Peter Barker & Raj Nanda In Colombian Open Final

Australia's sixth seed Raj Nanda finally ended the local interest in the Colombian Open when he prevailed in a tight four-game semi-final against qualifier Bernardo Samper to set up a final against England's second seed Peter Barker in the $20,000 PSA Tour event in Bogotá.

It was the second time in just two months that Bernardo Samper had stormed through a higher-ranking field of a PSA event in his home country to delight his local supporters. In his hometown of Bogotá, the 23-year-old capitalised on his first round victory over eighth seed Jan Koukal to conquer Liam Kenny, the fourth seed, in the quarter-finals.

But Raj Nanda, the 26-year-old from Brisbane who is ranked more than 100 places higher, was ultimately too strong for the Colombian, winning 7-11 11-10 11-8 11-10 to reach his first PSA final of the year.

Peter Barker was fully tested in the quarter-finals against seventh seed Eric Galvez, needing more than an hour to tame the Mexican 11-10 7-11 11-10 11-4. In the semi-final, the 21-year-old from Upminster in Essex faced fellow Englishman Joey Barrington, whom he beat in straight games in last week's final of the Aberto Internacional de Sao Paulo in Brazil.

This time, a determined Barrington took a 2/1 lead, after prevailing 6-4 in a second game tie-break. Barker fought back to force the match into a fifth game decider, however, and again a tie-break was needed to separate the pair. Barker ultimately clinched the tie-break 3-1, to record an 11-8 10-11 7-11 11-6 11-10 victory.

Semi-finals:
[6] Raj Nanda (AUS) bt [Q] Bernardo Samper (COL) 7-11, 11-10 (2-0), 11-8, 11-10 (2-0)
[2] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [3] Joey Barrington (ENG) 11-8, 10-11 (4-6), 7-11, 11-6, 11-10 (3-1)