2008 WUC Squash: Day 5
August 27th, 2008
GER vs. AUS
After the exciting finals of the Individual events, the teams were drawn into the pools. The Team event will last three days. Hosts Egypt has been named as top seed in pool A, followed by Malaysia (pool B); Great Britain(pool C); and Canada (pool D).
Pool A
Egypt played its first group game against Australia on the glass court yesterday morning. Both men players nominated for this matches won their games 3-0, Mossad won against Turnbull and Momen against Hendrick easily. The women’s game was very nice because Kawy, silver from the Individual event lost in the third game 11-9 against Francis but that was all what the kangaroos captured. The second round of matches in this group were played between Germany and Australia. Australia lead after the first men’s match 1-0 because Nathan Turnbull won against Markus Voith 11-8, 11-6 and 14-12 but in the second match Melodie Francis put the Ausies into difficulties winning 0-3. The last round of the pool A were matches between host country Egypt and Germany. Raneem El-Welaily and Ramy Ashour, the new World University Squash Champions in the individual events won their matches 3-0. Omar Mosaad continued the winning streak and won also his game against Markus Voith.
Pool B
Malaysia, the N°1 seeded in pool B, met the South African team in the morning matches session. It was no surprise to see a 3-0 on the scoreboard after three matches. Mohd Nafiizwan, Mohd Nafzahizam and Siti Munirah were very strong opponents for the RSA team. RSA focused on the afternoon game against SUI. Senade Haupt did not have many chances against Swiss Olivia Hausser and she lost 3-0 in a very short time. Hendrikse supposed to win against Benjamin Fisher but he lost and in five games Fisher become a Swiss hero. Richard Colburn won his game in five matches but the Swiss team was very happy because they racked up their first point in the pool. After the important winning against RSA the Swiss team took on the Malaysians. Team Malaysia however was too strong for the Swiss as it won all their games ending on top of pool B.
Pool C
The first round in the pool C brings together team USA and GBR, first seeded team in this group. Team GBR played a better game all three matches and they did not give the opportunity to Team to even win one game. Team GBR, composed of Alan Clyne, Sarah Bowles and Joel Hinds, won 3-0 and laid the basis foundation to play in the semi-final. After lunch the Czechs met Team USA. The Czech team was very motivated. Sladecek won 3-1 against Alexander Charles. For the second match in this round, the question was how many games Kirsten Lange would be able to win against Lucie Fialova the Czech N°1 women player, and very well known on the junior circuit. However, it turned out different. Lange won 3-1 because Fialova made many unforced errors. The decisive game was played between Ondrej Ertl and Lee Rosen and after two games the Czech was again up by the score 11-5 and 11-4 but Rosen came back in the next two games which he won 11-9 and 11-6 and finally finished the match 11-2 winning the first point in the pool ranking for Team USA. Team GBR met the Czechs in the last round of the pool C. Both teams changed their nomination of the players regarding their first round. Ertlova replaced Fialova and the Czechs replaced Ertl. In the British team only a replacement for the women’s match was made: Bowles was replaced by Beadoes. All matches finished with a 3-0 score. Team GBR goes for the semi-finals.
Pool D
A very strong Canadian team played against the Austrians in only one round. Canada won 3-0. Colin West (CAN) and Raqeel Rehmann (AUT) played almost an hour and West won in four games 3-1. Followed by the women’s match where Alana Miller prevented Birgit Coufal from taking even one game. She won very quick 3-0 and the last match between the N°2 men’s player was decided in only two games. Frederick Reid won against Jakob Dimberger twice 11-9 and put the Canadians into the semi-finals.
SUI vs. MAS
Alana Miller (CAN)
Pool Rankings
Pool A 1. EGY 2. AUS 3. GER Pool B 1. MAS 2. SUI 3. RSA Pool C 1. GBR 2. USA 3. CZE Pool D 1. CAN 2. AUT
All results are available on the website of the Organizing Committee http://www.squash2008.com/Results.php.
