Castagnet Crushes Anjema In Rotterdam Rout

Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet caused a stunning upset at the Double AR Rotterdam Open Squash 2013 by ousting top seed and home crowd favourite Laurens Jan Anjema in the semi-finals of the new PSA World Tour Challenger 15 championship in the Netherlands city of Rotterdam.

Unbeaten by Castagnet in their previous four Tour clashes, the Dutch number one and world No18 quickly went 5-1 ahead in the first game.

The 26-year-old underdog from Aix-en-Provence soon settled down, however, and managed to contain his higher-ranked opponent by slowing down the pace and mixing it beautifully with bursts of high-paced attacking squash.

"As a result, Castagnet made Anjema do a lot of work, forcing openings to put the ball away, which he took full advantage of throughout the 48-minute match, winning 11-8, 11-8, 11-3," said tournament spokesman Tommy Berden.

Castagnet admitted afterwards that he had decided to forget his pain from the last two matches: "The pressure was off me because I was playing a higher-ranked opponent, which allowed me to relax and play smart squash," said the No4 seed. "I was on fire, and loved it!"

The upset takes the Frenchman into the sixth - and biggest - Tour final of his career.

In Sunday's Double AR Rotterdam Open final, world No31 Castagnet will face No2 seed Adrian Grant, after the Englishman recovered from a game down to beat Finland's Olli Tuominen, the reigning European champion, in a 62-minute encounter.

The win of the third-game tiebreak proved crucial as Londoner Grant, the global ambassador of title sponsor Double AR, never looked back after taking the important lead to win 7-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-3.

Grant is now celebrating the 30th PSA Tour final appearance of his career - but his first for over a year.

Official event website www.rotterdamopensquash.com

Picture courtesy of Squashpics.com