Gregory Gaultier notched up the 22nd PSA World Tour squash title of his career at the inaugural Abierto Mexicano de Raquetas - but the Frenchman's 21-minute victory over world No11 Omar Mosaad in Mexico was his quickest title triumph on record, by a significant margin.
The PSA International 70 championship is the biggest Tour event ever to be held in Mexico - and was staged in spectacular style on an all-glass court sited in the Plaza de los Martires in Toluca, overlooked by the city's historic cathedral.
RESULTS: PSA International 70 Abierto Mexicano de Raquetas, Toluca, Mexico
Egypt Deny India World Cup
Under-21 Triumph In Chennai
: 06/02/2012
In a dramatic clash which went the full distance, favourites Egypt eventually overcame surprise opponents India 2/1 in the final of the SDAT WSF Under-21 World Cup to deny the hosts a historic first world title in the inaugural World Squash Federation event before an ecstatic crowd at the Express Avenue Mall in Chennai.
It was a tall order for India in the opening match where team number one Ravi Dixit, ranked 183 in the world, faced Egypt's world No33 Marwan El Shorbagy, the highest-ranked man in the tournament.
But El Shorbagy, still only 18, stamped his authority to win 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7 in 58 minutes - and put Egypt into the lead.
But the match of the championship then followed - in which the star of Indian squash Dipika Pallikal, the highest-ranked woman in the event, faced Egyptian rival Nour El Sherbini.
Chennai born-and-bred Pallikal took the opening game, but to the dismay of the crowd, Sherbini won the next two to move ahead.
The Egyptian maintained her control of the match to march on to match-ball at 10-6. But Pallikal was not about to concede and, urged on by the exuberant crowd, clawed her way back into the game - saving four match-balls to draw level.
The crowd erupted - shouting and screaming more than ever before - and it as some time before the local heroine was able to resume play. Twice more Sherbini moved to within a single point of the title - and twice Pallikal fought back before finally converting her own first game ball - having saved six match-balls - to win the game 14-12.
With crowd scenes and screams rarely witnessed before at a squash event, Pallikal returned to the court inspired. After losing two points from 8-3 up, she returned the next serve into the nick, delivered a delicate back hand drop shot again into the nick before winning the third on a no let to claim a sensational 11-7, 4-11, 8-11, 14-12, 11-5 victory after 74 long minutes.
Later, the Indian champion who is now coached by Australian legend Sarah Fitz-Gerald, admitted that the match had been her toughest of all-time. "I spoke to Sarah this morning and I knew she'd be watching - and all I could think about, when I was match-ball down, was what would I tell her when we next spoke.
"She had told me to keep going until the very end - the game's not over until somebody wins - and that's where I got my strength and confidence," explained Pallikal.
"And I didn't want to lose in front of my family and friends."
With the crowd now sensing a shock victory, the semi-final hero Ramit Tandon took to the court to face Egypt's Karim Abdel Gawad in the decider.
Gawad, a 20-year-old ranked 42 in the world, took the first game after a tie-break and then moved 2/0 ahead. But spurred on by the increasingly noisy crowd, Kolkata-born Tandon - ranked almost 300 places below his opponent - battled hard and took the third game to reduce the deficit.
But as the Egyptian reclaimed the advantage in the fourth, the crowd became more muted until Gawad eventually clinched his third match-ball to win 12-10, 11-4, 6-11, 11-8 after 67 minutes to earn the title for Egypt.
"It was a quality match for both sides - but I'm happy we did it for the second time," said Egyptian coach Amir Wagih, making reference to his country's victory almost 12 months earlier in the senior World Cup in Chennai.
RESULTS:
Final:
[1] EGYPT bt [4] INDIA 2/1 Marwan El Shorbagy bt Ravi Dixit 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-7 (58m)
Nour El Sherbini lost to Dipika Pallikal 7-11, 11-4, 11-8, 12-14, 5-11 (74m)
Karim Abdel Gawad bt Ramit Tandon 12-10, 11-4, 6-11, 11-8 (67m)
Semi-finals:
[1] EGYPT bt [2] ENGLAND 2/1
[4] INDIA bt [3] FRANCE 2/1 Ravi Dixit lost to Lucas Serme 6-11, 11-8, 6-11, 7-11 (65m)
Dipika Pallikal bt Chloe Mesic 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 (26m)
Ramit Tandon bt Geoffrey Demont 11-5, 6-11, 11-2, 14-12 (57m)
5th - 8th place play-offs:
Round robin RESULTS:
[4] INDIA bt [5] AUSTRALIA 3/0 Ravi Dixit bt Jamie McErvale 11-4, 11-3, 10-12, 11-9 (58m)
Dipika Pallikal bt Sarah Cardwell 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 (42m)
Ramit Tandon bt Walter Koteka 11-1, 11-2, 11-4 (17m)
2nd qualifying rounds:
[1] EGYPT bt [4] INDIA 3/0 Marwan El Shorbagy bt Ravi Dixit 11-7, 6-11, 11-4, 12-10 (44m)
Nour El Sherbini bt Anaka Alankamony 11-6, 11-3, 11-7 (25m)
Karim Abdel Gawad bt Karan Malik 3-11, 11-9, 11-0, 11-3 (31m)
Pool B:
1st qualifying rounds:
[4] INDIA bt [8] GERMANY 3/0 Ramit Tandon bt Rudi Rohrmuller 11-2, 11-5, 12-10 (45m)
Dipika Pallikal bt Franziska Hennes 11-2, 11-4, 11-7 (20m)
Karan Malik bt Valentin Rapp 11-8, 11-6, 11-4 (33m)
Khalifa, the 17-year-old
world No.94 from Cairo beat sixth-seeded Aditya Jagtap (IND) 11-5, 11-2,
11-2 at the quarterfinals of World Junior Championship at Quito, Ecuador
Former World Number 10 Borja Golan beat
25th seeded Saurav Ghosal in the first round of the
$327,500 Saudi PSA World Open Squash Championship
richest ever event on the PSA World Tour at Sunset Beach
Resort in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Khobar.
Spaniard Golan is a former world No10 making a comeback
after a long layoff following a knee injury - and had to
play at his best to overcome the new world No25 in 53
minutes.
Earlier he beat another Indian Siddharth
Suchde in the qualifying round.
Nicol
David & Nick Matthew Strike Gold in World Games Squash
Championships.
Favourites Nick Matthew and Nicol David secured the gold medals in the
World Games Squash championships after straight games victories in the
men's and women's finals, respectively, at the Chung Cheng Martial
Arts Stadium in the Chinese Taipei city of Kaohsiung.
The
finals, both of which featured the events' top two seeds, brought to a
climax the Squash competition in the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games - the
eighth edition of the multi-sport event, staged under the patronage of
the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which featured over 4,000
athletes competing in more than 30 sports not currently on the
programme of the Olympic Games.
Final
Scores:
Men's final:
[1]
Nick Matthew (GBR) bt [2] James Willstrop (GBR) 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 (42m)
Fifth seed Waller, a 19-year-old left-hander from
Enfield, made his breakthrough in the quarter-finals by upsetting India's
fourth seed Harinder Pal Sandhu. Quarter-finals:
[5] Adrian Waller (ENG) bt [4] Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) 9-11, 11-9, 11-5,
11-3 1st round: [4] Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) bt
Alex Ingham (ENG) 11-5, 7-11, 14-12, 7-11, 11-9
Ritwik Bhattacharya loses in
quarters at Roma Est Open, Rome.
Defending champion Mark Krajcsak had to fight back from
two games down to beat fifth seed Ritwik Bhattacharya in
the Roma Est Open to earn his anticipated place in the
semi-finals of the $10,000 PSA World Tour squash event
in its second year at the Shopping Centre
Third-seeded
Victoria Lust of England defeated India’s Dipika Pallikal, the top seed,
in the semifinals and eventually went on to win the title in the $4,000
McWil Courtwall Austrian women’s squash open, a WISPA event in Vienna.
Even
though Dipika fought all the way and perhaps played one of the longest
matches (19-21) in the first game and made it 2-2. But in the last
match she lost 11-6.
The
top seeded Indian defeated Sandra Polak of Austria 11-4, 11-1, 11-5 in the
first match.
In
the quarterfinals, Dipika beat the German girl Sina Wall 12-10, 11-4, 12-10
to set up a semifinal clash with third seeded Victoria Lust of England.
Gaurav Nandrajog the 6th seeded lost 1-3 to 3rd seeded
Luca Mastrostefano (Ita) in PSA Festina Open at the
Sporting Club Milano in Basiglio, Milan, Italy.
In the first round he won against unseeded Marco Vercesi
of Italy very easily 11/5, 11/3, 11/7 in 22 minutes.
But in the quarters he lost to Luca Mastrostefano
after being 1-1. But the Italian had upper hand in the
other 2 games thus winning the game by 11/3, 7/11, 11/7,
11/8.
Saurav
Ghosal in qualifying finals held
at St George's LT & SC, Weybridge, England
The
30-year-old from Aix-en-Provence became the sole French qualifier after
compatriot Julien Balbo bowed out to India’s Saurav Ghosal.
The11-7, 11-2, 11-1 victory takes the 23-year-old from Calcutta into
the Saudi main draw for the first time.
