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World
Junior Men's Championships 2002
03-14 December, Chennai, India
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2004
Event, Pakistan
WILLSTROP WORLD CHAMPION
Reports & Results from the
Individuals
Team Event - Knockout Stage |
Quarters
Fri 13th |
Semis
Fri 13th |
Final
Sat 14th |
[1] England
2
[5] India 1 |
[1] England
2
James Willstrop bt Moustafa Essam 9-1, 9-4,
9-4; Ashley Flathers bt Sherif Kamal 9-6, 9-1, 5-9, 5-9, 10-9; Peter
Barker lost to Ahmed Mohsen Hassan 8-9, 3-9, 0-9
[4] Egypt 1 |
[1] England 1
Khayal Mohammed lost James
Willstrop 2-9 0-9 1-9 25m; Majid Khan beat
Peter Barker 9-2 9-3 9-7 31m;
Khalid Atlas beat John Harford 9-4,
9-7, 9-5 45m
[2] Pakistan 2
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[4] Egypt 3
[9] Canada 0 |
[3] Australia 3
[10] USA 0 |
[3] Australia
1
Khayal Muhammad bt Jhie Gough 9-2, 9-3,
9-3; Safeerullah Khan lost to Luke Margan 9-10, 9-6, 8-10, 9-4, 7-9;
Majid Khan bt Aaron Frankcomb 9-0, 9-7, 9-0
[2] Pakistan 3 |
[2] Pakistan 3
[6] Mexico 0 |
TEAM Draws and Results from Chennai |
PAKISTAN STUN ENGLAND
TO
TAKE TEAM TITLE
Pakistan defeated top seeds and defending champions
England 2-1 in a thrilling team final in Chennai.
George Meiras reports
... James Willstrop recaptured
individual event form and quickly saw off Muhammed for only
3 points. What word better than awesome? "Quite
amazing that he could
recapture and even exceed such form so soon",
said Malcolm Willstrop.
Jon Harford started very slowly against Khalid Atlas at 3, moving very
tentatively - he had a strapped right thigh which had clearly been causing
some concern. But the slow start saw Khan win the first quite easily 9-4.
Harford improved a lot in the second, working his opponent round the
court better an reached 7-4 before making some
crucial mistakes. An amazing long drop at 7 all took Khalid to game ball
and soon to 9-7. There was no way
back for a now thoroughly dispirited Harford, with Atlas's
confidence growing and
some Willstrop standard attacking shots
emerging. 9-5 in the 3rd. David
Campion : "John's leg was not a contributory
problem," said England coach David Campion. "He was
just too tense and made
mistakes at vital points."
So it was up to Peter Barker against Majid Khan.
Barker also started very slowly and Khan easily
dominated the first game. Barker seemed to be feeling his way back into a
tough match. Losing
the fist so easily was a disaster for Barker, however, as it
gave Khan huge confidence and he even stopped looking as though he
was about to burst into tears at every decision and started to play
through much more
often, to his absolute advantage. It was Barker who got increasingly
irritable and at the end of the second he was lucky not to have at
least a conduct warning for pushing his opponent in frustration at the
end of the game. 9-3 and 0-2. The 3rd game was much tighter and Barker
fought well but Khan was now inspired and unstoppable, playing some
delightful attacking shots. Barker got to 7-6 but another 2 winners
followed. Barker saved the
first match ball, then a lucky shot saw
Khan get
another and this time he sealed it.
Pandemonium ensued as all the Pakistan camp
surged onto court. WSF President
Jahangir Khan handed
over the medals and trophy to an ecstatic Pakistan
and very sombre England.
Egypt were 3rd in a seedings reverse when they beet
Australia 2-1 in a very tight earlier match and
hosts India finished a marvellous 5th.
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World
Junior Men's Championships 2002
Main draw from Chennai
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Third Round
Thu 5th |
Fourth Round
Fri 6th |
Quarters
Sat 7th |
Semis
Sun 8th |
Final
Mon 9th |
[1] James Willstrop
(Eng)
9-2, 9-2, 9-2
(14m)
Sherif Moustafa Kamal (Egy) |
James
Willstrop
9-6, 9-3, 9-0 (27m)
Shah Nawaz |
James
Willstrop
9-0, 9-1, 9-1 (20m)
Safeerullah Khan |
James
Willstrop
9-1, 9-0, 9-4
(27m)
Khayal Muhammad |
Willstrop
9/0, 9/3, 9/1 (28m)
Barker
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[9/16] Timothy Arnold
(Mas)
9-3, 9-4, 9-6 (45m)
Shah Nawaz (Pak) |
[5/8] Dylan Bennett
(Ned)
7-9, 9-3, 9-5, 0-9, 9-3 (55m)
Omar Abdel Aziz (Egy) |
Dylan
Bennett
9-6, 9-7, 9-3 (39m)
Safeerullah Khan |
[9/16] Safeerullah
Khan (Pak)
10-8, 9-0, 9-1 (35m)
James Rogers (Aus) |
[3] Moustafa Essam
(Egy)
6-9, 5-9, 9-6, 9-0, 9-4 (59m)
Julian Illingworth (Usa) |
Julian
Illingworth
9-3, 9-3, 9-5 (53m)
Khayal Muhammad |
Khayal Muhammad
9-6, 9-7, 9-3 (64m)
Eric Galvez |
[9/16] Khayal
Muhammad (Pak)
9-3, 9-4, 9-4 (31m)
Jose A Becerril (Mex) |
[5/8] Eric Galvez (Mex)
9-4, 9-2, 9-5 (39m)
Laurence Delasaux (Eng) |
Eric Galvez
9-1, 9-2, 9-0 (34m)
Aaron Frankcomb |
[9/16] Aaron Frankcomb (Aus)
9-6, 9-6, 9-2 (52m)
Mamoud Mohamed Adel (Egy) |
[9/16] Ashley
Flathers (Eng)
9-7, 9-6, 9-7 (47m)
Bader Husaini (Kuw) |
Bader Husaini
9-2, 10-9, 9-3 (46m)
Jhie
Gough |
Jhie
Gough 9-4, 9-2, 9-4 (43m)
Majid
Khan |
Majid
Khan
9-3, 9-0,
10-8 (56m)
Peter
Barker |
[5/8] Jhie Gough
(Aus)
9-1, 9-3, 9-3 (26m)
Mark Krajesak (Hun) |
[9/16] Amr Ramzy
Swelam (Egy)
9-6, 9-1, 9-0 (28m)
Jon Harford (Eng) |
Jon Harford
7-9, 9-1, 9-0 ret. (35m)
Majid
Khan |
[4] Majid Khan (Pak)
9-3, 9-5, 9-6 (31m)
Lewis Powel Horst (Wal) |
[9/16] Marco Datwyler
(Sui)
6-9, 9-4, 9-7, 0-9, 9-2 (85m)
Khalid Atlas (Pak) |
Khalid
Atlas
2-9, 9-7, 7-9, 10-8, 9-5
(73m)
Luke Margan |
Khalid
Atlas
9-2, 9-0, 9-3 (33m)
Peter
Barker |
[5/8] Ahmed Mohsen
Hassan (Egy)
4-9, 6-9, 9-3, 9-1, 10-8 (63m)
Luke Margan (Aus) |
Siddarth Suchde (Ind)
9-3, 9-0, 9-0 (14m)
Peter David Creed (Wal) |
Siddarth Suchde
9-4, 9-4, 9-1 (49m)
Peter
Barker |
[2] Peter Barker
(Eng)
9-0, 9-1, 9-0 (17m)
Dick Lau (Hkg) |
RESULTS & Reports |
WILLSTROP WORLD CHAMPION
Final:
James Willstrop bt Peter Barker 9/0, 9/3, 9/1 (28m)
Amazing!
George Meiras reports from Chennai
James Willstrop stormed to the World Junior Men's title in Chennai today
treating team-mate and friend Peter Barker with the same ruthlessness as
all opponents in previous rounds. 9/0;9/3/9/1 in 28 minutes. These two
may have had some close encounters in recent years but in the one that
really mattered Willstrop was taking no prisoners. Barker was left
totally frustrated, chasing down whatever he could but chasing was the
word, and if you are sent the wrong way it gets even more impossible.
What a performance.
You just had to feel sorry for his opponent. Just how important this
title was to James showed in his shout of triumph at the winning point,
hand aloft, safety specs chucked out into the crowd.
The audience had enjoyed a colourful opening ceremony with all teams
marching in and flag bearers going onto court and all meeting WSF
President Jahangir Khan. The WSF trophy and medals were presented at the
end plus for the champion a magnificent solid silver (1kg) squash racket
in a case presented by the Squash Rackets Federation of India. James
spoke well, making all the right thank you's, then paid generous tribute
to his opponent, all the England camp but most of all, and so rightly,
to Malcolm, his Dad.
A very happy afternoon and successful end to the Individual event in
this 12th Junior Men's World Championships.
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Semi-Finals |
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Semi-finals:
[1] James Willstrop (ENG) bt [9/16] Khayal Muhammad (PAK) 9-1, 9-0,
9-4 (27m)
[2] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [4] Majid Khan (PAK) 9-3, 9-0, 10-8
(56m)
Yorkshire's Willstrop
& Barker In
English
World Junior Showdown
James Willstrop
and Essex's Peter Barker will meet in the final of the Men's World
Junior Individual Squash Championship in India in the all-English
showdown predicted by the seedings. Both players dismissed Pakistani
opposition in today's (Sunday) semi-finals at the Tamil Nadu Squash
Academy in Chennai and both have reached the climax without conceding
a game.
Top seed
Willstrop, the British and European Junior Champion from Pontefract,
was again in awesome form against Pakistan's No1 junior Khayal
Muhammad, taking just 27 minutes to earn his 9-1 9-0 9-4 victory and a
long-awaited place in the final. The match was marred by 32 appeals -
the majority of which were judged to be 'no let' - but significantly
only one came from the Englishman!
Uncharacteristically,
however, this twice got the better of the normally excellent-tempered
Willstrop, who on the second occasion received a conduct warning
during the third game - which resulted in the England manager David
Campion rushing to open the court door to urge his half-brother to
calm down! In the other semi-final, Peter Barker played in a totally
disciplined manner to avoid any confrontations.
Sadly, however,
his opponent Majid Khan seemed determined again to involve the referee
at all costs - to his complete detriment as top referee Chris
Sinclair, like Muneer Shah in the first match, simply would not give
the endless lets requested. By the third game, with Barker 2-0 up, the
Pakistani at last seemed to realise and got on with playing the ball
and rallying - with the result that he reached game ball at 8-6 with
some fine play.
An error, then a
lapse back to earlier appeal-mode, saw his chance slip away and Barker
win the game and the match 9-3 9-0 10-8 in 56 minutes.
Both finalists
were upbeat afterwards. "I'm feeling very focussed and in great
shape - looking forward to another meeting with Peter tomorrow,"
said favourite Willstrop. "We know each other's game really well
and have a great deal of respect for each other," conceded James,
who beat Barker in both the British and European Junior finals -
indeed, has never lost to his England team-mate.
Barker added:
"I am delighted with the way I have played through to the final,
with tough matches against two Pakistanis Khalid Atlas and Majid Khan
in the last two rounds. I always look forward to playing James, and if
I can play as well as I did against him in the European final in
France in March, I think I have a good chance."
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Quarter-Finals |
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It's
England v Pakistan in the semis ...
George Meiras reports from Chennai
The quarter-finals saw the two top seeded
Englishmen dispose comfortably of 2 Pakistanis leading to a repeat
matching in both semi-finals tomorrow.
James Willstrop was almost awesome at points in a quite ruthless
demolition of Safeerulah Khan - 9/1,9/0,9/1 in only 20 minutes.
Willstrop's variety of pace, shot, disguise, the time he seems to be
able to make for himself before hitting the ball all led to almost total
Pakistani collapse of morale by half-way through the first game - you
just had to feel sorry for Khan facing the no 1 seed in this form.
The crowd's favourite came next, Mexico's Eric Galvez. He is so exciting
to watch with some brilliant shots, especially
long distance drop returns of serve, elastic
in movement and tries to get to absolutely everything. A considerable
amount of time indeed seemed to be spent on the floor of the court
compared to all other matches as he hurled himself body length in
desperate efforts to retrieve the ball. A tense first game saw Khayal
Muhammed win the first 9-6 then a very impressive recovery from 0-7 down
in the second by Muhammed, admirably patient, sapped the Mexican resolve
and the third was inevitable. 64 minutes of good crowd pleasing
entertainment, however, by far the best match of the afternoon.
Jhie Gough of Australia is a rugged, stocky
hard hitting Aussie, sometimes a bit of a smouldering volcano one feels,
but all the aggression was simply not enough to get the better of the
speedier and more elastic Majid Khan. A fairly one-sided match went
Pakistan's way in 43 minutes.
The final match saw Peter Barker also in fairly ruthless form against
Khalid Atlas but unable to seal the issue quite as quickly as James! His
power and consistency were just too much for Atlas and a total of 5
points was all he managed to garner in 33 minutes of hard effort.
So the semi-finals see for the first time ever 2 English against 2
Pakistanis - let's hope for good matches for the live
TV coverage.
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Early
Rounds |
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England's Top Seeds Untroubled
George Meiras reports on
round four
Play in round 4 of the WSF World Junior Men's
moved to the splend1d ASB central court in the Tamil Nadu
Squash Academy building today.
England's top 2 seeds both went through relatively untroubled - James
Willstrop started a bit slowly against
Shah Nawaz but once he had secured the first game 9-6 he stepped up
into full attack mode and swept through the next
2 games with ease. At the other end of the draw Peter Barker was last
on court against the only remaining home player, the talented
Siddharth Suchde. As ever with Barker it looked like man against boy but
Suchde was not to be intimidated by odd
glowers and with great encouragement from the home crowd all made
Barker concentrate and work all the way.
Pakistan then had Khayal Muhammad taking on USA no 1 Julian Illingworth,
and although it took nearly an hour the American's run was brought to an
end also 0-3.
Everyone is wondering just how good Eric Galvez (Mexico) is - well,
el bandito showed just how good by demolishing Oz no 1 Aaron Francombe
3-0 in only 43 minutes, very comprehensive at this stage. Galvez is full
of flair and imagination, fast around and very exciting to watch. The
top seeds will have to be very wary of him.
Kuwait's Bader Hussaini's good run came to a fairly quick end at the
racket hand of Jhie Gough from Australia, but that was Australia's only
player to progress as Luke Margan lost a long, very physical match
against Khalid Atlas (Pakistan) - not at all pretty to watch and
perhaps squandered by the Australian boy who seemed at critical points
when leading to lapse into defensive mode, not good tactics.
Pakistan also had Majid Khan facing Jon Harford (England), having a
great run, and here there was a very sad end when Harford, having lost
the first 7/9, won the next 2 games
comprehensively 9/1, 9/0 but then had to concede with a hamstring
injury.
So Pakistan take all 4 players through into the quarter finals to be
joined by the two top seeded Englishmen, a Mexican and an Australian.
Some good squash ahead ...
Disaster for Egypt day
George Meiras reports on the Third Round
The 3rd round saw the elimination of al the Egyptian players, a major
surprise as Egypt in the initial
seedings have been placed 2. Inevitably Sherif
Kamal was swept aside by James Willstrop and Arron Frankland
(Australia) held off a spirited challenge from Mamoud Adel, but
in a major upset unseeded Julian Illingworth (USA) came back from 0-2 to
fairly comprehensively defeat a tiring 3rd seed Mustafa Essam, a huge
win for the USA lad. There are rumours that Essam has a back problem and
certainly the referee had to apply a lot of pressure including a conduct
stroke to ensure that there was not undue delay between points.
The unexpected continued with Jon Hartford (England) ripping through
9/16 seed Amr Swelam. That left Omar Aziz who cheered Egyptian spirits
with a great fight against Dylan
Bennet (Netherlands), causing more heartache for the Dutch camp in
another 5-setter. This was a pretty physical encounter, not pretty to
watch, but eventually Bennett triumphed and
Egypt were finished in the main draw.
England had mixed fortunes - Willstrop and Barker hardly exerted
themselves, Hartford had that excellent win but there was a big shock
when 9/16 Ashley Flathers was beaten 3-0 by surprise package of the
tournament so far, Bader Hussaini of Kuwait. Laurence Delasaux losing
to talented Eric Galvez of Mexico was not unexpected, however.
Home interest was maintained with no Siddharth Suchde easily moving
forward at the expense of Welsh no 3 Peter Creed. Pakistan on the other
hand had a splendid day with 5 players reaching the last 16. Best wins
were Shah Nawaz beating 9/16 seed Timothy Arnold (Malaysia) and in the
longest match of the day by far (85 minutes) Khallid Atlas beat 9/16
seed Marco Datwyler of Switzerland. Australia also had a good day with 3
players progressing relatively easily.
So the last 16 features 5 from Pakistan, 3 from England, 3 from Australia,
1 Mexican, I Ntherlands and 1 Kuwaiti and 1 Home player.
INDIANS SO CLOSE TO UPSETS
George Meiras reports on Round One
Major (ret'd) Maniam of SRFI was desperately close to having two
home crowd pleasing shock results in main draw
round 1, but sadly for him he emerged the sad man as both of his players
lost 8-10 in the 5th, after having had match balls. Gurav Nandrajog took
Pakistani player Shaw Nawaz to five in one of the first matches of the
morning then one of the smallest players in the event, 16 year old
Saurav Ghosal, stretched 6 feet plus 5/8 seed Dylan Bennett
of The Netherlands to the very limit on centre court.
The 2 players are good friends - Gaurav stayed and trained with Dylan
and his coach for 10 days during the summer but had to put aside all
thoughts of friendship and reach for all of his professional player
reserves to hold off the little terrier chasing down everything, through
him, round him, under him! Saurav got 2-1 up, from 0-7 in the 4th
recovered to 6-7 before a highly relieved Bennet secured the game 9-7.
Saurav played his heart out in the 5th to reach 8-3 but gradually Dylan
clawed it back, Saurav made some real pressure of situation
errors and failed to close on any of three match points. What a great
game, and watch out for this youngster 2 years from now.
No major upsets, therefore, and steady progress for all the seeded
players otherwise. Mark Krajesak of Hungary, who has come over alone,
progressed through at the expense of USA's Christopher Gordon and showed
that he is a player to be reckoned with. Pakistan have a sad situation
with Arshad Burki, seeded 9-16, having to withdraw from the tournament
today before his first match as a result of his Mother becoming
seriously ill.
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PREVIEW |
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Willstrop on Chennai
The
World Junior Championships, originally scheduled for July but
postponed for political reasons, are now to
be played in Chennai, in India in December,
writes Malcolm Willstrop.
Players eligible on the original date remain eligible, which seems
fair considering that the championship is
biennial.
The outstanding semi-finalists in Milan in 2000 Karim Darwish,
Gregory Gaultier, Shahid Zaman and James
Willstrop have all made massive inroads in
men's world squash: Darwish is at an
all-time world ranking high of 13, Gaultier
won the French Open, Willstrop the Swiss Open and Zaman did
excellently in Qatar 2001.
The Englishman is the only one still eligible and, having won the
British Open Junior and European Junior
titles, he is the man to beat. Peter Barker,
the no.2 Englishman, was runner-up to Willstrop in the Open, Closed
and Europeans and in Sheffield he beat Yassar El Halabi (Egypt) convincingly.
The Egyptian is a three-time winner of British Opens, so has a
pedigree, but it remains to be seen if he
has improved enough to win the World
Championship.
Mexican
Eric Galvez was in Milan and he has
certainly improved. He showed well in the
PSA's Brazilian and Columbian Opens.
Athletic and entertaining, hešll be a main
challenger.
Majid Khan was a semi-finalist in the British Open when the Pakistanis
suddenly turned up with a fistful of contenders to suggest a
new impetus in Pakistan.
It is hard to imagine some unknown turning up and winning, but there
will always be one or two players,
previously lesser known, who respond to world
class opposition.
England have won the last three World U19 Team Championships: in
Cairo (Beachill, Russell, Grant); in
Princeton (Mathew, Grant, Jemmett) and in
Milan (Willstrop, Phil Barker and Selby), all against the odds.
Beachill beat World Junior Champion Ahmed
Faizy to win in Cairo; and after Willstrop
had a match ball against Darwish, Barker came from 2-0 down to win in
Milan.
With Willstrop and Barker and good enough support players, England are
favourites this time. Australia have not been a potent team
force for a while and Egypt and Pakistan are
likely to provide the stiffest opposition.
It is absolutely crucial that the Championship goes ahead this time.
If it is postponed for another year it could
well be lost for ever.
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