'Almost 100%' Borja Golan Wins La Ciotat Title

Golan, left, with Galifi at the presentation ceremony

In only his second PSA World Tour squash event after major knee surgery, top-ranked Spaniard Borja Golan admitted that he is almost back to 100% after clinching the La Ciotat International Open title in France as a qualifier.

The former world No10, now languishing at 95 after his eight-month layoff, beat top-seeded Italian Stephane Galifi 11-7, 11-3, 8-11, 11-1 in the 50-minute climax of the inaugural $10,000 One Star Tour event at La Ciotat Squash Club in the city of La Ciotat.

The triumph marks Golan's 20th title on the PSA Tour - and was revenge for his defeat by Galifi, the world No52 from Aix-en-Provence, who stopped the Spaniard in last month's quarter-finals of the Internationaux de France in Bordeaux.

"La Ciotat was a nice tournament to make my comeback - the organisation was very good and they took a lot of care of the players," said Golan as he left La Ciotat for Toulouse, where he begins his third qualifying campaign in a row - this time to make it into the main draw of the $15,000 Movida International Toulouse Open.

"I started the tournament at 70% and finished close to 100% of my level - so I'm really happy for that," added the 27-year-old from Santiago DC.

"Tomorrow I will start playing in Toulouse - so I have to forget the win of today and focus on qualifying for the Toulouse Open.

"And then I rest for two weeks and train hard to be ready for the tournaments in September. The Irish Open will be a good tournament to start with!"

When Golan celebrated his career-high world No10 ranking last September, he became the highest-ranked Spaniard of all-time - moving ahead of nineties star Austin Adarraga.