Knight Celebrates The GoodLife In Ottawa

After finishing as runner-up last year, New Zealander Martin Knight went one better this year by winning the GoodLife Open in the Canadian capital Ottawa, where he beat Pakistan's Danish Atlas Khan in the final of the PSA World Tour Challenger 10 squash event in its ninth year at GoodLife Fitness.

Knight, the top seed from Auckland, reached the final without dropping a game all week - whilst second seed Khan, a 19-year-old from Peshawar, was taken to four games in all his battles en-route to the climax.

"The first game saw the players trading points, Danish keeping it close with a very focused Martin," explained tournament promoter Heather Wallace. "Danish however was not able to sustain his good play, Martin finishing strong, taking the first game 11-8.

"The second game again was close, with Danish winning most of his points from the backhand side, however his backhand was also his undoing as he made many errors to the front left of the court. Towards the end of the second game, Danish lost some composure when he tied the game 9-9, then thought he won the next rally to get to game ball, but was denied when a let was played over one of his pickups.

"Knight was as focused as ever at this crucial point in the second game: He kept the pressure on, Danish again hit two backhand short errors to give the game to Martin 13-11.

"The loss of the second game definitely had an effect on Danish and at 6-0 down in the third he retired with a shin problem which resulted from an awkward front court pick up earlier on in the match."

The win marks the fifth PSA World Tour title of Knight's career - and the 29-year-old's second in the past three months.