KUALA LUMPUR: A bizarre screw-up by Egypt could put Malaysia in a perilous situation at the World Junior Squash Championships in Houston, United States.
Defending champions and top seeds Egypt "forgot" to submit their team line-up for a Group A match against joint-13th seeds South Africa yesterday. As a result, Egypt lost 2-1, and most likely will end up second in Group A and meet Group B winners Malaysia in the last 16.
Yesterday, "team list-less" Egypt could only field two players instead of three players under competition rules. This had left South Africa needing only to win one match, and they did just that.
Under the situation, Egypt opted to give up their world junior champion Mohamed Zakaria's match, and fielded Omar Azzam and Marwan Assal instead.
Marwan beat South Africa's Connor Earl 11-5, 12-10, 11-4, but Omar lost 10-12, 11-7, 11-13, 11-8, 11-9 to Luhann Groenewald. And Judah Phillips was given an 11-0, 11-0, 11-0 win without lifting his racquet.
This has unexpectedly put second seeds Malaysia on course for a last-16 tie against mighty Egypt who should advance as Group A runners-up with a win over Switzerland.
Malaysia team manager Major (rtd) S. Maniam said: "If South Africa beat Switzerland, then they top the group while Egypt will finish runners-up. We will face the full squad of Egypt in the next round."
Malaysia topped Group B with two wins after outplaying Spain 3-0 on Thursday and beating Hong Kong 3-0 yesterday.
Low Wa Sern started the ball rolling by beating Justin Cheng 11-4, 11-5, 11-1, and Harith Danial Jefri got the winning point after outplaying Tsz Shing Tam 11-4, 11-2, 11-5. M. Nickhileswar completed the rout with a 11-5, 11-8, 1-5 win over Wing Kuen Wong.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian girls won their second Group C match by outplaying South Africa 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals with a match in hand against Canada.
Whitney Isabelle Wilson beat Elzandri Janse Van Rensburg 11-7, 11-7, 11-1; U. Thanussa beat Dene Van Zyl 11-0, 11-8, 11-1 and Doyce Lee beat Bianke Pienaar 11-8, 11-6, 11-8.