England leap group-stage hurdles in Hong Kong

England qualified for the men's and women's last 16 at the 2024 WSF World Team Championships in Hong Kong after both teams finished top of their respective groups.

This year's championships, which are being played at Hong Kong Football Club from 9-15 December, mark a moment in squash history, with the men's and women's championships being contested simultaneously for the first time.

England's women had a disrupted build-up to the event when their no.1 Georgina Kennedy, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, sustained an injury and had to withdraw from the team. That led to a call-up for US-based Lucy Beecroft, who was midway through a flight back to New York when the call came, having been knocked out of last week's Milwaukee Hong Kong Open in the first round.

Beecroft swiftly boarded the next flight straight back and played her part in England's 3-0 victory over Korea in their first match in Group D on Monday morning. Team-mates Sarah-Jane Perry and Jasmine Hutton had both won in straight games against Mingyeong Heo and Hwayeong Eum respectively, leaving Beecroft to seal the whitewash with a brisk win of her own over Chae Won Song.

England's next match on Monday evening was a little tougher, with Perry having to dig deep to see off Canada's Commonwealth Games silver medallist Hollie Naughton 8-11 11-5 9-11 11-9 11-7. Jasmine Hutton sealed the victory with a rapid win over Nicole Bunyan thereafter, leaving Beecroft to make it 3-0 with a tight 11-6 10-12 11-6 12-10 triumph over Nikki Todd.

England's final group match was against Switzerland on Tuesday afternoon which Perry and Hutton again secured thanks to respective straight-games victories over Nadia Pfister and Maja Maziuk. Lucy Turmel made her first appearance of the event to make it a clean sweep with a 15-13 11-5 11-4 win over Stella Kaufmann.

As one of the top four seeds, England's women have a bye in the first round of the play-offs for positions 1-12 which means they have a rest day on Wednesday before Thursday's quarter-finals.

England coach Stuart Crawford said:

"Given the circumstances we were in a week ago, we're really pleased with the four girls who played across the first two days. They played professionally and took care of business. We expected the match with Canada to be one of the toughest of the pool stage. Sarah-Jane had a great win against Hollie Naughton and that took a little bit of the pressure off the other two girls."

There will be no rest for England's men on Wednesday after they topped Group B to set up a tie with Spain in the last 16 play-off first round. Whilst Tuesday's win over Nigeria saw Marwan ElShorbagy, Nathan Lake and Curtis Malik all coming through comfortably in straight games, there was a little more drama in the previous day's win over Canada.

Former world champion Mohamed ElShorbagy conquered world no.58 David Baillargeon in three games, but world no.36 Lake was drawn into a lengthy battle against Salaheldin Eltorgman which he lost 8-11 11-2 11-7 7-11 9-11. Malik, however, rescued the win via a 11-2 11-6 11-7 victory over Conor Turk.

Crawford said:

"Although it was a disappointing loss for Nathan, I thought he rebounded pretty well today. There were very professional performances from all of them and we were able to give Mohamed and Marwan one match each to keep them as fresh as possible."

On the task facing England against Spain on Wednesday, Crawford added:

"Spain have consistently been contenders at European level and Iker [Pajares] is a world top 25 player. He is a definite danger and they've got some good depth so we won't be taking them lightly. They need to be treated with respect and taken seriously. We're aware of the threat they possess."

You can find the results from the 2024 WSF World Team Championships here and follow the action live on SQUASHTV.