Willstrop Ends Title Drought to Lift Wimbledon Open Crown by Sean Reuthe March 19, 2016
- Former World No.1 James Willstrop ended an 18-month barren spell to
capture his 19th career PSA World Tour title with a victory over
in-form Egyptian Omar Abdel Meguid in the final of the Wimbledon Club
Squash Squared Open, PSA M25 tournament.
The Yorkshireman
has been in spellbinding form throughout the event and downed a trio of
fellow Englishman in straight games to reach the final. Meguid,
meanwhile, is in the midst of some of his best ever form and had won
three of his last four PSA World Tour events heading into the
tournament in Wimbledon.
It was the pair’s second ever
professional meeting, with Willstrop prevailing in their first
encounter at last year’s Canary Wharf Classic. Both players controlled
the opening game in patches but it was Willstrop’s error-free display
that saw him take it to build up a 1-0 advantage. Meguid rallied and
surged into a five-point lead in game two but Willstrop’s pinpoint
accuracy and masterful shot-selection soon came to the fore as he took
11 of the next 13 points to go two games to the good.
A
resilient Meguid battled back though in the third and the man from Giza
overturned a three-point Willstrop lead to reduce the arrears as he
sought to gain a foothold in the encounter.
Willstrop
responded with some hard, accurate hitting and outmanoeuvred his
opponent impressively to close out the fourth game, earning an 11-8,
11-7, 8-11, 11-4 triumph which will give the World No.13 plenty of
confidence heading into next week’s prestigious Allam British Open
where he has finished as a runner-up on three occasions.
"It was a very high intensity match," Willstrop said to SquashSite.
"We
are two big fellows, I don’t think that there are two bigger or heavier
players than us on the Tour so I think that we did pretty well. I’m
very happy to play at that level, I hope the crowd enjoyed it and I’m
thrilled to win the title. When you’ve been in the [world’s] top 10,
you have more experience with the big points, you work very hard for
hours and it allows us to have the knack to be able to put the ball
away at crucial times.
"The level is so high, it’s been
tight squash from the first match. I’m in the top 15 [in the world] and
Robbie [Downer] in my first match was ranked 123rd and it was tight
throughout the match. The depth of the game is just remarkable and I
had to use every bit of experience.
"It’s a mental intensity that I think you develop after hours and hours of work and time on court and matches."
Result - Final: Wimbledon Club Squash Squared Open 2016
