It’was the turn of the Men’s teams to play their semi-finals on the Showcase Pavilion Glass Court tonight, plus a host of final playoff matches throughout the day.
Tonight’s semi-finals saw Egypt beat France to reach a seventh consecutive final, while second seeds England beat Switzerland in a repeat of last year’s semi-final in Tauranga.
You can Watch Live on WorldSquashTV, follow on Live Scoring, and we’ll have results, photos and reports right here.
Draws & Results Photo Galleries
[1] EGYPT 2-1 [3] FRANCE
Ali Farag 3-2 Victor Crouin 1-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-4, 11-6 (58m)
Mostafa Asal 3-0 Baptiste Masotti 11-8, 11-4, 11-9 (35m)
Mazen Hesham 1-2 Sebastien Bonmalais 9-11, 11-7, 5-11 (29m)
Defending Champions Egypt won through to a seventh consecutive final, but when Victor Crouin took a two-game lead over Ali Farag and led 8-6 in the third that was by no means a certainty.
Farag edged the third before taking the last two more comfortably, leaving it to Hong Kong champion Mostafa Asal to complete the win with a dominant performance over Baptiste Masotti.
“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.
[2] ENGLAND 2-0 [4] SWITZERLAND
Mohamed ElShorbagy 3-0 Dimitri Steinmann 11-2, 11-4, 3-11, 11-4 (34m)
Marwan ElShorbagy 3-0 Nicolas Mueller 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 (22m)
Curtis Malik v Yannick Wilhelmi match w/d
Mohamed and Marwan ElShorbagy took England through to a sixth consecutive final – all of them against Egypt. Mohamed stormed into a two game lead over Dimitri Steinmann then powered through the fourth after the Swiss had capitalised on a quick start to the third.
Marwan had a shaky start against Nicolas Mueller, losing the first four points before picking up his game to get the better of a quickfire contest in the cool HK evening.
“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,” Marwan said.
5th/6th Finals
Double disappointment for hosts Hong Kong as their final matches on the Glass Court go the way of India’s men and England’s women who claim fifth places (there are no 3rd/4th playoffs, both teams win Bronze).
HONG KONG 0-2 INDIA
Alex Lau 0-3 Abhay Singh 10-12, 7-11, 4-11 (32m)
Henry Leung 2-3 Velavan Senthilkumar 10-12, 11-8, 11-5, 1-11, 8-11 (71m)
Tang Ming Hong v Veer Chotrani match w/d
ENGLAND 3-0 HONG KONG
Sarah-Jane Perry 3-1 Tomato Ho 11-6, 5-11, 11-7, 12-10 (36m)
Jasmine Hutton 3-0 Chan Sin Yuk 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 (25m)
Lucy Turmel 2-0 Lee Ka Yi 11-4, 11-4 (14m)
Draws & Results Photo Galleries
