Defending champion Declan James and home hero Danielle Letourneau
triumphed in their respective final clashes against Peruvian Diego
Elias and Japan’s Misaki Kobayashi to become the 2016 Nash Cup
champions at the London Squash and Fitness Club in Canada.
World No.39 James, who overcame Qatar’s Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi in
last year’s final, took the Men’s title after a series of assured
displays saw him down Jaymie Haycocks, Jan van den Herrewegen and
World No.50 Ben Coleman to set up a encounter with Elias, a two-time
World Junior Champion, in the final of the PSA M15 event.
In the pair’s first meeting on the PSA World Tour, Elias, who beat
Michael McCue, Andrew Schnell and Olli Tuominen en route to the
final, took an early lead in the opening game, before a determined
James battled back to build up a 1-0 advantage.
James eased to victory in game two to double his lead, but Elias
responded with a more patient approach, which paid immediate
dividends as the 19-year-old clawed the third game back for the loss
of two points, before claiming the fourth to level the scores and
set up a decider.
Nottingham-born James steadied himself at the outset of the fifth
game, with the 23-year-old storming 7-2 ahead, and he fended off
Elias’s attempts to work his way back into the match to close out an
11-9, 11-5, 2-11, 6-11, 11-6 victory, capturing his ninth PSA World
Tour title in the process.
"I’m feeling great, to be champion for a second year is amazing,"
said James.
"I hope that I can come back for the hat-trick. Tonight was so tough
against Diego, it was 90 minutes of attacking, hard squash. We are
both very young, so I hope this is the first of many battles on the
way to the top 10.
"It’s been an amazing week here in London, what an amazing club and
atmosphere. This is why all the players come back year after year
and more and more come. The hospitality is amazing here."
The Women’s PSA W10 title, meanwhile, ended up in the hands of
Calgary-based World No.65 Letourneau after a nail-biting clash with
third seed Kobayashi saw four of the five games go to dramatic
tie-breaks.
A 16-14 victory for Letourneau in game two, sandwiched by wins for
Kobayashi in the first and third games, left the player from Japan
on the cusp of victory as she aimed for a first PSA World Tour title
since June 2015.
But, with a vocal home crowd behind her, Letourneau battled back,
taking the fourth to restore parity before holding her nerve in a
climactic 18-16 tie-break victory in the fifth to claim her second
Tour title of the year.
"This is my biggest tournament win ever," said Letourneau, who also
beat compatriots Hollie Naughton and Samantha Cornett during the
event.
"It’s my first 10k victory, I am still in a bit of a daze at the
moment. Beating the number two, three and four seeds, including 2
Canadian ladies, is amazing. I was very focused the entire
tournament and just kept my head down and played squash.
"I am happy to have just ground it out at the end, it was obviously
one of those matches with basically every game a tie-break, so it
could go either way. I felt fine physically, even at the end, the
adrenaline and the crowd just kept me going. When there’s so much
energy from the crowd, you don’t even feel your body."
2016 Nash
Cup To Double Women’s Prize Money
2015 Finalists
The
2016 iteration of the Nash Cup will see a 100% increase in the
amount of prize money available in the Women’s event compared to
this year with a prize fund of $10,000 on offer for the first time
in the tournament’s history.
Held at the London Squash & Fitness Club in Ontario, Canada, the
tournament has seen a multi-national array of winners since it first
began with a Men’s tournament in 2008 and has grow to be the fifth
largest PSA World Tour event to be held in Canada this year.
A Women’s event was added in 2012, making the Nash Cup the only
Canadian tournament to feature both genders. Its new status as a PSA
W10 event means greater reward for the players and also an increase
in the amount of ranking points that are on offer.
The Nash Cup was last won by Declan James and Maria Toorpakai Wazir
in the Men’s and Women’s events, respectively and the 2016
instalment of the tournament takes place between Wednesday September
21 – Saturday September 24.