England's men survive scare to topple spain

England's men survived a scare in the last 16 of the 2024 WSF World Team Championships in Hong Kong on Wednesday as they battled back from an early deficit in a tense victory over Spain.

Deep into the evening session at Hong Kong Football Club, England's former world no.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy fell to a 11-6 11-8 11-1 defeat against Spanish top string Iker Pajares, the world no.25.

That put pressure on Curtis Malik, who was next on court, and the 26-year-old's match with Edmon Lopez developed into a tense duel. After the opening two games were shared, Malik was 9-6 down in the third but rallied to close out the game. The fourth went to a long, tension-filled tiebreak which the Sussex player eventually claimed to close out a 11-6 9-11 11-9 17-15 victory, which levelled the match.

That left Mohamed's younger brother Marwan to finish the job against Ivan Perez which he duly did 11-5 11-5 11-7, prompting relief from the England bench.

The five-time winners will now face Hong Kong, China in the quarter-finals on Thursday at 7.30pm local time (11.30am UK time) after the host nation defeated USA 2-1 thanks to victories for Henry Leung and Ming Hong Tang.

Malik, the world no.35, said on his crucial victory:

"Obviously, there's a few thoughts going through your head because you know if you lose, you're out of the tournament, but my mindset was to keep really positive and not let the scoreboard distract me from what I needed to do on court.

"It's more of a relief than anything, just getting the team back on the scoreboard. It was getting really physically tough in that fourth game, so I was proud to get the team back in the match.

Malik said:

"The spirit in the camp is amazing. It's an absolute pleasure to be part of the team with Mohamed, Marwan, Nathan [Lake], Stuart [Crawford] and Nick [Matthew). They are all really supportive guys. I grew up watching a lot of them so to be part of this team is really special to me."

Having qualified top of their group on Tuesday, England's women received a bye through the last 16 as one of the top four seeds, so had a rest day on Wednesday. They will play Malaysia in the quarter-finals on Thursday at 12pm local time (4am UK).

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