having a baby daughter in 2022. Serme used all her pedigree and know-how to forge into a 2/1 lead, but Hutton's energy reserves proved greater, taking the opening rubber 11-7 12-14 8-11 11-6 11-3.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Kennedy finished the job with a routine 11-7 11-2 11-6 victory over Melissa Alves.

Kennedy reflected: "I will be playing Tinne first in the final which I'm quite happy about. Tinne is such a good friend of mine, she's my go-to room-mate on Tour, and we coach each other at every event. We haven't played a competitive match for two years, so I'm really excited to play her. It's going to be a really close one I'm sure."

The England-France men's final will be the 22nd time that these two old foes have met in Europe's elite team competition. If the duel contains even half the drama of last year's epic contest in Uster, then we are in for entertainment of the highest order.

England defeated unexpected semi-finalists Germany 3/0 on the Hasta La Vista club glass court in the first semi-final.

England's no.1 Marwan ElShorbagy took care of business against world no.100 Yannick Omlor in rapid fashion 11-9 11-9 11-6 in the first rubber. There was was no sign of the fatigue that clearly affected him during his loss to Ireland's Sam Buckley in England's final Pool A match on Thursday.

Mohamed ElShorbagy then faced fellow 34-year-old Raphael Kandra and although each game was close, the former world no.1 went down to the German lefthander 11-6 8-11 11-9 12-10 in 43 minutes.

The tie was level going into the third rubber, but Curtis Malik's 11-3 11-6 11-5 win over Jan Wipperfurth gave the 44-time champions an unassailable 7-3 lead in games, so the fourth rubber was not played.

Malik said: "I'm pleased to get through and play well for the team which should give us a good platform to build on for tomorrow. Playing France is never easy and we are all ready for a big battle again!"

France's men booked their place in the final by beating third seeds Switzerland 3/0 in the second semi.

Gregoire Marche and Nicolas Muller, both 35, went on first and it was the Frenchman who won their heavyweight battle in four. Victor Crouin then got the better of Dimitri Steinmann in the no.1 string match in three tight games.

Once Baptiste Masotti went two games up against Yannick Wilhelmi, France's lead became unassailable and the players shook hands.

In Division 2, we now know the four teams who will be promoted to the top tier for 2026 - and for the first time ever, Poland's men will be among them.

Their incredibly dramatic semi-final against Sweden came down to the deciding fifth game of the final rubber, and of course it went to a tiebreak. Kajetan Lipski was the player who sent the spectators so wild that they knocked over the live streaming camera!

Lipski said: "It was huge pressure. I knew that I had to win and leave it all on the court. I knew that I could not make any mistakes. It's huge for us. We've never been in the first division before, so it means a lot. It really means everything for us."

Joining Poland in the men's final, and therefore also earning their place in Division 1 next year, are the Netherlands, who beat Austria 3/0.

The Dutch also took their place in the Division 2 women's final courtesy of wins for Fleur Mass and Megan Van Drongelen against Ireland. Irish no.1 Hannah Craig had won the second rubber against Tessa Ter Sluis to set up the decider.

The Oranje are joined by Ukraine who beat Italy in their semi thanks to victories for Nadiia Uesnko and Alina Bushma.