WORLD SQUASH NEWS

RESULTS: BMO Nesbitt Burns Ontario Open Squash Championships, Ottawa, Canada

Men's final:
[2] Joey Barrington (ENG) bt [1] Mike Corren (AUS) 10-15, 13-15, 15-8, 15-8, 17-15 (117m)

Women's final:
[4] Eman El Amir (EGY) bt [3] Runa Reta (CAN) 9-5, 9-5, 1-9, 9-6 (55m)

Barrington & El Amir Celebrate Tour Breakthroughs

England's Joey Barrington and Egypt's Eman El Amir both celebrated their maiden successes on the international squash circuit after victories in the finals of the BMO Nesbitt Burns Ontario Open in Ottawa, Canada. 

El Amir, the 21-year-old fourth seed from Cairo in her first WISPA final, beat third-seeded Canadian Runa Reta 9-5 9-5 1-9 9-6 in 55 minutes - but it took No2 seed Barrington, the 25-year-old son of squash legend Jonah Barrington, more than twice as long to upset Australia's top seed Mike Corren, courageously fighting back from two games down to win 10-15 13-15 15-8 15-8 17-15 in three minutes short of two hours.

The men's final provided the sold-out gallery at the Ottawa Athletic Club with a match to remember.  Providing more drama and plot twists than any movie thriller, these two warriors fought each other to a standstill, to the absolute delight of the fans.

The two players clearly have different approaches to the game:  Corren, the tough Australian, is cut from the Chris Dittmar mould, favouring hard volleys to pressure, followed up with dramatic nicks - while Barrington, like his father, takes consistency on court to new heights, serving notice that in order to beat him, you will have to pay a high physical toll.

For the first two games of the final, however, it looked as if Corren was up to the task of beating Barrington at his own game.  Barrington kept his drives tight, his errors low, and waited for Corren's mistakes.  Corren decided to rally patiently with Barrington, but at key times in each of the first two games, always found the right short boast or nick that eluded the lightning fast Briton.

Barrington returned for the third game looking even more determined.  As he had done in his 120-minute quarterfinal match against Mexican Eric Galvez, he managed to increase the pace of the match when he found himself down.  By cutting out almost all mistakes and keeping his drives rail-tight, Barrington's pressure started to get to Corren, who was slowly beginning to tire.  The Englishman soon collected the third game.

The fourth game featured more pressure from Barrington, and Corren's shot selection started to look a little erratic.  Instead of waiting for the right moment as he'd done earlier, Corren went short too often, allowing Barrington to stretch him further.  Barrington's defence at this time was inhuman - almost every delicate boast or drop from Corren was returned with a high, flowing lob to the back.  Finding himself too far behind after a Barrington run of points, Corren gave up and saved himself for the deciding fifth game.

In the fifth, the contest was truly on - a championship was on the line, and neither would budge an inch.  Each battled at times with their concentration, and it was point for point almost all the way.  Finally Barrington scored a breakthrough, match ball at 14-13, only to have Corren pull him back again.  At 16-15, though, Barrington found the squash gods were smiling on him, as he secured his first ever PSA title with a back wall nick.

"To be honest, I welcomed that bit of luck (the back wall nick), as I've lost big matches on that sort of thing," said Barrington after the match.  "I felt quite good physically going into the third, and so even though I was down two games, I tried hard to get my rhythm and apply more pressure to Mike.  In the end, it couldn't really have been a closer match, but I'm thrilled to have come out the winner."

The other match featured two young players who were both in search of their first WISPA title, and both in their first final.  Eman El Amir, the talented Egyptian, had shown throughout the tournament her all-round powerful game, featuring hard drives and volleys to length, as well as the softest of drops.  Ottawa's own Runa Reta also packs a lot of power into a relatively small frame, but also showed fantastic mobility and determination.  The contrast promised to provide some great squash, and the fans were not disappointed.

Although El Amir admitted before that she'd be a bit nervous for the final, it certainly wasn't apparent as the first game began.  El Amir confidently stepped into her shots from the first point, throwing Reta on the defensive.  While she did display some fine touch of her own, Reta never really got settled, and surrendered the game 9-5.

The second game saw El Amir starting to control the rallies even more, but soon some unforced errors started to cancel out her glowing winners.  This obviously gave Reta some hope, and Reta worked to find her own rhythm in the match.  El Amir still managed to get a nice run of points together to sew up the second game 9-5.

Reta came back on court for the third in a much more focused mood.  It was clear that, for all of El Amir's shot-making abilities, the Egyptian was vulnerable if removed from the T.  By starting to volley more and using some frontcourt deception, Reta managed to put together her own fine run of points, and secured the third game 9-1.

Things started to go against Reta, as El Amir's magic came back, and the Egyptian stormed to 7-2.  But, with the local crowd cheering her on, Reta clawed her way back into the match.  Soon it was 6-7, and all looked possible.  But, with a few flicks of her racquet, El Amir soon wrapped her first WISPA title.