England's Tom
Ford
kicked off his five-week squash tour of South Africa in the best
possible way – reaching his first PSA World Tour
final, and then clinching the NSA Open
title in Pretoria as the third seed.
Ranked outside the world's top 100, the 20-year-old from Cheltenham
made his breakthrough in the PSA Challenger 5
event in its second year at the Pretoria Country Club when he upset top seed Aqeel Rehman,
the 28-year-old world No90 from Austria, in the semi-finals.
His opponent in the final was Muhammad Saqib Yousaf,
the 22-year-old from No.4 seed from Pakistan who also survived a
four-game semi to make the climax, the second Tour final of his
career.
"The final was close in the first game," said tournament promoter
Steven Doëg.
"However Muhammad could not continue from where he left off in his
semi-final and made numerous errors which the steady Tom took full
advantage."