Coll reaches London final after marathon
- Dave Worsley
- Mar 30
- 2 min read
Paul Coll has reached the final of the Optasia Championships in London after a comeback from two sets down in his semifinal.
He defeated Egyptian-born Englishman Mohamed ElShorbagy in 81 minutes 9-11, 9-11, 11-3, 12-10, 11-8 to edge closer to defending his title.
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Coll, who defeated ElShorbagy’s younger brother Marwan in five games just 24 hours earlier had to fight for every point throughout the match.
The opening two games saw ElShorbagy burst out of the blocks with scintillating attacking squash, pushing up on the ’T’ line and putting Coll under severe amounts of pressure across the court.
However, after powering to a two-game advantage, ElShorbagy required a physio break for a back injury, with Coll capitalising on this period of troubled movement to take a one-sided third game and reduce the deficit.
Despite ElShorbagy still not being back to his physical best in the fourth game, the Englishman managed to go toe-to-toe with Coll in a thrilling finale.
ElShorbagy reeled off seven straight points in the mid stages of the fourth game to sit on the cusp of victory, but Coll refused to give in, pulling off a double dive point when 9-8 down to keep himself in the contest.
After securing the subsequent fourth-game tie-break, the pair remained inseparable, with ElShorbagy narrowly edging ahead at 8-7 up in the decider. However, from there it was No.2 seed Coll who managed to grab the momentum at just the right time, taking four straight points to take victory after 81 minutes of enthralling play.
“It was a match that I had to work my way into. It probably wasn’t my smoothest match, but I think at the back end of the second I really found something that was missing in those last two days,” said Coll.
“When I get in the zone and I need to get every ball back, the dives just come out. I’m proud of my fight today and like I said I felt I played well in the last three games, but when Mohamed gets a sniff he can just be so hard to play against.”
Second seed Coll will face Egyptian Mostafa Asal in the final.
