1 December 2013
- Scotland's Greg Lobban claimed the second PSA World Tour title of his
career after surviving a five-game final in the NSC SRAM Series No.2,
the PSA Challenger 5 squash event at the Bukit Jalil National Squash
Centre in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
The No.1 seed was
taken the full distance in the quarter-finals before overcoming
unseeded Egyptian Shehab Essam Hosny in an 81-minute marathon.
By contrast, it took
the 21-year-old from Edinburgh just 15 minutes to come through the
semi-finals - when Pakistan opponent Muhammad Shoaib Hassan retired
injured midway through the second game.
Lobban was celebrating
his sixth appearance in a PSA Tour final - while his 18-year-old
opponent Ahmad Al-Saraj became the first Jordanian ever to claim a
second Tour final berth when he beat seventh-seeded Pakistani Waqas
Mehboob in the other semi.
Al-Saraj, the second
seed from Amman, led 2/1 in the final as a historic first ever Tour win
by a player from Jordan looked on the cards.
But Inverness-born
Lobban, ranked 85 in the world, dug deep to claw back the initiative,
eventually beating the Jordanian teenager, ranked 44 places below,
11-1, 9-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9 in 70 minutes.
"Second PSA title.
Delighted," tweeted Lobban later. "Now to savour this moment and enjoy
sightseeing around KL. These kinds of moments don't happen all the
time!"
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 5 NSC SRAM Series No2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia