France stunned second seeds England in yesterday’s emotionally-charged second qualifying round of the SDAT WSF Under-21 World Cup in the Indian city of Chennai in only the country’s third ever win over their European cross-Channel rivals in the sport of Squash.
The third seeds opened up a surprise lead over England in the inaugural World Squash Federation mixed team event at the Indian Squash Academy when Lucas Serme, a linguistics student at the University of the West of England in the UK, beat higher-ranked Englishman Charles Sharpes 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 in 36 minutes.
The hopes of the English camp were lifted shortly afterwards when 17-year-old Emily Whitlock, the reigning European junior champion, beat France’s Cyrielle Peltier 11-4, 11-1, 11-9 to level the tie.
But France fought back when Geoffrey Demont, a 20-year-old from Aix-en-Provence, beat England’s second string Ben Coleman 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 in almost an hour to lead to the first team upset of the event.
In the other tie in Pool B, the sixth seeds Hong Kong beat No7 seeds Malaysia 2/1.
Action in Pool A concluded with favourites Egypt dispatching hosts India 3/0 – but the earlier tie saw an impressive fight back by Australia to beat Germany 2/1.
RESULTS: SDAT WSF U21 World Cup, Chennai, India
2nd qualifying rounds –
Pool A:
5 AUSTRALIA bt 8 GERMANY 2/1
Jamie McErvale lost to Rudi Rohrmuller 10-12, 12-10, 3-11, 8-11 (62m)
Sarah Cardwell bt Annika Wiese 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 (20m)
Walter Koteka bt Sven Lemmermann 13-11, 11-9, 11-0 (30m)
1 EGYPT bt 4 INDIA 3/0
Marwan El Shorbagy bt Ravi Dixit 11-7, 6-11, 11-4, 12-10 (44m)
Nour El Sherbini bt Anaka Alankamony 11-6, 11-3, 11-7 (25m)
Karim Abdel Gawad bt Karan Malik 3-11, 11-9, 11-0, 11-3 (31m)
Pool B:
6 HONG KONG bt 7 MALAYSIA 2/1
Yeung Ho Wai bt Affeeq Abedeen Ismail 11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 11-4 (53m)
Tong Tsz-Wing bt Tan Yan Xin 11-6, 6-11, 11-8, 11-4 (39m)
Wong Chi-Him lost to Sanjay Singh 11-5, 6-11, 11-6, 10-12, 6-11 (50m)
3 FRANCE bt 2 ENGLAND 2/1
Lucas Serme bt Charles Sharpes 11-8, 11-5, 11-4 (36m)
Cyrielle Peltier lost to Emily Whitlock 4-11, 1-11, 9-11 (28m)
Geoffrey Demont bt Ben Coleman 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 (58m)
