Top seeds Egypt lost to Australia 2-1 in the semi-finals of the 21st ICL World Men's Team Squash Championship that ended yesterday in Chennai, India Mohamed Abbas was the only winner in the three games that Egypt played against Australia in the semi-finals. He beat Cameron Pilley 3-1 in the opening match. Egypt's world champion Amr Shabana and Karim Darwish then lost the other two matches which took the Aussies to the final which was scheduled for yesterday. Shabana lost to David Palmer while Darwish lost to Stewart Boswell, both with the same result 3-1. England beat France 2-1 in the other semi- final. Yesterday's final saw England and Australia clash for the world title. Egypt will play- off against France for third and fourth place. It was the first meeting between Egypt and Australia in the event for four years. Australia, the eight-time champion, fielded a full- strength squad against Canada, the sixth seeds who were resting top string Jonathon Power. But after Australian No 2 Boswell dismissed Matthew Giuffre 11-4, 11-8, 11-4 in 33 minutes, Canadian Shahier Razik tested experienced former world champion David Palmer for over an hour before the world No 4 from New South Wales finally claimed the 10- 11 (0-2), 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 victory which assured the fourth seeds a place in the semis. Egypt made a successful start in their bid to win the title for a second time by beating Finland 3/0 in Pool A. But newly-crowned World Open champion Shabana was taken to tie- breaks in the first two games before overcoming the experienced Finnish No 1 Olli Tuominen 11-10 (3-1), 11-10 (5-3), 5-11, 11-9 in 40 minutes. Favourites Egypt recorded their second 3/0 win in two days, beating Germany 3/0. But Shabana, crowned world champion last week in Bermuda, dropped a game against Simon Rosner before beating the former European junior champion 11-7, 10-11 (0-2), 11-7, 11- 3. Just 24 hours after celebrating their first appearance in the quarter-finals in almost 30 years, hosts India, the 10th seeds, were brought down to earth by Egypt in a 3/0 defeat. India's Ritwik Bhattacharya put up a brave fight against Wa'el El-Hindi before going down 11-10 (3-1), 11-4, 11-8 to the Egyptian No 4, ranked 14 in the world, in 44 minutes. The 47 ranking positions that separate Saurav Ghosal from Shabana were too much for the Indian No 1 who went down 11-5, 11-8, 11-9 in 30 minutes to guarantee the favourites a place in the last four. Egypt was disadvantaged even before they went into the tournament when world number two Rami Ashour, considered the most brilliant player in the sport, did not take part in the championship because of injury which forced him out of the singles event in Bermuda. Abbas had to replace Ashour. Egypt received further bad news after learning that Darwish, nursing an injury, could withdraw if he did not recover in time. Darwish played with his injury but it obviously affected him. The tournament was held on six courts which had been given a new coat of paint while the centre court was converted into an all-glass facility with a glass floor replacing the earlier wooden surface.
