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“No-one gave the US a chance of
winning unless Amanda won, so this makes it even more special,
the girls played great.”
“Julie played out of her skin … what an amazing game …
WHOA! ”
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9-16 Playoffs:
Australia 3-0 Spain
Netherlands 0-3 France
South Africa 3-0 Sweden
Germany 3-0 Denmark |
Quarter-Finals
Egypt 3-0 Malaysia
USA 2-1 England
Hong Kong 3-0 New Zealand
India 2-1 Canada |
Top seeds joined by USA and HK
No stopping Egypt ...
Top seeds Egypt were the first through to the semi-finals,
brushing aside Malaysia with wins from Nour El Sherbini
and Heba El Torky over Tan Yan Xin and Low Wee Wern.
The Malaysians, after losing out in their group decider to Hong
Kong, got the unkindest draw and despite being third seeds, were
no match for the reigning champions.
Tan took the first game of the match off individual champion
Sherbini, but after that it was Egypt all the way, with Nour El
Tayeb cleaning up in the dead rubber.
 “Very
happy to win this match, now I’m beginning to think this is the
‘Dream Team’!
“Malaysia are a very strong team, but our team made good plans
for this championship and we came here to win it.
"All respect to all the other teams, but I hope we can play well
all through to the end of the final.”
Indians pushed by Canada
 Canada surprised second seeds India with Samantha Cornett
continuing her good form from yesterday, taking the first match at second string
against a nervous-looking Anwesha Reddy. Dipika Pallikal
struck back to level with a straight-games win over Laura
Gemmell to set up the decider.
Surbhi Misra again did the business in the
third match, and although Jennifer Pelletier pushed her close,
the Indian's determined play once again saw her through. India
thus reach the semis for the first time
since 2003.
 “Very
pleased. It became a bit closer than we expected, but in the end
the girls played well to come through.
“Samantha was very steady, very good. Anwesha was nervous and
made a lot of unforced errors, she can, and will, play better
than that.
“Dipika did what we expected of her, and Surbhi played well in
the decider.
"Jennifer played brilliant squash, she hung in well, but my girl
had a bit more in the end, it was her finishing shots that made
the difference.”
Americans score first-ever win over England
 Kim Hay played excellent squash to beat
in-form Amanda Sobhy 3-0 to put
England ahead against USA, but Olivia Blatchford
put in a strong performance to beat Millie Tomlinson at top string to level up the tie.
It was left to Julie Curello to clinch the decider for the
second day in a row, and after taking two fairly tight games
against Rachael Chadwick, surged ahead in the third to keep the
Americans on track for a possible best-ever finish.
 “It’s
very exciting – in all my years playing for the US we never
managed to beat Canada or England, and now we’ve beaten them
both in two days! They were both great wins but this one is
especially good.
“The girls played incredibly tough. England came out strong and
the girls had to work hard to get through.
"Julie was tremendous in the decider, it’s always hard to play
last but she’s had to do it two days in a row now and pulled us
through both times.”
“It will be tough tomorrow against Egypt, but we’ll play well
and hope for the best …”
Hong Kong back in the big time
 Hong
Kong's top pairing of Tsz Wing Tong and Tsz Ling Liu secured
the wins against New Zealand to take them into the semis.
Tong recovered from dropping the first game to beat the Kiwis'
Amanda Landers-Murphy, and Liu got the better of three tough,
tight games against Lana Harrison to put the 2005 champions back
into the last four.
 “It’s
an outstanding result for Hong Kong, it’s what you dream about.
“All of our players are kids who have come through our Junior
Development Programme, so it’s obviously working!
"They’re taking over from the group that won us the title in
2005 in Belgium, this is the next generation.
“Joey [Chan] and Annie [Au] have gone on to perform tremendously
well at the senior level, and I’m sure these players can do the
same.”
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