India reach quarter-finals at world championships

CHENNAI—India beat Wales 3-0 at the Men’s Team World Squash Championship here on Sunday to book a quarter-final berth though Wales were hampered by a leg injury to their number one Alex Gough.
Netherlands defeated Pakistan 3-0 on a day when the top-seeded teams booked their berths in the last eight. India now play Egypt while Netherlands take on England, who disposed of Germany 3-0, in quarter-final matches to be played on Monday.
Netherlands’ trio of Laurens Jan Anjema, Dylan Bennett and Piedro Schweertman won their matches against Amir Atlas Khan, Mansoor Zaman and Farhan Mehboob of Pakistan. In the other quarter-final matches, Australia meet Canada and France play Malaysia. The performance of world number 25 Gough against the Netherlands’ on Saturday gave an indication that Wales might be too strong for India but things turned out in the home country’s favour. With the number two players playing the first match, Ritwik Bhattacharya brought about his best performance in recent times to down David Evans, who has retired from the PSA Circuit but helps his country in International championships, in straight games 11-6, 13-10 (3-0), 11-7.
Gough started his campaign against the India number one Saurav Ghosal, who lives as a student in Leeds. Ghosal, who trains under James Willstrop and has been in England for over a year, made Gough’s job difficult. The Indian made Gough run from end to end and back and forth with a mixture of fast paced shots and low returns in front. Thus the first game went in to extra points but Gough won it 11-10 (3-1).
Gough, who had beaten England’s Lee Beachill in the pre-quarter-finals of the Bermuda World Open last week, was looking tired and his movements were slow and he needed medical attention during the match. losing the second game at 11-7 and the third at 11-3, Gough walked up to his rival to shake hands with him, signaling his retirement from the tie.
“I tried to continue with the game after strapping my left thigh. But the niggling pain in my hamstring did not allow me to proceed with the match,” Gough said afterwards. In a lone morning match, which was played in a friendly manner, England had little difficulty in disposing off Germany 3-0.
After world number six James Willstrop scored a fluent victory over Tim Webber 11-6, 11-2, 11-8, England’s number one player, Nick Mathew won his first two games easily (11-4, 11-6) against Simon Rosner but the German came back from a 4-7 deficit to 9-10 in the third game. Here Mathew hit the tin for a 10-all scoreline but showed his class in going in to the lead with a delightful drop from just about two feet from the front glass (11-10). —Agencies