France beat Pakistan at world team event

There is still room for improvement, says national squash coach Gul.

KARACHI: Hosts France humbled Pakistan 3-0 in their Pool C match to move into the last-16 phase of the WSF Men’s World Team Championship in Mulhouse.

Pakistan will now have to beat Netherlands in order to progress to the next stage otherwise they will be out of the title race.

Thierry Lincou thrashed Farhan Zaman in straight sets with game scores of 11-7, 11-2, 11-1, while Mathieu Castagnet won 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 against Farhan Mehboob.

Gregory Gaultier then rounded off a perfect win for the hosts by defeating Nasir Iqbal with a score line of 11-8, 11-8, 11-5 in 41 minutes.

“I’m very pleased overall with the team’s performance, they did the job,” said French national coach Renan Lavigne.

“We have a lot of respect for Pakistan, which is why we put out our strongest team. Lincou gave us a great start and Castagnet put in a good performance but I must say Mehboob has great racquet skills and is certainly top-20 material.”

Meanwhile, head coach Jamshed Gul said that Pakistan will try to do well in the must win game against the Dutch.

“We still have one game so I’m hopeful that we’ll do well against the Netherlands to move into the pre quarter-finals,” Gul told The Express Tribune.

“France are a very strong team and it reflects on the scores but there is always room for improvement.”

Meanwhile, the Netherlands beat Russia 3-0 in the other match of the group.

Other important matches saw Egypt wrap up an easy straight-games win against Scotland in Pool A while England overcame Canada in pool B.

In pool D, Australia breezed to a 3-0 win against Mexico whereas Malaysia fended off a challenge from New Zealand for a hard fought 3-0 victory.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2013.