Squash: Kiwi claims big win in London

Kiwi Paul Coll has claimed the biggest win of his squash career.

It was a stunning finish to a fairytale ride for former Greymouth squash player Paul Coll when he won the 2016 Channel VAS Championship at St George's Hill in London today.

He beat the fifth seed and world No 11 in three sets.

It took Coll, who was unseeded at the event, 57 minutes to take the biggest win of his career, which saw him pocket his share of the $143,430 purse when he beat Egypt's Tarek Momen.

The commentators had nothing but praise for Coll who in squash circles has been nicknamed 'Superman'.

Coll's win is the first time since 2001 that an unseeded player has won through the qualifying rounds, and taken out a major PSA world tour title. That player was Englishman Chris Walker.

The commentators said afterwards that Coll got better and better as the tournament went on.

To get to the final, he toppled the eighth seed Max Lee, fourth seed Miguel Angel Rodriquez and in his semi-final yesterday he shocked everyone when he beat Englishman Daryl Selby the world No 16 in a marathon match which lasted 106 minutes.

From the opening set in today's final, Coll looked focused and ready to take on the world.
He beat Momen 11-7, 13-11, 11-4 and the win will catapult him into the top 20 in the world with the points he takes for the victory. He is currently ranked No 33 and his highest world ranking was 31.

"Coll was utterly brilliant in this one, in fact he has been stunning all week," a commentator said following Coll's upset.

After the game Coll looked the fresher player and somewhat dazed as well as a little speechless.

His Greymouth family gathered at home this morning to watch the final and were all more than impressed with his victory.

The last time Coll and Momen met was last month on the PSA World Tour at the Qatar Classic, for a spectacular five-game-thriller. It lasted an incredible 101 minutes, and saw Momen take it 17-15 in an entertaining decider.

"It's a bit surreal, I had no idea I would be in the final, let alone win it. It's been an amazing week for me and a real confidence booster. I'm going to have a good Christmas and it will make the flight back to New Zealand a lot more enjoyable", he said after his win.

"Over the past six months, I have learned a lot about my game while playing the top guys like Tarek. I know I'm not a flashy player, I don't flick the ball all over the court, but I have learned to play in my strength game, retrieving, counter-dropping and straight drop shot. I like to keep thinking about my game instead of just playing fast and mindlessness," he said.

"Physically, I've had some tough matches and they've all been pretty long. But my body has held up well and I've been doing some good recovery. It's been a long week mentally, so I had to make sure I was switched on and focused the whole time."

Coll also thanked his parents Julie and Michael for always believing and supporting him, and his girlfriend Nele Gilis and all his coaches over the years.

Coll had to reschedule his flight back to New Zealand this week as he thought he would get knocked out in the earlier matches.

Today he put in a strong performance in the first game, but Momen came out firing in the second and looked set to level the game score.

A calm performance from Coll saw him fight back to level the score and claim the second game.

Momen had several unforced errors in the third which Coll capitalised on, and he stormed to a strong lead.

Momen looked set to fight back but it was not meant to be, with Coll sealing the third and claiming the title.

Today's victory tops off a stellar year for Coll, having claimed two medals at the World Doubles Championships (gold in the mixed and bronze in the men's), his second New Zealand national title and three PSA titles in the New Zealand PSA series in June.