Squash Player Sets Record For Longest Ever
Match Then Wins Title
#PSAWorldTour
24-year-old
Leo Au, the World No.33 from Hong Kong, broke the record for
the longest professional squash match ever recorded en-route
to claiming the ninth PSA World Tour title of his career at
the Holtrand Gas City Pro-Am 2015 in Canada.
Au lifted the trophy following a tough 85-minute battle
against Malaysian Muhd Asyraf Azan, coming from 2-1 down to
win 3-2, in a dramatic victory that came less than 24 hours
after he won the longest match ever recorded - a mammoth
170-minute encounter against Canadian Shawn Delierre, the
World No.54, in the semi-finals.
It was a match that eclipsed the previous record set
32-years ago by legendary Pakistani six-time world champion
Jahangir Khan, who took 166-minutes to get past Gamal Awad
in the 1983 Chichester Festival in the era of
‘hand-in-hand-out’ scoring.
With the fifth game, which went to 16-14, lasting an
incredible 78-minutes alone the victory saw Au, who stands
at 5ft 4, complete a total of over 300-minutes on court
during the four-day tournament, averaging 75-minutes-plus
per day as he stormed to the title, earn his place in the
annals of sporting history in the process.
"It was a tough week for me because I'm physically and
mentally exhausted after the tournament," said Au.
"I'm really happy to win this match against Shawn. In the
fifth game neither of us ever had a big lead, it was 1-1,
2-2, 3-3 and always very tight.
"When we got to the tie-break I don't think anyone could
tell who would win in that situation because both of us were
tired and we were still pushing hard for each point.
Fortunately, I managed to finish the match at 16-14!
"I was physically very tired in the final but I just fought
for each point and didn't think much about other things. I'm
happy that my fitness lasted until the end and that I was
able to stay focused during the match."
PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough said: "The fact that Leo not
only won his 170-minute match against Shawn, but then
followed it up by winning the final in 85-minutes, with less
than 24 hours recovery, is testament to the kind of physical
conditioning that is par for the course on the PSA World
Tour at present.
"In sports like premier league football players are lauded
for completing two 90-minute matches inside seven days while
we are regularly seeing players backing up from 60-minute
plus battles on a daily basis at all events, from the
Challenger level all the way through to World Series,
demonstrating the supreme fitness levels that are required
to play squash at the highest standard and the players
deserve all the credit for the efforts they put in."
Results: Holtrand Gas City Pro-AM
Final
[1] Leo Au (HKG) bt [4]
Muhd Asyraf Azan (MAS) 3-2: 11-7, 6-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-5
[85m]
