RESULTS: Keith
Grainger Memorial UCT Open Squash Championship,
Cape Town, South Africa
Pett
Powers To Cape Town Crown
#PSAWorldTour
The extraordinary squash career of Englishman Oliver
Pett
reached another milestone in South Africa today when the 25-year-old
qualifier overturned top-seeded local hero Shaun
le Roux
in the final of the Keith
Grainger Memorial UCT Open Squash Championship
to win the third PSA
World Tour
title of his career – all of which he achieved unseeded!
The Sussex man, now based in Gosport in Hampshire, was competing in only
his third event in three weeks following his return to the international
circuit after taking a year off.
It was a straight games semi-final upset victory over Pakistan’s No2
seed Tayyab
Aslam
that took Pett
(pictured below, foreground, in action with Le Roux) into
the final of the PSA
Challenger 5
event marking its second year at the
University of Cape Town
in Cape
Town.
Cape Town-born Le Roux, the defending champion ranked 54 in the world,
marched in to the final – his third in succession on the PSA Tour and
looking for his third win – after downing England’s No4 seed
Nathan Lake
in four games.
“It was an epic final that was watched by a packed crowd of enthusiastic
supporters,” said tournament promoter Kerr
Rogers.
“The first game lasted 22 minutes with Oliver winning 11-9, followed by
11-5 and a nail biting 12-10 in the third with Shaun a few game points
up not able to finish off the game.
“Credit to Oliver for remaining patient and forcing the error with
intense pressure squash. Oliver gave an emotional response at the
prize-giving, thanking various sponsors and friends for all their
support over the past year, which has been the toughest one for him,
with a special mention of his mother who is fighting cancer in England.”
Pett’s latest success follows his maiden Tour title triumph at the
Windy
City Open
in Chicago, USA, in February 2011 – when he was also a qualifier, yet
overturned both the top two seeds en-route to the title – and later in
April the same year when he lifted the West
of Ireland Open
trophy, unseeded, after upsets over the No1 and No3 seeds.
The UCT Open was held in the memory of young squash player
Keith Grainger,
the brother of former world No1
Natalie Grainger,
who died in 2001.
