RESULTS: City of Perth Squash Open, Perth, Australia
1st round:
[1] Steve Finitsis (AUS) bt Justin Beard (AUS) w/o
[Q] Rex Hedrick (AUS) bt [7] Jacob Lohrisch (AUS) 11-7, 11-10 (3-1), 11-7
[3] Steven Robinson (AUS) bt [Q] Luke Forster (AUS) 11-8, 11-3, 7-11, 11-5
[Q] Dane Sharp (CAN) bt [6] Joseph Desira (AUS) 10-11 (0-2), 11-9, 11-8, 11-7
[5] Nathan Turnbull (AUS) bt Josh Cardwell (AUS) 11-9, 11-1, 11-7
[4] Graeme Wilson (NZL) bt Will Jones (ENG) 11-7, 11-10 (3-1), 11-5
[Q] Carl Hampson (RSA) bt [8] Seyed Mohd Hossein Sanaee (IRI) 11-10 (2-0), 11-6, 10-11 (0-2), 11-7
[2] Zac Alexander (AUS) bt Neeraj Aggarwal (AUS) 11-8, 11-4, 11-10 (2-0)
Quarter-finals:
[1] Steve Finitsis (AUS) bt [Q] Rex Hedrick (AUS) 11-1, 11-2, 11-4
[3] Steven Robinson (AUS) bt [Q] Dane Sharp (CAN) 9-11, 11-10 (2-0), 11-8, 11-9
[5] Nathan Turnbull (AUS) bt [4] Graeme Wilson (NZL) 11-7, 11-8, 3-11, 11-10 (4-2)
[Q] Carl Hampson (RSA) bt [2] Zac Alexander (AUS) 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (3-1), 4-11, 11-4
Semi-finals:
[1] Steve Finitsis (AUS) bt [3] Steven Robinson (AUS) 11-4, 11-6, 11-10 (3-1)
[Q] Carl Hampson (RSA) bt [5] Nathan Turnbull (AUS) 7-11, 11-8, 2-11, 11-5, 11-10 (3-1)
Final:
[1] Steve Finitsis (AUS) bt [Q] Carl Hampson (RSA) 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 (26m)
Australia's top seed Steve Finitsis claimed a hat-trick of successive PSA Tour squash titles when he beat South African Carl Hampson to take out the City of Perth International at the Terrace Squash Centre in Perth, Australia.
Finitsis beat the South African qualifier 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 to win his third tournament in a row and confirm his early dominance of the Australian tour.
The 25-year-old Queenslander beat third-seeded compatriot Steven Robinson 11-4, 11-6, 11-10 (3-1) in the semi-finals earlier in the day, while Hampson battled past Queenslander Nathan Turnbull, the fifth seed, 11-5, 11-10 (3-1).
It was a magnificent effort by Hampson to reach the final – the tall Durban-born 23-year-old had to win through two rounds of qualifying just to make the men’s draw, then beat seeded players Seyed Mohammad Hossein Sanaee, Zac Alexander and Turnbull to set up the showdown with Finitsis.
But the in-form Finitsis, who was born and raised in Innisfail and now lives in Brisbane, was too strong and easily won the decider.