Koukal Crowns Krajcsak For Ramy Reward In Canada

Czech number one Jan Koukal fought back from two-games-to-one down in the qualifying finals of the PACE Canadian Classic to earn a meeting with Egypt's world number two Ramy Ashour in the first round of the $60,000 5-star PSA Tour squash event at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto.

The 24-year-old from Prague took 80 minutes to get the better of Krajcsak 11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7 - and was then drawn to face Ashour, the 20-year-old second seed from Cairo who is unbeaten so far this year.

Defending champion Ashour, who won the first major PSA Tour event of the New Year at the Tournament of Champions in New York after missing out on the World Open at the end of last year due to injury, is due to face top-seeded compatriot Amr Shabana in Saturday's final.

Shabana has also been suffering with injury problems: Winner of the world title in Bermuda, the 28-year-old from Giza will be making his 2008 Tour debut in Toronto after being out of action this year with a wrist injury.

Qualifying finals:
Eric Galvez (MEX) bt Robin Clarke (CAN) 11-9, 11-4, 11-7 (40m)
Yasser El Halaby (EGY) bt David Phillips (CAN) 11-4, 11-8, 11-2 (25m)
Jan Koukal (CZE) bt Mark Krajcsak (HUN) 11-9, 6-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7 (80m)
Shawn Delierre (CAN) bt Khawaja Adil Maqbool (PAK) 11-5, 11-1, 11-5 (26m)