Balbo Bursts Into Irvine Final

After upsetting top seed Alex Gough in the quarter-finals, France's sixth seed Julien Balbo maintained his impressive form in the Scott Wealth Management Open by beating fifth-seeded Irishman Liam Kenny to reach the final of the inaugural $20,000 PSA Tour squash event at The Sports Club in Irvine, the Orange County city in the US state of California.

Just a single ranking position separates Balbo and Kenny - and the first two games both went to tie-breaks, with honours shared as the pair began game three. In fact, play had to be stopped at four-all in the first game, when racquet contact at close quarters on the "T" broke Kenny's racquet and left Balbo with a minor cut to the chin.

Balbo, the world No55 from Chambery, maintained the upper hand to take the third game and stormed to a whitewash in the fourth to clinch a 10-11 (4-6), 11-10 (2-0), 11-9, 11-0 win after one and a half hours which takes the 29-year-old into his sixth Tour final.

By contrast, the other semi-final was a more straightforward affair - one which finally marked the end of the road for unseeded Stefan Casteleyn, the tournament organiser who prevailed in two mighty five-game upsets to claim an unlikely place in the last four.

Making a rare appearance on the Tour since retiring two years ago, the 34-year-old Belgian took out fourth seed Yasser El Halaby in the first round, then despatched young German Simon Rosner, the seventh seed, 11-8, 7-11, 11-10 (2-0), 7-11, 11-10 (2-0) in the quarter-finals.

But his semi-final opponent Omar Mosaad, the No2 seed from Egypt, reached the semis after a straight games win over Englishman Stacey Ross.

"Both players attacked from the very start, hitting the ball with venom at such a low angles to the floor that the rallies surely would have been short, had not the ball been accelerated so hard," said event spokesman Oliver Berghof. "While this produced squash of the highest calibre, it was exhausting from the very start, and it was clear that this was going to be harder on Casteleyn, who had survived two close five-game encounters on his way to the semi-final.

"What was particularly amazing to behold in these exchanges was the Egyptian's ability to hit winners dead into the knick from shots by Casteleyn that were themselves winners and would have been so with most other opponents," exclaimed Berghof.

Mosaad soon claimed the 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 victory which takes the 20-year-old world No25 from Cairo into his fifth Tour final in just over two years.

Semi-finals:
[6] Julien Balbo (FRA) bt [5] Liam Kenny (IRL) 10-11 (4-6), 11-10 (2-0), 11-9, 11-0
[2] Omar Mosaad (EGY) bt Stefan Casteleyn (BEL) 11-4, 11-6, 11-5