RESULTS: EBS Dayton Open Squash Championship, Dayton, Ohio, USA
Semi-finals:
[1] David Palmer (AUS) bt [3] Karim Darwish (EGY) 11-7, 11-10 (2-0), 11-8
[2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt [6] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) 11-9, 11-8, 11-5
Final:
[2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt [1] David Palmer (AUS) 11-10 (7-5), 7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7 (109m)
France's world No7 Thierry Lincou, the No2 seed in the $50,000 EBS Dayton Open, showed an incredibly tenacious style of play as he upset Australia's top seed and world No4 David Palmer in a five-game final of the 5-star PSA Tour squash event in Dayton, USA, that lasted over an hour and a half!
The Frenchman won the first game in an incredible 31-minute contest ending in a tiebreaker, 7-5, after facing five game balls! Palmer pounded back to win the second close game 11-7 in 17 minutes. The third game was a test for Palmer as he tried to go up 2/1 quickly by attacking but Lincou quickly showed he wasn't tired, grabbing and returning every ball to force mistakes from his opponent.
The 31-year-old from Marseille started game four with the same strategy, but Palmer - facing defeat at 0-5 down - fought hard and ran off eight straight points to get back into the match. He won 11-6 and set the stage for a fantastic decider.
"The 25-minute fifth game featured some incredible squash points and an understandable amount of lets as the contestants began to tire," reports tournament organiser Charlie Johnson.
Lincou, however, was not to be denied - and, from five-all, won four straight rallies to go up 9-5 before closing it out 11-7.
The Frenchman credited his 11-10 (7-5), 7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7 victory to a strong desire to win in Dayton where he had lost the 2003 Championship after first achieving his world number one ranking.
The win marks Lincou's first PSA Tour title success for more than a year - and the 19th of his career. It also consolidates his position in third place in the list of current players' total title wins - behind Palmer, with 21, and Amr Shabana, the world No1 from Egypt, with 20.