Darcy Evans (Aus)
11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 8-11, 12-10 (63m)
[8] Will John (Wal)
Darcy Evans
11-2, 11-7, 11-7 (26m) Mike Corren
[Q] Matthew Hopkin (Aus)
16-14, 6-11, 11-9, 11-6 (50m) [2] Mike Corren (Aus)
RESULTS:
PSA Challenger 5
City Of Kalgoorlie - Boulder PSA
Golden Open,
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Corren
Marks Historic Golden Tour Success At Golden Open
#PSAWorldTour
Australia's
Mike Corren
upset top seed
Jan Koukal
in today's final of the
City Of Kalgoorlie - Boulder PSA
Golden Open
in Western Australia to become the first squash player since the
legendary
Jansher Khan
to notch up 50
PSA World Tour
titles.
The 40-year-old from Adelaide – already the oldest player to claim a
Tour title – reached his 72nd final at the
PSA Challenger 5
event at the
YMCA Squash Centre
in
Kalgoorlie
after beating compatriot
Joshua Larkin,
the fourth seed from Canberra, in a four-game semi-final.
Top seed Koukal, the top-ranked player from the Czech Republic,
survived a five-game quarter-final before beating Guyana's No3 seed
Sunil Seth
in the other semi.
Corren was meeting Koukal for the first time since suffering a
straight games defeat by the 30-year-old from Prague in the 2012
Australian Open. The second-seeded underdog also went into today's
final after crashing out of last week's semi-finals of the
City of Perth WA Open.
But World No.77 Corren stemmed a fightback by his younger opponent –
ranked 10 places higher – to beat Koukal 11-8, 12-10, 9-11, 6-11,
11-6 in 56 minutes to secure his historic Golden title.
"To be honest, the most satisfying aspect of this weekend was
reversing the performance from last weekend, having to go through
the usual self recriminations a loss brings and working hard during
the week to back that up," said
Corren afterwards.
"In that sense, it pleases me to still have the will and motivation
to go through that process and, as long as that feeling remains, I
will continue,"
added the tireless Aussie veteran who has now won his fourth Golden
Open crown since 2009.
"Winning a 50th title may sound good on paper - but it certainly
doesn't protect me from losing first round in the next event, which
is what I am now focusing on for the South Australian Open. "I
must say a big thanks to the Kalgoorlie organisers who as always do
a sterling job and Neil Butler for doing astounding shifts as the
only referee on sight.
"Last but not least – again - to Dr Leon Musca, without whom to keep
my body together I am half the player."
