New Zealand squash player Paul Coll has been beaten in the final of the Qatar Open in Doha by Peru's Diego Elias.
Paul Coll. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2021 www.photosport.nz
It's Elias maiden major title.
The match lasted 83 minutes and saw Coll stage a comeback in the second game after dropping the first and have chances to win the third.
However, Elias kept to his tactics and Coll couldn't get over the line with the eventual score 13-11, 5-11, 13-11, 11-9.
Aside from being a notable win for a player from Peru it was the first Platinum tournament since 2017 where no Egyptian man was featured in the final.
"Just very happy to be a Platinum champion for the first time. I have been trying for a long time now, Paul is my closest friend on Tour and it is the first time in forever that there are no Egyptians in a final, so we were very happy for that! He is such a great champion, he is an inspiration for anyone that plays squash, or any sport really. I am a massive fan too and I train with him too," said Elias after the win.
For Coll it was a disappointing loss with opportunities which he didn't take to win the title.
"It is hard to see those [positives] now, but I am happy to be back here in Doha, competing in another final on such a great stage. It's a really well-run tournament, a massive thank you to the sponsors, to QTerminals for being the main sponsor here, and to the Qatar Squash Federation for putting on such a great event and making the players feel special. They look after us the best on Tour, so it is a pleasure to be here.
"All of my sponsors, they really make my life easy. I feel like they are a part of my team and not just a sponsor. To everyone who helps me out, especially my coaches, Bart [Wijnhoven] my mental coach, and Rob Owen, my squash coach. i thought we had a good plan this week, unfortunately I just didn't quite convert it. I had game balls tonight in every set but I just couldn't close it out. A massive thanks to my team, I could do this without them."
After a run of half a dozen tournaments in close succession Coll gets a break now before his next event which is set to be at Canary Wharf in London in mid-November.
Since late August Coll has won the British Open, was a semifinalist at the Egyptian Open, was a beaten finalist in San Francisco, lost in the quarter-finals at the US Open and the final in Doha.