Muhd Asyraf Azan
v11-1, 11-3, 11-7
(24m) Nicolas Mueller
Adrian Grant (Eng)
11/4, 8/11, 11/7, 11/9
[4] Nicolas Mueller (Sui)
[3] Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned)
9/11, 7/11, 11/6, 11/3, 14/12 (95m)
[Q] Farhan Zaman (Pak)
Laurens Jan Anjema 11-8, 11-6, 11-5
(44m)
Chris Gordon
Laurens Jan Anjema 9-11, 11-2, 11-6,
11-7 (63m)
Tom Richards
Julian Illingworth (Usa)
9/11, 11/13, 11/6, 11/3, 14/12 (95m) Chris Gordon (Usa)
Eddie Charlton (Eng) 11/9, 8/11, 11/9, 3/11, 11/6
[Q] Lewis Walters (Eng)
Eddie Charlton 6-11, 11-2, 9-11,
11-9, 11-3 (71m) Tom Richards
Adrian Leanza (Usa)
11/4, 11/0, 11/4 (26m) [2] Tom Richards (Eng)
RESULTS: PSA International 25 Benefiting Beyond Walls Indian
Summer Tournament, St Paul, Minnesota, USA
Qualifying Finals: Charles Sharpes (Eng) bt
Declan James (Eng)
11/6, 12/10, 11/9 (55m)
Lewis Walters (Eng) bt Yasir Butt (Pak)
w/o
Farhan Zaman (Pak) bt
Hamza Bukhari (Pak)
11/4, 11/3, 11/8 (41m)
Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) bt Clinton Leeuw (Rsa)
11/7, 11/8, 11/7 (52m)
Qualifying Round One: Charles Sharpes (Eng)
bye
Declan James (Eng) 3-1 David Letourneau (Can)
12/14, 11/7, 11/8, 11/8 (54m)
Lewis Walters (Eng) 3-0 Thomas Brinkman (Can)
11/3, 11/8, 11/6 (40m)
Yasir Butt (Pak)
bye
Farhan Zaman (Pak) 3-1 Fred Reid (Can)
4/11, 11/9, 11/8, 11/6 (40m)
Hamza Bukhari (Pak)
3-2
Greg Lobban (Sco) 9/11, 9/11, 11/9, 11/5, 12/10
(110m)
Clinton Leeuw (Rsa) 3-1 Geoffrey Demont (Fra)
11/3, 11/3, 6/11, 11/6 (55m)
Mohamed Abouelghar (Egy) bye
Indian
Summer Success Shines On Anjema
Flying Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema celebrated the 12th PSA
World Tour title triumph of his career when he upset top seed
Alister Walker in the final of the Indian Summer Tournament
Benefiting Beyond Walls, the inaugural PSA International 25
squash event at the Commodore Squash Club in St Paul,
Minnesota, USA.
Third seed Anjema reached the final after masterminding an upset in
the semi-finals, where he defeated England's No2 seed Tom
Richards after fighting back from a game down.
Botswana's world No15 Walker, however, despatched his semi-final
opponent star Nicolas Mueller, the No4 seed from Switzerland,
in straight games.
Before a packed Commodore crowd, world No18 Anjema made up for two
recent Tour defeats by Walker by beating his higher-ranked opponent
11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6 in 67 minutes.
"My plan going in was to really make him beat me," said the jubilant
eight-time Dutch champion (pictured above, foreground, in final
action with Walker) later. "I was not going to try and do
special shots and make mistakes, I planned to play steady and be
hard to beat.
"The third game was close; I was lucky to win the third. It was
make-or-break, and really crucial. Either way going into the fourth
you're going to be up and tired or down and tired - so it's better
to be up 2/1 at that point.
"The match had a really high pace and the level of play was quite
high."
PSA CEO Alex Gough agreed that the event climax had been a
tough encounter: "The deciding factor was tactics," said the former
world No5. "LJ decided to play an incredibly fast pace. Ali's
mistake was going with him. It was just tough, completely tough."
Later, the 30-year-old Anjema, from The Hague, revealed to his
Twitter followers: "Tournament victories are rare in an athlete's
life so gonna cherish this moment deeply. Thanks to the people of
Minneapolis/St Pauls for being a cool new stop on tour."
Indian Summer image courtesy of Tomy O'Brien
LJ Topples Tom In St Paul Semis
In
what was an upset according to the seedings, but not according to
the latest PSA world rankings, Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema
beat second-seeded Englishman Tom Richards to reach the final
of the Indian Summer Benefiting Beyond Walls, the inaugural
PSA World Tour International 25 squash event at the
Commodore Squash Club in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
But to justify his higher-ranking, world No18 Anjema had to fight
back from a game down to overcome Richards, now ranked 22 in the
world, 9-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-7 in 63 minutes.
"Even though I lost the first game, the tone was set from the
beginning of the match," explained the eight-time Dutch champion
(pictured below, right, with Richards) after the win which takes
him into his 31st Tour final.
"We had long rallies in the beginning, and it was always going to be
brutal. After the first game, I cut out the errors, but they were
still long rallies, and it was always going to be tough physically."
Anjema will now face top seed Alister Walker for the title.
"Alister
and I played earlier this year at the World Teams and in Hong Kong,"
Anjema continued. "I lost in HK and won in the World Teams, so it
should be an interesting match."
Walker, the world No15 from Botswana, is enjoying one of the best
spells of his career and now has his sights on a third PSA Tour
title this year.
The US-based 31-year-old took out Swiss star Nicolas Mueller,
beating the No4 seed 12-10, 11-9, 11-5 in 46 minutes.
"I
managed to win big points," said Walker. "I nicked game ball in the
first, and the second game was really close as well. Nicolas could
have easily won one of the first two, but it's always tough to come
back when you're down two.
"I
was hard and steady in the third, so the 3/0 score probably flatters
me a bit, but I'm happy," added the former world No12 who is now in
the 15th Tour final of his career.
In
his view of the up-coming final, Walker said: "LJ and I have had
some tough matches in the past. He probably has a winning record
over me. If I play like I did today, I think I could have a good
chance."
In
fact, Walker and Anjema's career Tour head-to-head record is 5-3 in
the Dutchman's favour - but Walker was successful in the pair's two
most recent encounters.
Indian Summer image courtesy of Tomy O'Brien
Seeds Enjoy Indian Summer Success
The four seeds came through contrasting quarter-finals in the
Indian Summer Benefiting Beyond Walls, the inaugural PSA
World Tour International 25 squash event at the Commodore
Squash Club in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Tom Richards,
the No2 seed from England who is battling back to top form after a
recent hamstring injury, was stretched for 71 minutes before
overcoming fellow countryman Eddie Charlton.
Underdog Charlton, the world No63 from Nottingham, twice led in the
match - but Richards, a former world No12 currently at 22, dug deep
to win 6-11, 11-2, 9-11, 11-9, 11-3.
Richards will now take on third seed Laurens Jan Anjema, the
eight-time Dutch champion from The Hague. Anjema denied the event
domestic interest in the last four by beating US champion
Christopher Gordon 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 in 44 minutes.
Fourth seed Nicolas Mueller enjoyed the quickest victory,
taking only 24 minutes to stop Malaysian Muhd Asyraf Azan
11-1, 11-3, 11-7.
The Swiss number one now has top seed Alister Walker in his
sights. The world No15 from Botswana defeated fellow African
Shaun le Roux, the world No53 from Cape Town, 11-4, 7-11, 11-7,
11-6.
Mueller
Takes Out Grant In Minnesota
Fourth seed Nicolas Mueller beat
England's higher-ranked Adrian Grant in the first round of the
Indian Summer Benefiting Beyond Walls to reach the quarter-finals of
the inaugural PSA World Tour International 25 squash event at the
Commodore Squash Club in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Despite being unseeded, 32-year-old Grant is currently ranked one
place above the Swiss number one in the PSA world rankings.
But world No25 Mueller (pictured in action with Grant) made a strong
claim to overtake the Londoner again when he beat Grant, the former
world No9, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-7.
US champion Christopher Gordon also recorded a major victory - his
first over fellow countryman Julian Illingworth in all competitions
over the past eight years. Gordon, the New York-born world No48
recovered from two games down to take out Illingworth 9-11, 11-13,
11-6, 11-3, 14-12 in 95 minutes.
"I'm extremely happy to have managed to win," said 27-year-old
Gordon. "Julian played so well and was so accurate. He put me under
tremendous pressure. I was glad to hold my nerve at the end of the
fifth and to not make errors on big points.
"I'm very happy to win, because it is the first time I've been able
to win against Julian since we were juniors."
US-based former English international Chris Walker added: "This
match had it all. Jules played commanding squash in the first two,
but let Chris take control in the third and fourth.
"The fifth game was up to expectations, both gave everything they
had up through the last point. This signifies the changing of the
guard. Chris had a lot to prove because he never beat Jules in
Nationals, even though he won Nationals.
"This is a credit to US Squash. It was a great game of squash
between the US number one and number two."
