Indian Summer Success Shines On Anjema by Howard Harding 8 October 2013
- Flying Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema celebrated the 12th PSA World Tour
title triumph of his career when he upset top seed Alister Walker in
the final of the Indian Summer Tournament Benefiting Beyond Walls, the
inaugural PSA International 25 squash event at the Commodore Squash
Club in St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Third seed Anjema
reached the final after masterminding an upset in the semi-finals,
where he defeated England's No2 seed Tom Richards after fighting back
from a game down.
Botswana's world No15
Walker, however, despatched his semi-final opponent star Nicolas
Mueller, the No4 seed from Switzerland, in straight games.
Before a packed
Commodore crowd, world No18 Anjema made up for two recent Tour defeats
by Walker by beating his higher-ranked opponent 11-4, 9-11, 11-9, 11-6
in 67 minutes.
"My plan going in was
to really make him beat me," said the jubilant eight-time Dutch
champion (pictured above, foreground, in final action with Walker)
later. "I was not going to try and do special shots and make mistakes,
I planned to play steady and be hard to beat.
"The third game was
close; I was lucky to win the third. It was make-or-break, and really
crucial. Either way going into the fourth you're going to be up and
tired or down and tired - so it's better to be up 2/1 at that point.
"The match had a
really high pace and the level of play was quite high."
PSA CEO Alex Gough
agreed that the event climax had been a tough encounter: "The deciding
factor was tactics," said the former world No5. "LJ decided to play an
incredibly fast pace. Ali's mistake was going with him. It was just
tough, completely tough."
Later, the 30-year-old
Anjema, from The Hague, revealed to his Twitter followers: "Tournament
victories are rare in an athlete's life so gonna cherish this moment
deeply. Thanks to the people of Minneapolis/St Pauls for being a cool
new stop on tour."
RESULTS: PSA
International 25 Indian Summer Tournament Benefiting Beyond Walls, St
Paul, Minnesota, USA
