New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson avenged his final defeat in last
year’s Qualico Manitoba Open, PSA M15 tournament by beating
England’s Nathan Lake in the final of the 2016 instalment to lift
the crown.
The experienced World No.44 came into the final with fresh legs
after his semi-final opponent, Chris Hanson, retired, while Lake
achieved a highly impressive victory over second seed Karim Ali
Fathi, an opponent ranked 34 places above him in the world rankings.
Grayson eased into a one-game lead after dominating the ’T’ and gave
Lake very little to work with as his consistency, built up over a
13-year career, came to the fore.
A determined Lake refused to give up though and he made the most of
his superb ability at the front of the court to level proceedings
courtesy of an 11-8 triumph in the second game.
Fatigue appeared to be setting in to Lake’s legs in the third as
Grayson powered back ahead and, despite an attempted comeback from
Lake in the fourth and final game, Grayson held firm to record an
11-8, 8-11, 11-3, 11-9 victory.
Canadian duo Shawn Delierre and Andrew Schnell, the country’s number
one and two ranked players, respectively, were cheered on by a
partizan home crowd in Winnipeg, Canada as they both achieved first
round victories in the Qualico Manitoba Open, PSA M15 tournament.
World No.53 Delierre went up against Nigeria’s Babatunde Ajagbe in
the opening round and secured comfortable passage into the
quarter-final after taking the victory in straight games courtesy of
an 11-5, 13-11, 11-7 triumph.
The 33-year-old’s reward is a quarter-final clash against Nathan
Lake after the Englishman defeated wildcard Matthew Serediak 3-0.
Schnell, on the other hand, was made to work hard for his victory as
he overturned a 2-1 deficit against experienced New Zealander Martin
Knight to set up a next round meeting against second seed Karim Ali
Fathi who disposed of Canadian qualifier David Baillargeon.
Elsewhere, tournament favourite Alfredo Avila came out on top of his
encounter with Eric Galvez in an all-Mexican affair and will face
Chris Hanson in a last-eight showdown after the American defeated
Joe Chapman.
Christopher Gordon and Campbell Grayson will meet in the round’s
other fixture thanks to respective wins over Nick Sachvie and
Leandro Romiglio.
