England’s Joe Green lifted the first PSA World Tour title of his
career after an impressive four-game victory over Bermudan fourth
seed Micah Franklin in the final of the BTMI Barbados Open, PSA M5
tournament held in Christchurch.
Green had displayed some of his best squash in the earlier stages of
the event, and surged past Spencer Lovejoy in the opening round,
before going on to defeat compatriot Lewis Doughty and Mexico’s
Fernando Magdaleno in the quarter-final and semi-final,
respectively. Franklin, meanwhile, scored victories over Richard
Chin, Antonio de la Torre and English qualifier Laurence Green to
ensure that he would take on Green in the duo’s first meeting on the
PSA World Tour.
The opening game was played at a fast and furious pace, with long,
punishing rallies playing out at the Barbados Squash Club. Green was
in the ascendancy for the majority of the early stages and, despite
Franklin recovering from 9-5 down to level things up, Green held out
to establish a 1-0 lead.
Franklin clawed the second game back though after slowing the pace
down and mixing lob shots and drops intelligently to overturn two
game balls, before tiring in the third as a number of unforced
errors allowed Green to narrowly regain his lead.
Sensing his opponent’s fatigue, Green increased the tempo in the
fourth game to put Franklin under pressure at every opportunity. The
man from Watford led from start to finish and he closed out an 11-9,
10-12, 11-9, 11-6 triumph to seal his maiden PSA World Tour crown.
A single local player advanced past the final qualifying stage of
the BTMI Barbados Open, PSA M5 tournament as Rhett Cumberbatch
overcame brother Khamal to seal his place in the main draw on home
soil.
Rhett had the better of the opening two games as he powered into the
lead and, despite conceding the third game, held out to wrap up an
11-7, 13-11, 7-11, 11-7 victory which will see him take on Jamaica’s
Julian Morrison in the opening round of the main draw.
“It was tough, but I think that we both played well,” said Rhett.
“I feel that I played well throughout the match and remained focused
until the end. I’m excited and glad to be going through to the next
round.”
Josiah Griffith was another of the local players in action in the
final round of qualifying, but he fell to England’s Laurence Green
in a narrow 3-1 defeat.
Green, the top qualifying seed, went two games ahead before Griffith
clawed the third back courtesy of a tie-break. Green soon found
himself back on top though and dropped just two points in the third
game to a main draw meeting with Spencer Lovejoy of the United
States.
Elsewhere, second qualifying sed Jules Snagg and Richard Chin earned
their places in the main draw after they defeated Mark Sealy and
Calvin McCafferty, respectively, with Chin and McCafferty’s
encounter seeing an incredible 21-19 scoreline in game two.
Snagg’s reward is an encounter with the main draw’s number two seed
Cameron Stafford, while Chin is set to line up against Bermuda’s
Micah Franklin.
“I felt in control and tried to get accustomed to the court,” Snagg
said.
“I felt like I played well, hit my marks and had my opponent under
pressure. I’m very confident, I’ve been training for the last six
months and I’m looking forward to great things.
