News from the PSA World Tour
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 15 Savcor Finnish Open, Mikkeli, Finland
Semi-finals:
[1] Joey Barrington (ENG) bt Bradley Hindle (MLT) 4-11, 11-13, 11-6, 11-4, 11-6
[3] Stephen Coppinger (RSA) bt [2] Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY) 11-7, 11-9, 14-12
Final:
[3] Stephen Coppinger (RSA) bt [1] Joey Barrington (ENG) 13-15, 11-5, 11-8, 11-5 (67m)
Coppinger Captures Finnish Open Crown
South Africa’s Stephen Coppinger scored his second upset in 24 hours to win the Savcor Finnish Open, the PSA World Tour Challenger 15 squash event at the Sport Forum in Mikkeli, Finland.
It was after dismissing Egypt’s No2 seed Omar Abdel Aziz in straight games in the semi-finals that Coppinger, the third seed, reached the 11th Tour final of his career – where he faced Joey Barrington.
In the other semi, the English favourite had recovered from two games down to overcome unseeded Bradley Hindle, from Malta, to reach his 17th final.
Barrington made a good start to the game, leading 5-0 and 7-3 before finally surviving 15-13.
But the 26-year-old from Cape Town fought back to take the second game and was level at six-all in the third when it became clear that Barrington was suffering some problems with the back of his thigh.
Coppinger took the game and, with the Englishman barely able to compete in the fourth, went on to clinch his 13-15, 11-5, 11-8, 11-5 victory after 67 minutes.
“Of course I’m happy with the title, but it’s never nice to win when your opponent is injured,” said the Finnish Open’s first ever South African champion after collecting the sixth PSA Tour title of his career.