Despite the Opening Ceremony being held in the evening, competition started in earnest yesterday morning with the preliminary rounds in which both our men’s and ladies teams faced their Icelandic counterparts.

The ladies team had a very good start beating the Icelandic girls 3-0. The three girls showed superiority as they won all their matches 3-0.

Theresa Brousson scored an emphatic 3-0 win against Hildur Agusta Olafsdottir. Brousson was in complete command as she overpowered her opponent 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 to give Malta its first points.

In the next match it was the turn of Annabelle Olivieri Munroe to dominate her opponent, Dagny Ivarsdottir, as she won the encounter 11-8, 11-6, 12-10. That win was followed by another impressive performance by Diane Desira who also obtained a whitewash win over Rosa Jonsdottir 11-6, 11-4, 11-5.

These results confirmed that these Maltese girls stand a good chance of being on the podium at the end of the teams event, although it is still an early stage of the competition.

Commenting to The Malta Independent after the encouraging good start, Liz Said, president of Malta Squash, said they were obviously very happy. “We did well to win against Iceland. It was a 3-0 win with each of our three players winning their respective matches 3-0. We played some good squash and it gives us a lot of confidence in view of our future commitments. We have a finely balanced squad with some very good reserves. We should do well here,” she said.

Brousson also said it was a good start for the team. “Starting with a victory is always good. At first we had to get used to the courts which are somewhat different to those we play on at home. But when we settled down, we started playing better. Now we look forward to our next match against Monaco tomorrow. We are hopeful of getting more good results,” she said.

The Men’s team overcame a first match setback to register a convincing 4-1 win over Iceland in a match which took much longer to finish than the women’s match.

In the first match, Carl Camilleri, who was substituting the injured Michael Fiteni, lost 3-1 to Gunnar Thordasson (8-11, 6-11, 12-10, 5-11).

Marc Lupi was the first to win a match for the Malta men’s team against Iceland, as he levelled the score at 1-1. He beat Thorbjorn Jonsson 11-5, 9-11, 11-4, 11-9.

After his win, Lupi said: “It was not that easy. In fact, it was tough all the way. But after settling down, I think I got the upper hand. I believe we have a good squad and can go all the way. Our main and toughest obstacles should be Liechtenstein and Luxembourg. But we are confident of making more progress.”

Bradley Hindle Deguara then beat Robert Halldorsson convincingly 3-0 (11-5, 11-1, 11-3) to give Malta a 2-1 lead and that was followed by two more wins in the final two matches which were played simultaneously. On one court, Joe Desira beat Haldor Magnusson 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 12-10, 11-5), while on the other court, Daniel Zammit Lewis defeated Kim Magnus Nilson 11-6, 11-8, 12-10.