Kiwis Mens Squash Team Reaches World Champs Quarters

New Zealand is through to the last eight of the 2017 WSF Men’s World Team Squash Championship at Marseille, France for the first time in over 20 years.

The Kiwi team defeated Spain 2-0 in the last 16 with Campbell Grayson and Paul Coll winning their respective matches to set up a contest against Australia in the quarter-finals.

Grayson ranked 37th in the world beat Iker Pajares 11-8, 8-11 11-5 11-6 in 65 minutes while Coll the world No.9 from Greymouth was pushed hard in his match to eventually come away with a win over Borja Golan in 76 minutes 8-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-1.

New Zealand coach Kashif Shuja was wrapped with his teams result and how hard work over the past couple of years has paid off.

"It's a big deal for us to make the quarters because we hadn't reached that stage for more than 20 years. We've been working hard for the last three years and are definitely on a high at the moment, so this gives us an extra boost.

We've had six amazing days so far here, and the boys are confident and playing well. Yes, it was a very close tie against Spain, but we were expecting this, it's the World Championship after all! Paul's match could have gone either way and it's a shame that Borja got injured. Now we are playing Australia, who are our sporting rivals. They are seeded four and we are six, so it's a close one on paper and I expect it to be close on the court tomorrow,” said Shuja.

Australia are the tournament fourth seeds and are led by world No.16 Ryan Cuskelly with their second ranked player Cameron Pilley 19 in the world.

The last time New Zealand made the top eight at the tournament was in 1995 when they finished seventh.