Ford Grabs Pretoria Prize

Tom Ford and women's champion Nadine Ayman Shahin

England's Tom Ford kicked off his five-week squash tour of South Africa in the best possible way - reaching his first PSA World Tour final, and then clinching the NSA Open title in Pretoria as the third seed.

Ranked outside the world's top 100, the 20-year-old from Cheltenham made his breakthrough in the PSA Challenger 5 event in its second year at the Pretoria Country Club when he upset top seed Aqeel Rehman, the 28-year-old world No90 from Austria, in the semi-finals.

His opponent in the final was Muhammad Saqib Yousaf, the 22-year-old from No.4 seed from Pakistan who also survived a four-game semi to make the climax, the second Tour final of his career.

"The final was close in the first game," said tournament promoter Steven Doëg. "However Muhammad could not continue from where he left off in his semi-final and made numerous errors which the steady Tom took full advantage."

The 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 victory in 38 minutes earns Ford his first Tour title.

The Gloucestershire left-hander now moves on to Johannesburg where he is the No.3 seed in the Assore Central Gauteng Open.