Chennai: India came into the pre-quarterfinal match of the WSF-World Junior Squash Championships as the higher-seeded team, but Pakistan had history and pedigree in their favour and proved that the seedings don’t mean much in the knockout stages. The result was a 2-1 win for the defending champions over the hosts at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai on Thursday, with India’s solitary win coming in a dead rubber.
Both Rahul Baitha and Yash Fadte won the first games against their respective opponents and had leads in the second but both matches ended up following a similar script with Haris Qasim first and Abbas Zeb later, coming from behind to win in four games. Qasim defeated Baitha 8-11, 16-14, 11-6, 11-7 while Zeb overcame Fadte 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-2.
Baitha loses momentum
Baitha, especially, would be kicking himself as he had the momentum strongly in his favour, backed by a vociferous crowd gathering in numbers at the mall on a weekday evening. The Indian had four game points to take a 2-0 lead by squandered all of them to lose that game 14-16. With the wind knocked out of Baitha’s sails, Qasim closed the match out with convincing wins in the third and fourth games, not letting his opponent even close to the finish line.
The pressure was now firmly on Goan lad Fadte, India’s best player at this level. Right from the warm-ups, he had the crowd rooting for him, and his flamboyant style saw him take the first game 11-6 against an equally aggressive Zeb. The second game saw Fadte take an early 7-4 lead but Zeb bucked up, and finished the game off 11-9. Fadte had his palms on his face as the players made their way out of the court.
Fadte had himself to blame
In what turned out to be a very physical contest, the third game between Fadte and Zeb proved to be one for the highlight reel. The Indian was trailing 0-6 after starting the game with a slew of errors, but fought back in style to take the game to 9-9 and even saved a game point to make it 10-10 with a point that received the loudest cheers on the night. Zeb, however, held his nerve to win 10-12. Towards the end of the third game, Fadte was left prone on the court after another clash, which seemed to have hurt his calf. That showed in the fourth game, where Zeb outclassed Fadte to win 11-2, with the Indian even losing his cool by pushing his opponent and earning a penalty point.
With Fadte’s defeat, fifth-seeded India’s run at the Worlds came to a premature end.
“I think I s***wed up badly in the second and third games, which I should have won since I had a late lead,” Fadte told Scroll.in at the end of the match. “I made mistakes at crucial junctures and that’s my fault. It was a very physical game with lot of contact. In the fourth game, my left calf was hurting as my opponent’s racket handle jammed heavily. But I should have won, we shouldn’t have lost to Pakistan.”
Veer Chotrani thrashed Muhammad Uzair in the dead rubber, making the defeat all the more hard to take for India, leaving the contingent wondering, what if the scoreline was 1-1 going into the decider.
“The pressure was on India. The win has given the boys confidence now for the its next match against England,” said the Pakistan Coach Muhammad Yasin.
With this win, Pakistan extended their record to 3-0 against India at the junior Worlds.
Earlier, the redoubtable force that that the top seed Egypt is, brushed aside Argentina, the 15th seed, in quick time. Mostafa El Serty and Marwan Tarek taking just 43 minutes to attain the winning 2-0 margin, before Omar Torkey completed the rout.
Results - Pre-quarterfinals of team event
Pakistan beat India 2-1
Haris Qasim bt Rahul Baitha 8-11, 16-14, 11-6, 11-7; Abbas Zeb bt Yash Fadte 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-2; Muhammad Uzair lost to Veer Chotrani 10-12, 5-11
Hong Kong bt Colombia 2-1
To Wai Lok bt Andres Villamizar 11-7, 11-8, 11-7; Chung Yat Long lost to Matias Knudsen 3-11, 6-11, 3-11; Ho Ka Hei bt Lui Alejandro Mancilla 11-8, 11-5,8-11,9-11, 12-10
Malaysia bt Ireland 2-0
Duncan YungYii Lee bt Scott Gillanders 5-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-9; Darren Rahul Pragasam bt Conar Moran 7-11, 13-11, 11-7, 11-8
Australia lost to Canada 0-3
Maaz Jamal Khatri lost to Ryan Picken 11-9, 10-12, 15-13,5-11, 5-11; Nicholas Calvert lost to James Flynn 6-11, 11-3, 3-11, 5-11; Jacob Ford lost to George Crowne 11-6, 4-11, 8-11
Egypt bt Argentina 3-0
Mostafa El Serty bt Lisandro Ortiz 11-7, 11-2, 11-5; Marwan Tarek bt Jeremias Azana 11-5, 11-5, 11-3; Omar E. Torkey bt Dylan Tymkiw 11-3, 11-1
Germany lost to England 0-2
Maximillian Baum lost to Jared Carter 5-11, 3-11, 4-11; Abdel-Rehman Ghait lost to Nicholas Wall 10-12, 6-11, 4-11
Czech Republic bt Switzerland 2-0
Marek Panacek bt Miguel Mathis 11-5, 11-2, 11-5; Viktor Byrtus bt Yannick Wilhemi 11-7, 11-8, 11-8
USA bt New Zealand 2-0
Thomas Rosini bt Temw Chileshe 6-11, 11-9, 11-4, 9-11, 11-9; Daelum Mawji bt Matthew Lucente 9-11, 11-5, 11-5, 12-10.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!