Squash Player Paul Coll Wins Career Best

Greymouth squash player Paul Coll, 24, has earned the biggest title of his career after defeating Egypt’s Tarek Momen to win the 2016 Channel VAS Championship.

World No 33 Coll had started the match in the qualification stages and caused three shocks en route to his first ever PSA M100 final, scalping Hong Kong’s Max Lee, Colombia’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez and England’s Daryl Selby, all of whom are ranked inside the world’s top 20.

Coll was in supreme form taking the match in straight games.

“It’s a bit surreal, I had no idea I would be in the final, let alone win it,” Coll said.

“It’s been an amazing week for me and a real confidence booster. 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 because if you switch off against these guys you pay for it.”

The iconic former World No 2 Ross Norman – the highest ranked New Zealander of all time and the man who ended Pakistani legend Jahangir Khan’s incredible 555-match unbeaten run – was in attendance at the St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club in Weybridge, Surrey, and the 57-year-old was full of praise for his younger compatriot.

“He played fantastically, he didn’t do anything wrong, he just played the right game for the final,” said the 1986 World Champion.

Original article by Chris Harvey, Eurosport, December 13, 2016.