Jan
Koukal
became only the second player outside the world top ten to celebrate his
40th appearance in a PSA World Tour final when he reached the
climax of the Gibraltar Open, the PSA Challenger 5 squash
event in its second year at The Squash Centre in Gibraltar.
And
the 30-year-old Czech star celebrated it in fine style, by beating
Scotland's Greg Lobban to win the 23rd Tour title of his career.
Top
seed Koukal reached the final without dropping a game - but took 70
minutes to survive his semi-final against third-seeded Englishman Ben
Coleman 12-10, 11-6, 11-8.
Lobban,
the 20-year-old No2 seed from Edinburgh, also overcame an Englishman in
the other semi - needing 91 minutes to get the better of fourth seed
Declan James 11-6, 5-11, 15-13, 11-5 to reach the third final of his
career.
But
despite giving ten years to his opponent in the final, Koukal kept his
cool to triumph 12-10, 11-9, 12-10 in exactly an hour.
Koukal,
one of the busiest players on the PSA World Tour, competed in 25 events
in 2011 and 20 in 2012 - and in Gibraltar was celebrating his 11th event
of the year, in the eighth different country!
1st
round:
[1] Jan Koukal (CZE) bt Kevin Moran (SCO) 11-9, 11-7, 11-6
(45m)
[Q] Douglas Kempsell (SCO) bt Ondrej Ertl (CZE) 11-5,
11-6, 11-7 (35m) Steven London (ENG) bt [WC] Anthony Brindle (GIB) 11-7,
11-3, 11-8 (40m)
[3] Ben Coleman (ENG) bt [Q] Jakob Dirnberger (AUT) 11-8,
11-1, 11-9 (28m)
[4] Declan James (ENG) bt [LL] Roman Svec (CZE) 11-3,
11-3, 11-5 (34m) Thomas Ford (ENG) bt [Q] Hugo Varela (ESP) 11-6, 11-6,
11-7 (28m)
[Q] Ollie Holland (ENG) bt Michael Harris (ENG) 4-11,
11-3, 11-7, 6-11, 11-8 (71m)
[2] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt Alex Phillips (ENG) 11-4, 11-8,
11-6 (32m)
~
Quarter-finals:
[1] Jan Koukal (CZE) bt [Q] Douglas Kempsell (SCO) 11-9,
11-7, 11-9 (54m)
[3] Ben Coleman (ENG) bt Steven London (ENG) 11-7, 11-5,
11-6
[4] Declan James (ENG) bt Thomas Ford (ENG) 11-8, 11-6,
11-7 (57m)
[2] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt [Q] Ollie Holland (ENG) 11-4,
11-6, 11-8 (35m)
Semi-finals:
[1] Jan Koukal (CZE) bt [3] Ben Coleman (ENG) 12-10, 11-6,
11-8 (70m)
[2] Greg Lobban (SCO) bt [4] Declan James (ENG) 11-6,
5-11, 15-13, 11-5 (91m)
