James Willstrop devours Kuwait PSA Cup – World Series Squash 2011
James Willstrop, Brit world No.3, won his careers biggest ever title last night at the Inaugural Kuwait PSA Cup as he ousted the former Kuwait Champ, Karim Darwish in the final round of the eighth and penultimate PSA World Series
Squash Event of the year at Green Island, Kuwait City.
Rounding off a mesmerizing ten-day event for the 28-year-old from Leeds, England, Willstrop won his first ever World Series title of the year at last week’s Hong Kong Open and then as well, beating Darwish in the final. Doing away
with the world No.6, Brit moves ahead to the second position on the table. Both the top slots have been captured by the Brits, Nick Matthew and Willstrop and surprisingly both have exactly the same scores as well, 425.
Winning away the first with a close run, Brit pulled off from six-all to take the lead. However, Egyptian, Darwish, made a better start in the second game and swirled away 6-3, yet Willstrop recovered the game ball at 10-9. Following
with a rare sequence of unforced errors Willstrop, Darwish took away the game evening up the scores and ending the Brit’s run of 28 back-to-back game wins.
Seeded third, Willstrop struck back in game three as he pulled away with a 6-1 lead in the start before he rushed away with service winners and took away his second win. Brit continued with game four and with his startling performance,
Willstrop hammered Darwish, giving away just two points and ending up the final match winning 11-7, 10-12, 11-4, 11-2 to win his first ever title in Kuwait.
Talking to the press after his mammoth win, Willstrop told “I’m incredibly pleased, when you try and backup two tournaments, the odds are against you – but I was pleased with the way I played, and maybe you actually can manage
back to back wins when you keep on winning 3/0. That way, you put yourself under less pressure physically, even though it’s still a hard battle mentally, turning up for every match, and trying to win each and every one.”
Having backed up strong by his team and fans, the new champ made significant improvement in his physical side and that helped him to play better.
“I’ve been receiving tremendous help from my team back home that helped me improve my physical side. And I basically adapted my squash to my physical constitution,” added the new champ, ending his press conference.
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