England’s Angus Gillams continued his fine form so far in 2016 with
a victory over New Zealand’s Martin Knight in the final of the JBM
Patrol Spring Classic, PSA M10 tournament seeing him lift his second
PSA World Tour title of the year.
Gillams knocked out the top seed and pre-tournament title favourite
Karim Ali Fathi in the quarter-final, which laid the groundwork for
an impressive surge to the final that also included a strong victory
over sixth seed Jan van den Herrewegen. Elsewhere, Knight just made
it past Pakistan’s Danish Atlas Khan in the last four after seeing a
two-game lead crumble, only to turn things around at the end.
The Englishman took the opening two games after a series of long,
arduous rallies that saw Gillams hold his nerve at the crucial
points to earn a 2-0 advantage.
Knight fought back hard in the third though, taking a commanding
lead that he refused to relinquish in order to claw a game back and
send the match into a dramatic fourth.
Gillams remained composed though and kept up his consistent hitting
in the final game to seal a 12-10, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8 win and capture
his third title in his best ever season on the PSA World Tour.
The opening round of the JBW Patrol Spring Classic, PSA M10
tournament saw all but one of the seeded players sail through to the
last eight of the event held in Madison, United States.
England’s Anthony Graham was the man who caused the discrepancy
after he bridged a 33-place gap in the World Rankings to defeat
World No.134 and number seven seed Josue Enriquez.
Graham will look to spring another surprise when he faces Martin
Knight in the second round following the New Zealander’s win over
Reuben Phillips.
The top two seeds, Karim Ali Fathi of Egypt and Pakistan’s Danish
Atlas Khan both had successes against Cameron Stafford and Ben
Coates, respectively, with Fathi recovering from a game down to win.
Fathi will take on Angus Gillams in the next round, while Khan goes
up against Mohohlo who progressed after an injury to Sunny Seth.
Elsewhere, World No.110 Jan van den Herrewegen brushed aside the
challenge of Danish wildcard Jonas Knigge Laursen with his
quarter-final opponent, Welshman Peter Creed, cementing his place in
the next round after disposing of Charlie Johnson 3-0.
