Pakistan beat Egypt 2-1 in the final to win the World Junior Squash Championship in Poland on Wednesday.
The title brought an end to Egypt’s dominance as they had did hat-trick of titles by winning the last three editions.
It was a surprising start for Pakistan when the top-seeds clashed as Israr Ahmad came out on top against Saadeldin Abouaish to win a closely-fought match 3-0 with scores of 11-9, 11-9 and 11-9.
All three games went almost point for point, but Israr managed to find a way to take crucial leads in all three – leading 10-7 in the first before winning it 11-9, taking the last two points from 9-all in the second, and agonisingly for the Egyptians, again pulling clear from 7-all in the third to take another 11-9.
SP_19126Youssef Ibrahim levelled the tie for Egypt, after letting a good lead lip in the first games, a determined comeback from Ayaz Ashan falling just short as Ibrahim took the lead 13-11. Ibrahim led 9-6 in the second too, but this time the Pakistani made good his comeback, levelling the match 13-11.
With the game evenly poised at 1-1, Abbas Shoukat defeated Marwan Tarek 3-1 in the decider to help Pakistan reclaim the crown after 2008.
However, Egypt were able to draw parity with Youssef Ibrahim, piping Ayaz Ahsan 3-1 in a 47-minute battle with overall scores of 13-11, 11-13, 11-5 and 11-6.
