Germany's Kandra Wins Houston Challenger by Howard Harding
15 October 2013
- Unseeded German Raphael Kandra disposed of two seeds in the Champion
Fiberglass Open in the USA en-route to winning the inaugural PSA World
Tour Challenger 10 squash event at Downtown Club at the Met in Houston,
Texas.
The quarter-final
round became a graveyard for all but one of the event's seeds - with
England's Declan James taking top honours by defeating top-seeded New
Zealander Martin Knight in a 91-minute marathon, to record one of the
best wins of his career.
James endured another
91-minute encounter in the semis - but this time it was fellow non-seed
Clinton Leeuw who prevailed, winning in five after a 14-12 final game.
Kandra, who ousted
Egypt's No2 seed Andrew Wagih Shoukry in the quarter-finals, removed
the final seed Cesar Salazar, the No3 seed from Mexico, in the other
semi to set up the final against South African Leeuw.
Both players were celebrating their ninth PSA Tour final appearances - and after the first two games honours were shared.
But Kandra, the
22-year-old world No26 from Paderborn, justified his eight-position
higher ranking than Leeuw by taking the next two games from the
31-year-old from Cape Town to clinch an 11-8, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9 title
triumph in 50 minutes.
The win marks the fourth Tour title of Kandra's career - but his second in a row.
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 10 Champion Fiberglass Open, Houston, Texas, USA
Quarter-finals: Declan James (ENG) bt [1] Martin Knight (NZL) 7-11, 13-11, 11-8, 11-9 (91m) Clinton Leeuw (RSA) bt [4] Arturo Salazar (MEX) 11-6, 4-11, 11-4, 11-6 (41m) [3] Cesar Salazar (MEX) bt Farhan Zaman (PAK) 13-11, 10-12, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5 (59m) Raphael Kandra (GER) bt [2] Andrew Wagih Shoukry (EGY) 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 12-10 (45m)
Semi-finals: Clinton Leeuw (RSA) bt Declan James (ENG) 8-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-4, 14-12 (91m) Raphael Kandra (GER) bt [3] Cesar Salazar (MEX) 11-5, 11-5, 11-4 (23m)
