Delierre Raises Home Hopes In Ontario

Shawn Delierre raised hopes of keeping the Northern Ontario Championship trophy in home hands when the fourth seed from Canada ended the giant-killing run of England's Charles Sharpes to reach the final of the PSA World Tour Challenger 15 squash event in its third year at the Sudbury YMCA in Sudbury, Ontario.

Unseeded Sharpes, who ousted Canada's defending champion Shahier Razik in a career-best win 24 hours earlier, continued his determined play in the first game against the experienced Delierre.

"Played at a considerably higher pace than the previous match, Charles was hitting hard and low straight lines, while Shawn randomized the play with working boasts and crosscourt holds from the back," said tournament spokesman Michael McCue. "The Canadian was managing to dictate play despite usually being pinned deep in the court."

Sharpes, the world No88 ranked more than 30 places below the Canadian, twice clawed back Delierre leads - but the 29-year-old from Montreal maintained the upper hand in the decider to close out the match 11-9, 6-11, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5 after 88 minutes.

"I'm obviously disappointed to lose but feel there were a lot of positives to take from the performance and feel like things are definitely heading in the right direction for me," said Sharpes after the end of his impressive Canadian run.

"Yesterday against Razik was one of the biggest wins of my career and hopefully I can gain a lot of confidence from that performance I produced to get Shahier off in straight games - it was a huge win for me," continued the London-born 20-year-old.

"This has been a great tournament for me and after a patchy start to the season I feel like I've really kicked on in the last couple of months and have been looking at my game in great depth to see what I need to work on to push me onto that next level and I'm starting to see the benefits pay off."

Delierre will face US champion Julian Illingworth in the event's first all North American final.

But the top-seeded 28-year-old from New York had to battle for 123 minutes to overcome determined Englishman Chris Simpson before beating the No3 seed 8-11, 13-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8.

"This was definitely one of the most physically demanding matches I have ever seen," exclaimed McCue afterwards. "Both players were struggling to move in the fifth but still produced a 20-minute game.

"Proof that anyone who suggests 11 scoring has marginalized the fitness aspect of pro squash is sorely mistaken!"

Both players are celebrating their first PSA World Tour final appearances of the year - Illingworth the 16th of his career and Delierre the 15th.

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