Hedrick Flourishes In Phoenix
by Howard Harding

11 November 2013 - After becoming the sole seed to survive the first round of the Phoenix Open in Tempe in the US state of Arizona, Australian Rex Hedrick continued all the way through to the winner's podium after beating Pakistan's Syed Hamzah Shah Bukhari in the final of the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event at Life Time Fitness.

The top seed from Melbourne was taken the full distance in the semi-finals before overcoming unseeded Pakistani Tayyab Aslam in a 100-minute marathon.

The other semi was a surprise clash between two qualifiers - with Bukhari emerging victorious after seeing off Canadian Nicholas Sachvie in straight games to reach the first Tour final of his career.

"The first game lasted nearly an hour with 80 to 100 shot rallies making it hard to play winners on a hot and bouncy court," reported tournament director Andre Maur. "Hedrick seemed to be the more patient player and won the first game 11-9.

"The second game was a Hitchcock with every rally played to the full limit. This game had it all, lets strokes, blocking, arguments with the ref, but at the end Hedrick came through with a clear stroke at 10-9 to win the second game.

"Both players came out of the blocks for the third and eventually Bukhari was feeling the Aussie's hard and tight pace to take a comfortable lead of 8-5 before closing the deal at 11-7 to win his first Phoenix Open."

The win marks the eighth PSA Tour title of Hedrick's career - and his third this year.

RESULTS: PSA Challenger 10 Phoenix Open, Tempe, USA

Semi-finals:
[1] Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt Tayyab Aslam (PAK) 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 9-11, 7-1 ret. (100m)
[Q] Syed Hamzah Shah Bukhari (PAK) bt [Q] Nicholas Sachvie (CAN) 12-10, 11-3, 11-5

Final:
[1] Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt [Q] Syed Hamzah Shah Bukhari (PAK) 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 (120m)