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LONDON In a remarkable upset, 11th seeds South Africa beat sixth seeds and six-time champions Pakistan to finish as winners of Pool 'F' of the 22nd Men's World Team squash championship in the city of Odense in Denmark.
On the other hand, Kuwait and Scotland earned unexpected places in the last sixteen play-offs after wins over Hong Kong and Venezuela, respectively, according to a media release of the World Squash Federation.
It was a powerful performance from South Africa which came from behind to beat a strong Pakistan team led by world No.14 Aamir Atlas Khan.
Clinton Leeuw began the rout, recovering from 1-2 down to beat Pakistan's Yasir Butt, ranked more than 40 places higher in the world, 11-8, 9-11, 6-11, 11-5, 11-8.
But it was Stephen Coppinger who claimed the biggest scalp, the world No. 57, battling to a 10-12, 2-11, 11-9, 11-1, 12-10 win in 55 minutes over Aamir Atlas.
Farhan Mehboob restored some pride in the Pakistani squad with a straight games win over the now retired South African stalwart Rodney Durbach.
In Pool 'H', ninth seed India suffered 1-2 defeat against the eighth seed Italy and were banished to the play-offs.—APP
