EUROPEAN SQUASH NEWS

RESULTS: European Team Squash Championships, Rennes, France

Men's 1st qualifying round - Pool A:
[1]ENGLAND 4 [5]SWEDEN 0 (Lee Beachill bt Christian Drakenberg 9-2 9-2 9-3; Nick Matthew bt Badr Abdel Aziz 9-3 9-0 9-1; James Willstrop bt Joakim Karlsson 10-9 9-0 9-0; Adrian Grant bt Henrik Lofvenborg 9-1 9-1 9-0)
[4]NETHERLANDS 3 [8]DENMARK 1 (Tommy Berden bt Mikkel Korsbjerg 9-4 9-4 9-5; Laurens Jan Anjema bt Morten W Sorensen 9-2 9-5 9-3; Lucas Buit bt Danny Knudsen 9-6 9-0 9-3; Dylan Bennett lost to Mads Korsbjerg 5-9 9-4 4-9 5-9)
  Pool B:
[2]FRANCE 4 [6]IRELAND 0 (Thierry Lincou bt Liam Kenny 9-5 9-0 9-3; Gregory Gaultier bt John Rooney 9-1 9-3 9-3; Renan Lavigne bt Steve Richardson 9-4 9-3 9-1; Jean-Michel Arcucci bt John Hurley 9-3 9-2 9-3)
[3]WALES 3 [7]SPAIN 1 (Alex Gough bt Borja Golan 9-2 3-9 9-6 0-9 9-4; David Evans bt Iago Cornes 9-2 9-0 9-2; Gavin Jones bt Oriol Salvia 9-5 9-7 5-9 9-5; Greg Tippings lost to Albert Codina 9-3 5-9 4-9 6-9)
  Pool C:
[9]SCOTLAND 4 [17]ISRAEL 0 (John White bt Ilan Oren 9-2 9-3 9-0; Martin Heath bt Ron Levy 9-5 9-0 9-3; Peter O'Hara bt Tomer Noach 9-0 9-4 9-2; Stuart Crawford bt Moshe Sarfaty 9-0 9-1 9-0)
[17]ISRAEL 3 [16]CZECH REPUBLIC 1 (Ilan Oren lost to Jan Koukal 2-9 7-9 8-10; Ron Levy bt Martin Stepan 4-9 9-6 9-3 9-1; Tomer Noach bt Milos Pokorny 9-7 8-10 9-4 9-5; Dove Drokman-Haruzi bt Jan Zemlicka 2-9 9-3 9-4 9-0)
  Pool D:
[10]SWITZERLAND 4 [18]GREECE 0 (Lars Harms bt Petros Tzamaloukas 9-3 9-0 9-1; Andre Holderegger bt Fabian Kalaitzis 9-3 9-0 9-2; Marco Datwyler bt Paul Gregory 9-2 9-2 9-0; Marcel Straub bt Panna Vassiliou 9-0 9-2 9-6)
[23]ITALY 3 [15]HUNGARY 1 (Andrea Capella bt Mark Krajcsak 9-4 9-7 10-8; Simone Rocca bt Sandor Fulop 9-5 9-7 9-5; Francesco Busi bt Balazs Welesz 9-1 9-1 9-1; Giacomo Marotta lost to Zsolt Kovacs 1-9 4-9 9-5 3-9)
[10]SWITZERLAND 3 [23]ITALY 1 (Lars Harms bt Andrea Capella 9-2 9-4 9-6; Andre Holderegger bt Simone Rocca 9-4 9-0 9-3; Marco Datwyler lost to Francesco Busi 6-9 9-7 1-9 1-9; Marcel Straub bt Buglioni Paolo 9-0 9-5 9-1)
[18]GREECE 2 [15]HUNGARY 2 (Greece win 8/7 on games countback)(Petros Tzamaloukas lost to Mark Krajcsak 0-9 2-9 2-9; Fabian Kalaitzis lost to Sandor Fulop 0-9 9-2 6-9 9-2 6-9; Paul Gregory bt Balazs Welesz 9-2 9-6 9-8; Panna Vassiliou bt Zsolt Kovacs 10-9 9-4 4-9 9-1)
  Pool E:
[11]FINLAND 4 [19]ISLE OF MAN 0 (Olli Tuominen bt David Norman 9-1 9-6 9-3; Juha Raumolin bt John Knight 9-1 9-1 9-2; Tatu Murronmaa bt Richard Corlett 9-1 9-0 9-0; Hameed Ahmed bt Steve Morley 9-2 9-0 9-0)
[14]AUSTRIA 4 [22]GIBRALTAR 0 (Andreas Fuchs bt Malcolm Head 9-4 9-1 9-1; Gerhard Schedlbauer bt Stephen Shacaluga 9-0 9-0 9-0; Jakob Dirnberger bt Christian Navas 9-0 9-0 9-0; Aqeel Rehman bt Louis Montegriffo 9-0 9-0 9-2)
[11]FINLAND 4 [22]GIBRALTAR 0 (Olli Tuominen bt Stephen Shacaluga 9-1 9-0 9-0; Juha Raumolin bt Christian Navas 9-0 9-0 9-0; Tatu Murronmaa bt Anthony Brindle 9-2 9-0 9-0; Matias Tuomi bt Louis Montegriffo 9-2 9-0 9-2)
[14]AUSTRIA 4 [19]ISLE OF MAN 0 (Andreas Fuchs bt David Norman 9-0 9-0 9-0; Gerhard Schedlbauer bt Kevin Watterson 9-3 10-8 9-0; Jakob Dirnberger bt Steve Morley 9-1 9-0 9-1; Markus Rossler bt Lyndon Cheetham 9-2 9-0 9-1)
  Pool F:
[12]GERMANY 4 [20]RUSSIA 0 (Stefan Leifels bt Alexey Severinov 9-1 9-0 9-3; Edgar Schneider bt Pavel Sergeev 9-0 9-2 9-5; Hansi Seestaller bt Serguei Kostrykine 9-0 9-0 9-0; Guido Kirschbaum bt Roman Fetisov 9-0 9-0 9-2)
[13]BELGIUM 4 [21]POLAND 0 (Rob Aerts bt Andrzej Wierzba 9-2 9-2 9-4; Steve Dries bt Marcin Leszewicz 9-3 9-1 9-1; Ben Vandezande bt Maciej Chadzynski 9-4 9-3 9-0; Rik Smet bt Lukasz Nitka 9-1 9-3 9-0)
[12]GERMANY 4 [21]POLAND 0 (Stefan Leifels bt Andrzej Wierzba 9-3 9-1 9-0; Edgar Schneider bt Maciej Chadzynski 9-4 9-1 9-2; Hansi Seestaller bt Lukasz Nitka 9-0 9-0 9-0; Johannes Voit bt Jacek Hibner 9-1 9-0 9-0)
[13]BELGIUM 4 [20]RUSSIA 0 (Rob Aerts bt Alexey Severinov 6-9 9-3 9-2 9-3; Steve Dries bt Pavel Sergeev 9-0 9-1 9-1; Ben Vandezande bt Roman Fetisov 9-2 9-0 9-2; Bart Govaerts bt Andrey Bratter 9-0 9-0 9-0)

Women - Pool A:
[1]ENGLAND 3 [8]GERMANY 0 (Linda Charman bt Sabine Tillman 9-3 9-3 9-5; Vicky Botwright bt Kathrin Rohrmueller 9-1 9-0 9-3; Jenny Duncalf bt Katharina Witt 9-5 9-0 9-1)
[5]FRANCE 2 [4]DENMARK 1 (Isabelle Stoehr bt Ellen Petersen 9-5 10-9 9-7; Laurence Bois lost to Line Hansen 1-9 9-10 0-9; Corinne Castets bt Julie Dorn-Jensen 9-5 9-4 9-0)
  Pool B:
[2]NETHERLANDS 2 [7]BELGIUM 1 (Vanessa Atkinson bt Kim Hannes 9-0 9-7 9-4; Annelize Naude bt Charlie De Rycke 9-0 9-4 9-2; Karen Kronemeyer lost to Annabel Romedenne 9-10 6-9 7-9)
[6]IRELAND 3 [3]SCOTLAND 0 (Madeline Perry bt Pamela Nimmo 9-4 9-4 9-1; Aisling Blake bt Susan Dalrymple 2-9 9-0 10-8 9-5; Laura Mylotte bt Frania Gillen-Buchert 10-9 9-0 9-1)
  Pool C:
[9]SPAIN 3 [13]FINLAND 0 (Olga Puigdemont bt Elina Kononen 9-1 9-2 9-4; Elisabet Sado bt Jutta Tuunanen 9-1 9-0 9-0; Margaux Moros bt Eevamaria Vuolo 9-2 9-3 9-0)
[12]WALES 3 [13]FINLAND 0 (Tegwen Malik bt Elina Kononen 9-0 9-1 9-0; Hayley James bt Jutta Tuunanen 9-3 9-5 9-4; Jessica Bevan bt Eevamaria Vuolo 9-5 9-6 9-3)
  Pool D:
[10]SWITZERLAND 2 [14]ITALY 1 (Manuela Zehnder lost to Manuela Manetta 1-9 4-9 9-5 0-9; Gaby Schmol bt Katiuscia Grossi 9-1 9-4 9-1; Olivia Hauser bt Evelin Panizzi 9-0 9-5 9-0)
[11]AUSTRIA 3 [14]ITALY 0 (Pamela Pancis bt Manuela Manetta 9-2 9-7 9-4; Birgit Coufal bt Katiuscia Grossi 9-1 9-4 9-10 10-9; Sissi Colli bt Evelin Panizzi 9-1 9-2 9-3)

Top Seeds Rule In Rennes

The top seeds earned comfortable wins on the first day of play in the European Team Squash Championships in Rennes - with hosts France, the fifth seeds in the women's event, also claiming an early upset with a 2/1 win over fourth seeds Denmark.

Defending men's champions England, the favourites who are expected to face No2 seeds France in Saturday's final for the fifth successive year, cruised to a 4/0 victory over fifth seeds Sweden in Pool A, with fourth seeds Netherlands conceding a match to eighth seeds Denmark in their 3/1 win in the other tie in the top men's Pool.

World No3 Thierry Lincou led France to a 4/0 win over sixth seeds Ireland in Pool B, while third seeds Wales failed to come through unscathed in the other tie, registering a 3/1 victory over seventh seeds Spain, with veteran squad No1 Alex Gough taken the full distance by Spain's young No1 Borja Golan before winning 9-2 3-9 9-6 0-9 9-4.

In the women's event, England showed no signs of interrupting their unbeaten run in the event since 1978.  Resting world No1 Cassie Jackman, the top seeds romped to a 3/0 win over eighth seeds Germany, with debutantes Vicky Botwright and Jenny Duncalf dropping just ten points between them as they claimed maiden straight games wins over Germany's Kathrin Rohrmueller and Katharina Witt, respectively.

The day's biggest upset came in Pool B, where sixth seeds Ireland crushed Scotland, the third seeds, 3/0.

Official website: http://eurosquash2004.free.fr/