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Open du
Gard, Nimes, France
Farag Claims
Open Du Gard Glory In France
Fresh from his
success earlier in the month in the British Junior U19 Open, Egypt's
Ali Farag battled to unexpected success in the Open du Gard to win
the first PSA World Tour squash title of the New Year in Nimes,
France.
The third seed
from Cairo made his breakthrough in the semi-finals where he downed England's
top seed Shaun le Roux in straight games.
In the final
of the new Challenger event - the first in the new PSA World Tour event
structure for 2011 in which only one in four players is seeded - 18-year-old
Farag faced German qualifier Raphael Kandra.
While Farag
was celebrating his second appearance in a Tour final, it marked Kandra's debut.
But the
Cairo-based teenager was too strong for the 20-year-old German, winning 11-9,
11-7, 11-2 in 31 minutes.
Farag was
celebrating his first Tour triumph - and also maintaining an Egyptian grip on
the trophy after the 2010 title was won by the now world junior champion Amr
Khaled Khalifa.
1st round:
[1] Shaun le Roux (ENG) bt Johan Bouquet (FRA) 11-4, 11-3, 11-3
(38m)
Joan Lezaud (FRA) bt Khawaja Adil Maqbool (PAK) 8-11, 11-7, 11-3,
9-11, 11-4 (49m)
Jonathan Harford (ENG) bt Fabien Verseille (FRA) 11-8, 11-9, 4-11,
11-0 (41m)
[3] Ali Farag (EGY) bt Florent Pontiere (FRA) 11-8, 11-3, 9-11,
11-4 (28m)
[Q] Geoffrey Demont (FRA) bt [4] Tom Pashley (ENG) 9-11, 11-2,
11-5 ret. (22m)
[Q] Raphael Kandra (GER) bt [Q] Michelangelo Bertocchi (ITA) 11-7,
11-5, 9-11, 11-4 (37m)
[Q] Lucas Serme (FRA) bt Andrea Torricini (ITA) 11-8, 10-12,
15-13, 11-8 (64m)
[2] Robbie Temple (ENG) bt Ben Ford (ENG) 4-11, 11-6, 11-4, 11-8
(51m)
Quarter-finals:
[1] Shaun le Roux (ENG) bt Joan Lezaud (FRA) 11-5, 9-11, 11-4,
11-8 (53m)
[3] Ali Farag (EGY) bt Jonathan Harford (ENG) 11-8, 3-11, 11-4,
15-13 (55m)
[Q] Raphael Kandra (GER) bt [Q] Geoffrey Demont (FRA) 11-5, 11-6,
11-4 (21m)
[Q] Lucas Serme (FRA) bt [2] Robbie Temple (ENG) 11-6, 12-10,
12-10 (32m)
Semi-finals:
[3] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [1] Shaun le Roux (ENG) 11-6, 11-7, 11-8
(31m)
[Q] Raphael Kandra (GER) bt [Q] Lucas Serme (FRA) 11-13, 11-7,
11-4, 11-4 (44m)
Final:
[3] Ali Farag (EGY) bt [Q] Raphael Kandra (GER) 11-9, 11-7, 11-2
(31m)
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