Rehman wins Christchurch International Open

Austria's Aqeel Rehman has won his third PSA title at the 2014 Doubledot Media Christchurch International Open.

The final of the Doubledot Media Christchurch International Open, to be contested by Czech Jan Koukal and Austrian Aqeel Rehman, was keenly anticipated by a large crowd of Canterbury squash enthusiasts.  Koukal, the top seed, as a current world ranking of 60, and has amassed a highly impressive 30 PSA titles throughout the course of his career.  Rehman, the younger of the two at 27 years of age, has the slightly lower ranking of 81 – a recently achieved career high.

Koukal, forced by a forearm tendon injury to play a style of game relying heavily on drops, lobs, guile and other generally gentle strokes, was effective in the opening exchanges.  His ability to find height and width with the shiny new Dunlop when lobbing, and to navigate around the cracks at the front of the court when dropping, meant there was little Rehman could do to prevent him taking a 1-0 lead.  In the second set, Rehman was more able to force himself higher on the ‘tee’ and dictate play from the front of the court.  From the back corners, the threats of Koukal’s game seemed to be somewhat diminished. Rehman opened up a 10-7 lead, but must have felt some nerves when two magnificent Koukal winners closed to the gap to 10-9.  Eventually Rehman was able to seal the game, and with it a 1-1 scoreline. 

In the third, Rehman took an early lead once again, and after finishing on the preferable end of several superb rallies to lead 5-1, Koukal seemed to adopt a strategy of resting for the next game.  Armed with a new ball, the opening exchanges of the fourth set were considerably closer.  Lengthy rallies lead to a deadlock at 3-3.  A series of hard, flat lengths from Rehman soon saw him open up a handy 7-3 lead.  Had Rehman found the formula to victory?  Koukal is not a veteran of 30 PSA titles for no reason, however, and fought to stay in touch at 5-9.  A tin from Koukal, a yell of “COME ON”, and Rehman had his first match ball.  He would not require another, and his delight to have won a third career PSA title was both infectious and palpable.

The finals of the Burnside Open were also played on the Sunday afternoon, with popular local winners taking the titles.  Oamaruvian Chris van der Salm lost a very close qualifying final on Thursday night, but his five set win over Finn Tatu Knuutila would have gone some way towards easing his pain.  The women's final was won by Emma Sim in a marathon five set contest with New Zealand Masters representative Karen Walton.

Final results

Doubledot Media Christchurch Open

       (3) Aqeel Rehman (AUT) bt (1) Jan Koukal (CZE) 7-11 11-9 11-1 11-5 (42 minutes)

Burnside Open

       (2) Chris van der Salm (NZL) bt (1) Tatu Knuutila (FIN) 10-12 11-5 11-7 7-11 11-7
       (1) Emma Sim (NZL) bt (3) Karen Walton (NZL) 11-15 15-12 13-15 15-7 15-9