Dane Downs West For Toronto Title

Top-seeded Canadian Dane Sharp successfully defended his National Squash Academy Open title in his home city of Toronto - but the favourite had to fight off determined resistance from giant-killer qualifier Colin West before winning the PSA World Tour Challenger 5 event at the National Squash Academy.

While Sharp defeated two fellow countrymen in straight games en-route to the final, unranked West made his breakthrough in the opening round with a shock dismissal of Australia's No2 seed Scott Arnold.

The former Harvard student went on to remove two ranked Canadians before reaching his maiden Tour final.

"Colin took an excellent start and earned a 10-5 lead in the first game," reported event spokesman Michael McCue. "He would go on to hold nine game balls in total, but eventually Sharp stole the game 16-14.

"In hindsight this was the key point of the match; Dane earned not only the crucial 1/0 lead, but also the confidence to win big points later in the match. West again took a lead in the second, this time 8-4, and once again Dane was able to work his way back into it with solid defence.

"Going down 2/0 on two tiebreaks is clearly demoralizing," continued McCue. "But Colin stayed positive and finally consolidated a lead in the third to pull one game back. The top seed put an end to this potential comeback early in the fourth though, and never looked at risk of losing."

Sharp won the match 16-14, 12-10, 6-11, 11-4 in 62 minutes.

"So, Dane impressively defends his title, Colin reaches the final from qualifying, and all four semi-finalists are Canada; not a bad week for the NSA and Canadian squash overall," concluded McCue.

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