However, Egypt suffered a huge reverse as newly-crowned world champion, 13-year old Nour El Shebini crashed to a stunning straight games defeat against Amanda Sobhy.

In the third singles, the experienced Nour El Tayeb held her nerves to beat Julie Cerullo and put Egypt in the final. In fact, Cerullo was not scheduled to play originally, but the USA team inadvertently kept her name in the team list as their No.3 player.

The results (semi-finals):

1-Egypt beat 5-USA 2-1 (Heba El Torky beat Olivia Blatchford 11-5, 11-6, 13-15, 11-7; Nour El Sherbini lost to Amanda Sobhy 6-11, 6-11, 8-11; Nour El Tayeb beat Julie Cerullo 11-6, 11-5, 11-4).

6-Hong Kong China beat 2-India 2-1 (Tsz Ling Liu lost to Dipika Pallikal 4-11, 12-10, 8-11, 6-11; Tsz Wing Tong beat Anwesha Reddy 12-10, 11-8, 11-6; Carmel Lee beat Surbhi Mishra 11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9).

Playoffs:

For 5-8 positions: England beat Malaysia 2-0; Canada beat New Zealand 2-0. For 9-12 positions: France beat Australia 2-1; Germany beat South Africa 2-1. For 13-16 positions: The Netherlands beat Spain 3-0; Denmark beat Sweden 2-1.