Chennai, Mar 12 (IANS): The top two seeds - Egypt and England - expectedly made short work of third ranked Australia 3-0 and surprise semifinalists Malaysia 2-1 respectively to enter the final of the Squash World Cup team championship, here Friday.
The Egyptians, with an array of top-10 players in their line-up, had to battle hard for their victory as all the three singles were closely fought, especially the crucial women's tie that World No.11 Raneem El Weleily won in five games against the fifth ranked Rachel Grinham.
Raneem's win came after World No.2 Ramy Ashour put Egypt ahead by taking the first singles in three games over the top Australian Cameron Pilley (No.12).
Raneem twice came from behind to beat Grinham 4-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10 in 51 minutes to celebrate her first ever win over the 34-year-old, who topped the World rankings for 16 months.
"It feels great to have won," said the 22-year-old from Alexandria. "It's the first time I have helped the team win! I didn't want it to be that the boys won and I didn't!"
Amir Wagih, the Egyptian team coach, was full of praise for the star woman. "I'm very happy for Raneem. She is very talented and very gifted. She plays at a higher level than her ranking. This match will give her a lot of confidence for the final."
"Rachael is one of the greatest players. I said to Raneem before the fifth 'I want you to believe you can do it'. She deserved to get Egypt into the final," Wagih added.
In the "dead" third singles, Karim Darwish, ranked third, overcame a fighting Aaron Frankcomb in three games, although the result was merely academic.
The other semifinal was rather tame with Malaysia scoring their only point when Jenny Duncalf conceded her singles to Low Wee Wern when trailing by two games to one following an injury.
England were otherwise untroubled as both James Willstrop and Peter Barker won their respective singles quite comfortably.
The results (semifinals):
(1) Egypt bt (3) Australia 3-0: Ramy Ashour bt Cameron Pilley 11-5, 11-3, 11-8 (44m); Raneem El Weleily bt Rachael Grinham 4-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 12-10 (51m); Karim Darwish bt Aaron Frankcomb 11-8, 9-11, 11-5 (40m).
(2) England bt (5) Malaysia 2-1: James Willstrop bt Muhd Asyraf Azan 11-7, 11-3, 11-1 (26m); Jenny Duncalf lost to Low Wee Wern 5-11, 8-11, 11-8 (retd) (35m); Peter Barker bt Choong Kam Hing 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 (19m).