Reuben Phillips 6-11, 11-9, 11-3,
11-5 Johan Bouquet
Johan Bouquet 13-11, 7-11,
14-12, 11-4 Farhan Zaman
Johan Bouquet (Fra)
11-8, 11-7, 6-11, 11-4
[Q] Adrian Leanza (Usa)
Eric Galvez (Mex)
12-14, 11-7, 11-8, 11-5
Chris Ryder (Eng)
Eric Galvez 8-11, 11-8, 11-5,
11-6 Farhan Zaman
Peter Creed (Wal)
11-9, 11-6, 11-5 [2] Farhan Zaman (Pak)
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 10 Betty F Griffin Florida State Open
Championship,
Boca Raton, USA
Avila Avenges Edmonton Loss For Florida Win
Just a
week after losing to the lower-ranked Pakistani in the opening round of
the Edmonton Open in Canada, Mexico's Alfredo Avila earned
his revenge in the ideal way by beating Farhan Zaman in the final
of the 5th Annual Betty F Griffin Florida State Open Squash
Championship to win the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 title at
the Lifetime Athletic Club in Boca Raton in the US state
of Florida.
Top
seed Avila reached the final - his seventh on the Tour - after a
four-game win over Hisham Mohd Ashour, the former World No.11
from Egypt making his return to the international circuit after a
seven-month break.
Second
seed Zaman, the World No.68 from Peshawar, also needed four games to
overcome unseeded Frenchman Johan Bouquet in the other semi to
reach his third Tour final of the year.
Still
smarting from his premature exit in Alberta, 22-year-old Avila was
determined to make amends.
The
World No.62 from Mexico City duly despatched Zaman 11-9, 11-7, 11-5 to
win the fifth PSA World Tour title of his career - and his second
Florida State Open crown since 2010.
Pictured at the presentations are (L to R): Peter Cheshire (Tournament
Director), Zaman, Joe Griffin, Avila and Andre Maur (Tour
Director)
Bouquet Flourishes In Florida
France's Johan Bouquet became the only unseeded player to reach
the semi-finals of the 5th Annual Betty F Griffin Florida State Open
Squash Championship when he beat Englishman Reuben Phillips
in the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event at the
Lifetime Athletic Club in Boca Raton in the US state of
Florida.
The
29-year-old from Toulouse (pictured above) despatched wildcard
Phillips 6-11, 11-9, 11-3, 11-5 and will bid for a place in the final
when he takes on Pakistan's Farhan Zaman.
The
20-year-old No.2 seed from Peshawar survived the loss of the first game
to beat experienced Mexican Eric Galvez 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-6.
Egypt's Hisham Mohd Ashour, the flamboyant older brother of World
No.1 Ramy Ashour who is making his Tour comeback in Florida after
a seven-month break, continued his fine run with a straight games win
over Canadian qualifier Graeme Schnell.
The
former World No.11 from Cairo now faces top seed Alfredo Avila,
the World No.62 from Mexico who was severely tested by Abdulla Mohd
Al Tamimi before overcoming the Qatari teenager 12-10, 12-10, 11-13,
11-2.
Hisham Survives Florida Opener
Hisham
Mohd Ashour,
the flamboyant older brother of World No.1 Ramy Ashour,
celebrated his return to the PSA World Tour after a seven-month
break by winning his opening match in the 5th Annual Betty F Griffin
Florida State Open Squash Championship in Boca Raton in the
US state of Florida.
Seeded
four, the Cairo-born 31-year-old defeated Jordan qualifier Ahmad
Alzabidi 11-7, 12-14, 11-7, 11-7 in the first round of the PSA
Challenger 10 event at the Lifetime Athletic Club, the final
event of the year in the U.S. Pro Squash Series.
"The
front walls were too fast that I couldn't make my drops as effective as
I would have liked," said the US-based Ashour later. "I'm going to have
to work on some different shots to close out some of these points in the
upcoming games."
Ashour
now faces Graeme Schnell, a Canadian qualifier who upset Joe
Chapman, of the British Virgin Islands, 11-7, 6-11, 11-5, 11-4.
Another significant upset saw English wildcard Reuben Phillips
prevail against the odds. The 21-year-old from London, ranked 148 in the
world, fought back from a game down to beat No.3 seed Yasir Ali Butt,
the World No.74 from Pakistan, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-6.
But
Qatar teenager Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi staged the biggest comeback
to defeat Arturo Salazar. From two games down, the 18-year-old
from Doha battled back to draw level, then clinched the decider to beat
the higher-ranked Mexican 4-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-2, 11-7.
