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18/01/2010
ZANTREX-3 SALT LAKE OPEN
Salazar Stuns Koukal For Salt Lake City Title
Salt Lake City
Open 2010
11-16 Jan, Utah, USA, $10k |
Round One
13 Jan |
Quarters
14 Jan |
Semis
15 Jan |
Final
16 Jan |
[1] Stephane Galifi (Ita)
11-7, 11-13, 11-9, 11-5 (44m)
Peter Creed (Wal) |
Stephane Galifi
5-11, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6 (71m)
Cesar Salazar |
Cesar Salazar
11-6, 11-8, 11-5 (45m)
Max Lee |
Cesar Salazar
11-9, 11-8, 2-11, 10-12, 11-8
(82m)
Jan Koukal |
[5] Cesar Salazar (Mex)
3/0
[Q] Adam Murrils (Eng) |
[4] Bernardo Samper (Col)
3/1
Jens Schoor (Ger) |
Bernardo Samper
11-8, 16-18, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 (70m)
Max Lee |
[7] Max Lee (Hkg)
3/2
Lekgotla Mosope (Bot) |
Erik Tepos (Mex)
[6] Chris Gordon (Usa) |
Chris Gordon
11-4, 11-9, 11-3 (27m)
Grégoire Marche |
Grégoire Marche
11-6, 11-8, 11-5 (45m)
Jan Koukal |
Grégoire Marche (Fra)
3/1
[3] Scott Arnold (Aus) |
Manoel Pereira (Bra)
12-10, 3-11, 11-9, 14-12
[8] Dick Lau (Hkg) |
Manoel Pereira
11-4, 11-6, 11-5 (33m)
Jan Koukal |
[Q] Alfredo Avila
(Mex)
11-5, 9-11, 11-5, 11-3 (44m)
[2] Jan Koukal (Cze) |
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Salazar Stuns Koukal For Salt Lake City
Title
Fifth-seeded Mexican
Cesar Salazar twice upset the form book to win the inaugural Zantrex-3
International at Squashworks in Salt Lake City, USA.
The 22-year-old from San
Luis Potosi made his breakthrough in the quarter-finals of the $10,000 PSA
World Tour squash event, where he upset top-seeded Italian Stephane
Galifi in five games.
Salazar faced second seed
Jan Koukal in the final, and battled for 82 minutes to overcome the Czech
number one 11-9, 11-8, 2-11, 10-12, 11-8 to secure his maiden PSA Tour title.
Following Report courtesy of Craig Bennett in Utah
The quarterfinals Zantrex-3 International Professional Squash Tournament were
held thursday evening with four very entertaining matches.
The first match of the night ended in an upset with Cesar Salazar of Mexico
taking down the number one seed Stephane Galifi from Italy. Clearly, Salazar was
more comfortable on the Salt Lake City courts than Galifi. Throughout the match,
Galifi was having trouble keeping up with pace. The match went back and forth
with each player alternating games. The final score: 5-11, 11-4, 11-9, 7-11,
11-6 (71 minutes).
The second match of the evening was a really long match between Max Lee of Hong
Kong and Bernardo Samper of Columbia. Lee prevailed 3-2 in 70 minutes. The
second game was the game of the tournament so far with Samper prevailing 18-16.
During the game no player was able to gain more a two point advantage. Samper
seemed to have full control of the match when he also took game 3, 11-7, to go
up 2-1 in games; however, to Lee's credit he fought back and won the next two
games and the match: 11-8, 16-18, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 (70 minutes)
The third match saw Gregoire Marche from France beat Christopher Gordon of the
USA in 27 minutes. Marche used his quickness and athleticism to keep Gordon
behind the pace all match. The second game was very close, tied at 9-9, but an
unlucky bounce for Gordon followed by a careless tin left the American in a big
hole down two games. He never recovered and Marche moved impressively into the
semi finals: 11-4, 11-9, 11-3 (27 minutes).
The final match of the night saw the young Brazilian qualifier Manoel Pereira
dismantled by the number two seed Jan Koukal from the Czech Republic. Koukal, a
very smooth and deceptive player, forced Pereira to work extremely hard to stay
in the rallies. Pereira was game but he was still feeling the stress of his
first round upset of Dick Lau. Koukal smartly kept the rallies going without
making errors. The final score: 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 (33 minutes).
The semi-finals are now set:
Cesar Salazar
vs.
Max Lee
and
Gregoire Marche
vs.
Jan Koukal
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