White & Grant In Virginia Final
Favourite John White and fourth seed Adrian Grant will meet in an all-British final of the Davenport Virginia Pro Squash Championship in Richmond, USA.
Grant staged a number of comebacks to overcome Egypt's second seed Wael El Hindi in a dramatic 77-minute semi-final. The left-handed Englishman from London twice found himself behind the skilful Egyptian – but in the fourth game bounced back to draw level with the loss of just a single point.
After a series of long rallies in the decider, Grant again dug deep and found strength from somewhere to bring himself back from the brink of defeat, saving two match balls and taking the game into a tie-break, before winning four consecutive points to close out the match 2-11 11-6 7-11 11-1 11-10.
While Grant is celebrating his 15th appearance in a PSA Tour final, White marked his 'silver' final by beating Canada's third seed Graham Ryding. It is the Scot's second final in just over a week – but the 25th since he reached his first final in Santa Barbara, in the USA, in June 1994.
After taking the first two games, White lost his focus in the third as Ryding began to exhibit some of his own trademark skills and fought back to reduce the deficit. But the top seed proceeded to pick up the pace again in the fourth game and reasserted his top-dog status to close out the match 11-8 11-7 4-11 11-7 in 48 minutes.
RESULTS: Davenport Virginia Pro Squash Championship, Richmond, USA
Semi-finals:
[1] John White (SCO) bt [3] Graham Ryding (CAN) 11-8, 11-7, 4-11, 11-7 (48m)
[4] Adrian Grant (ENG) bt [2] Wael El Hindi (EGY) 2-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-1, 11-10 (2-0) (77m)