WORLD SQUASH NEWS

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

Quarter-finals:
[1]AUSTRALIA 3 [17/24]HONG KONG 0 (Anthony Ricketts bt Faheem Khan 9-1, 9-5, 9-5; Joseph Kneipp bt Dick Lau 9-3, 9-0; Paul Price bt Roger Ngan 9-1, 9-4, 9-4)
[4]EGYPT 2 [7]WALES 1 (Karim Darwish lost to Alex Gough 9-6, 2-9, 5-9, 1-9; Amr Shabana bt David Evans 5-9, 9-4, 9-3, 9-6; Mohamed Abbas bt Gavin Jones 9-2, 9-3, 9-3)
[3]FRANCE 2 [6]SCOTLAND 1 (Thierry Lincou lost to John White 1-9, 6-9, 7-9; Gregory Gaultier bt Martin Heath 5-9, 9-4, 9-6, 9-1; Renan Lavigne bt Peter O'Hara 9-1, 9-3, 9-3)
[2]ENGLAND 2 [5]CANADA 1 (Peter Nicol bt Jonathon Power 9-3, 9-3, 2-9, 4-9, 9-6; Lee Beachill lost to Graham Ryding 5-9, 8-10; James Willstrop bt Shahier Razik 9-3, 5-9, 9-5, 9-3)
5th - 8th place play-offs:
[12]NETHERLANDS 3 [8]MALAYSIA 0 (Tommy Berden bt Ong Beng Hee 9-3, 4-9, 9-2, 9-3; Lucas Buit bt Moh'd Azlan Iskandar 9-5, 9-5; Michael Fiteni bt Timothy Arnold 9-2, 9-1, 9-2)
[11]SOUTH AFRICA 3 [16]GERMANY 0 (Rodney Durbach bt Simon Frenz 9-10, 9-7, 9-0, 9-3; Craig van der Wath bt Stefan Leifels 9-4, 9-3; Gregory La Mude bt Daniel Hoffmann 9-2, 9-1, 9-1)
[10]IRELAND 3 [15]SWITZERLAND 0 (Derek Ryan bt Lars Harms 9-3, 9-4, 9-6; John Rooney bt Andre Holderegger 9-3, 9-1; Graeme Stewart bt Marco Dätwyler 9-1, 9-1, 9-3)
[9]PAKISTAN 3 [14]SWEDEN 0 (Mansoor Zaman bt Christian Drakenberg 9-4, 9-3, 9-2; Farrukh Zaman bt Henrik Löfvenborg 9-4, 4-9, 9-7; Majid Khan bt Badr Abdel Aziz 9-6, 9-1, 9-6)
17th-24th place play-offs:
[17/24]NEW ZEALAND 2 [17/24]CZECH REPUBLIC 1 (Glen Wilson lost to Jan Koukal 9-0, 9-4, 5-9, 1-9, 1-9; Daniel Sharplin bt Milos Pokorny 9-0, 9-4, 9-1; Callum O'Brien bt Martin Stepan 9-0, 9-1, 9-0)
KUWAIT 2 HUNGARY 1 (Bader Alhosaini bt Andras Torok 9-5, 10-8, 9-5; Ali Alramezi lost to Mark Krajcsak 4-9, 4-9; Abdullah Almezayem bt Sandor Fulop 9-6, 9-5, 3-9, 9-0)
[17/24]ITALY 3 [17/24]JAPAN 0 (Andrea Capella bt Kimihiko Sano 9-1, 9-0, 9-2; Francesco Busi bt Takehide Nishio 9-1, 9-0; Andrea Torricini bt Jun Matsumoto 9-4, 6-9, 9-3, 9-6)
[17/24]USA 2 [17/24]AUSTRIA 1 (Preston Quick bt Leopold Czaska 9-7, 8-10, 4-9, 9-3, 9-7; Damian Walker lost to Clemens Wallishauser 9-5, 9-10, 1-9; Jamie Crombie bt Gerhard Schedlbauer 9-6, 6-9, 9-6, 9-2)
25th-30th place play-offs:
[13]FINLAND 2 [17/24]MEXICO 1 (Olli Tuominen bt Eric Galvez 9-0, 9-2, 9-1; Juha Raumolin bt Jorge Baltazar 9-7, 9-7, 9-5; Hameed Ahmed lost to Armando Zarazua 9-5, 0-9, 7-9, 4-9)
KOREA 3 RUSSIA 0 (Yong-Chun Chong bt Alexei Severinov 9-0, 9-1, 9-2; Dong-Woo Kim bt Serguei Kostrykine 9-2, 9-0; Jaung-Gue Park bt Andrei Bratter 9-0, 9-0, 9-1)

Nicol Leads England Into Semis After Power Marathon

World No1 Peter Nicol led second seeds England into the semi-finals of the Men's World Team Squash Championship after overcoming long-time rival Jonathon Power in a dramatic opening match marathon in Vienna, Austria.

The 2/1 victory over fifth seeds Canada takes England into a semi-final against third seeds France, while favourites and defending champions Australia will face fourth seeds Egypt for the other place in the final.

Nicol's incredible win over Power bore remarkable similarity to his victory over the charismatic Canadian in the British Open semi-finals earlier in the month, when the flu-ridden Englishman fought back from 2-0 down to win in 112 minutes.

In Vienna, Nicol won the opening two games, then fell away as Power's racket magic began to take control.  Clearly still less than 100%, Nicol was 1-5 down in the fifth and looked defeated.  However, in a single hand he reached match-ball, and after 99 minutes claimed his remarkable 9-3 9-3 2-9 4-9 9-6 win to put England ahead.

Third string James Willstrop clinched victory for England with a 9-3 5-9 9-5 9-3 win over Canada's Shahier Razik, then Graham Ryding claimed a consolation point for Canada by beating Lee Beachill 9-5 10-8 in the dead rubber between the second strings.

England's semi-final opponents France survived an opening match loss when Scotland's top string John White, the world No2, beat Thierry Lincou 9-1 9-6 9-7.  Renan Lavigne levelled the match for France with a 9-1 9-3 9-3 victory over Peter O'Hara before Gregory Gaultier clinched the nation's anticipated place in the semis by beating Martin Heath 5-9 9-4 9-6 9-1.

Hong Kong's sensational Austrian run came to an abrupt end when they were defeated 3/0 by Australia - and seventh seeds Wales were unable to capitalise on top string Alex Gough's four-game upset over Egypt's world No8 Karim Darwish when team-mates David Evans and Gavin Jones both lost, to Amr Shabana and Mohamed Abbas, respectively, to take Egypt into the semi-finals for the fifth successive time.

Official website: http://www.squash-wm.at/