Koukal Celebrates 40th In Style by Howard Harding 2 July 2013
- Jan Koukal became only the second player outside the world top ten to
celebrate his 40th appearance in a PSA World Tour final when he reached
the climax of the Gibraltar Open, the PSA Challenger 5 squash event in
its second year at The Squash Centre in Gibraltar.
And the 30-year-old Czech star celebrated it in fine style, by beating
Scotland's Greg Lobban to win the 23rd Tour title of his career.
Top seed Koukal reached the final without dropping a game - but took 70
minutes to survive his semi-final against third-seeded Englishman Ben
Coleman 12-10, 11-6, 11-8.
Lobban, the 20-year-old No2 seed from Edinburgh, also overcame an
Englishman in the other semi - needing 91 minutes to get the better of
fourth seed Declan James 11-6, 5-11, 15-13, 11-5 to reach the third
final of his career.
But despite giving ten years to his opponent in the final, Koukal kept
his cool to triumph 12-10, 11-9, 12-10 in exactly an hour.
Koukal, one of the busiest players on the PSA World Tour, competed in
25 events in 2011 and 20 in 2012 - and in Gibraltar was celebrating his
11th event of the year, in the eighth different country!
