German World No.10 Simon Rösner upset number one seed Tarek Momen in a
dramatic 3-2 victory to take home the 2014 ReidBuilt Homes Edmonton
Open, PSA International 35 title.
Rösner knocked out best-friend and Swiss national champion Nicolas
Mueller in the semi-final in a hard-fought 3-1 to set up the title
decider with Momen, who conquered Adrian Waller in an emphatic 3-0
performance in his semi-final.
Despite Momen coming into the final fresher, it was Rösner who started
brighter, taking the first game 11-8 to get off to a positive start. But
Momen struck back to level the match with a dominant 11-4 performance in
the second game.
Momen continued his revival into the third game and stormed into an
emphatic 8-1 lead. Rösner mounted a comeback of sorts but could only
fall to an 11-7 loss and it then looked as though Momen would run away
with the match after opening up a 9-6 lead in the fourth game, but
Rösner showed incredible fortitude to keep to his game plan and take a
tense tie-break to send the match into a fifth and final game.
Momen and Rosner, ranked number nine and ten in the world respectively,
were evenly matched throughout the encounter and the fifth game opened
in much the same style until two tinned shots from Momen gave Rosner a
6-3 lead and the German capitalised, using all his strength to see out
the match with an 11-6 win in the fifth game.
Seeds
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All four top seeds survived their opening encounters at the ReidBuilt
Homes Edmonton Open, PSA International 35 tournament in Canada,
successfully battling past their opponents and the -20 degree
temperatures outside the Royal Glenora Club.
Number one seed Tarek Momen, the World No.9, was forced to use all his
unpredictable racket skills and experience to see off the challenge of
2014 World Junior Champion Diego Elias, taking five games to get past
the the 18-year-old.
After speeding out to an early one game lead, Momen could have been
forgiven for thinking he would have an easy time against the World
No.52, but Elias showed all his potential to turnaround the match and
take a 2-1 lead to force Momen onto the ropes, but he used all his
experience to level the match and grind out a well-earned victory.
Momen will now face England's Eddie Charlton in the quarter-finals,
after he saw off Wildcard Dane Sharp, while Adrian Waller and Rex
Hedrick will contest the second quarterfinal in the top half of the
draw.
In the bottom half of the draw, second seeded World No.10 Simon Rösner
booked his place in the second round with a straightforward 3-0 win over
Shawn Delierre and remains on course to meet number three seed, and
close friend, Nicolas Mueller in the semi-finals.
Mueller had no trouble against Carlos Cornes in his opening encounter
and will face England's Tom Richards, conqueror of compatriot Jaymie
Haycocks, in the first round.
