Castagnet Crushes Anjema In Rotterdam Rout by Howard Harding 1 September 2013
- Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet caused a stunning upset at the Double AR
Rotterdam Open Squash 2013 by ousting top seed and home crowd favourite
Laurens Jan Anjema in the semi-finals of the new PSA World Tour
Challenger 15 championship in the Netherlands city of Rotterdam.
Unbeaten by Castagnet
in their previous four Tour clashes, the Dutch number one and world
No18 quickly went 5-1 ahead in the first game.
The 26-year-old
underdog from Aix-en-Provence soon settled down, however, and managed
to contain his higher-ranked opponent by slowing down the pace and
mixing it beautifully with bursts of high-paced attacking squash.
"As a result,
Castagnet made Anjema do a lot of work, forcing openings to put the
ball away, which he took full advantage of throughout the 48-minute
match, winning 11-8, 11-8, 11-3," said tournament spokesman Tommy
Berden.
Castagnet admitted
afterwards that he had decided to forget his pain from the last two
matches: "The pressure was off me because I was playing a higher-ranked
opponent, which allowed me to relax and play smart squash," said the
No4 seed. "I was on fire, and loved it!"
The upset takes the Frenchman into the sixth - and biggest - Tour final of his career.
In Sunday's Double AR
Rotterdam Open final, world No31 Castagnet will face No2 seed Adrian
Grant, after the Englishman recovered from a game down to beat
Finland's Olli Tuominen, the reigning European champion, in a 62-minute
encounter.
The win of the
third-game tiebreak proved crucial as Londoner Grant, the global
ambassador of title sponsor Double AR, never looked back after taking
the important lead to win 7-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-3.
Grant is now celebrating the 30th PSA Tour final appearance of his career - but his first for over a year.
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 15 Double AR Rotterdam Open, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Semi-finals:
[4] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) bt [1] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) 11-8, 11-8, 11-3 (48m) [2] Adrian Grant (ENG) bt [3] Olli Tuominen (FIN) 7-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-3 (62m)
