DAY 1, MORNING SESSION – AS IT HAPPENS

 Live from Squash-Club Saint-Cloud, Jérôme Elhaïk reporting

Order of play 3-1-2

11am

Pool A

New Zealand bt Mexico: 3-0

Straightfoward win for the Kiwis, who fielded their best team against Mexico playing without their number 1 – Samantha Teran, injured. They will face Egypt tomorrow before the key fixture against India on Wednesday.

Amanda Landers Murphy bt Luz Lopez: 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-7) – 19 min

Joelle King bt Diana Garcia: 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-4) – 14 min

Megan Craig bt Nayelly Hernandez: 3-0 (11-7, 11-3, 11-3) -25 min

Glen Wilson (New Zealand’s coach): “Obviously a good start for us. Of course, we were the favourites but we don’t take any team lightly. Egypt next, we’ll discuss with the girls later to decide what team we put on. I am filling in for Shelley Kitchen who couldn’t make it, but I’ve been in the National Program as a coach for 3 years.”

Pool B

Egypt v India: 3-0

After a quick start from Omneya Abdel Kawy (who is featuring in her 10th WWTC, pictures of the ceremony in her honour to follow), the Egyptian girls were challenged by India’s two best players. After losing the first two games to world number 1 Nour El Sherbini, Joshna Chinappa was up in most of the 3rd before saving two match balls at 9-10 and 10-11. She then had two game balls of her own before surrendering 15-13. Dipika Pallikal took the first game to Nouran Gohar, who was playing her first match in the senior Egyptian team. But the world junior champion loosened up after that and won in 4 games, 11-9 in the 4th.

Omneya Abdel Kawy bt Sunaya Kuruvilla: 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-2) – 18 min

Nour El Sherbini bt Joshna Chinappa: 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 15-13) – 34 min

Nouran Gohar bt Dipika Pallikal Karthik: 3-1 (4-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-9) – 39 min

Dr Samiha Aboul-Magd: “We’re happy with how we played, India is a very good team and we expected them to be seeded higher. It’s great for Nouran to win her first match in the senior team, she was strong mentally. We are surprised not to have any match on the glass court in the Pool stage. I hope the girls will get the opportunity to practice on it as soon as possible.“