Green Prevails in Barbados to Capture Maiden Tour Title by Sean Reuthe July 4, 2016
- England’s Joe Green lifted the first PSA World Tour title of his
career after an impressive four-game victory over Bermudan fourth seed
Micah Franklin in the final of the BTMI Barbados Open, PSA M5
tournament held in Christchurch.
Green had displayed some of his best squash in the earlier stages of
the event, and surged past Spencer Lovejoy in the opening round, before
going on to defeat compatriot Lewis Doughty and Mexico’s Fernando
Magdaleno in the quarter-final and semi-final, respectively. Franklin,
meanwhile, scored victories over Richard Chin, Antonio de la Torre and
English qualifier Laurence Green to ensure that he would take on Green
in the duo’s first meeting on the PSA World Tour.
The opening game was played at a fast and furious pace, with long,
punishing rallies playing out at the Barbados Squash Club. Green was in
the ascendancy for the majority of the early stages and, despite
Franklin recovering from 9-5 down to level things up, Green held out to
establish a 1-0 lead.
Franklin clawed the second game back though after slowing the pace down
and mixing lob shots and drops intelligently to overturn two game
balls, before tiring in the third as a number of unforced errors
allowed Green to narrowly regain his lead.
Sensing his opponent’s fatigue, Green increased the tempo in the fourth
game to put Franklin under pressure at every opportunity. The man from
Watford led from start to finish and he closed out an 11-9, 10-12,
11-9, 11-6 triumph to seal his maiden PSA World Tour crown.
Result - Final: BTMI Barbados Open 2016
[3] Joe Green (ENG) bt [4] Micah Franklin (BER) 3-1: 11-9, 10-12, 11-9, 11-6 (64m)
