North Coast Open: Azman And Kobayashi Secure World Championships Places

Unseeded Malaysian Aifa Azman and Japanese No.5 seed Ryosei Kobayashi have won the titles at the Roberts & Morrow North Coast Open.

With the victories, the pair have booked their places in the CIB PSA Women’s World Championship in Egypt, and the PSA Men’s World Championship in Qatar, respectively.

The big story of the week has been the 17-year-old Azman, who with victory over Hong Kong’s Vanessa Chu in the final, has dispatched the No.1, No.2, No.3 and No.6 seeds en route to the title.

She needed just 23 minutes to defeat Chu on Sunday afternoon in Coffs Harbour, allowing the World No.49 to rack up just 15 points in the match.

This is Azman’s first tournament victory away from home soil, having previously won four times on the Malaysian Squash Tour in 2018.

In the men’s final, Japan’s Ryosei Kobayashi backed up his semi final win over the tournament’s No.1 seed by beating No.3 seed Addeen Idrakie to lift the trophy.

Kobayashi got the better of the Malaysian in just over an hour, needing four games to get the job done, as Idrakie threatened to come back from 2-0 down.

The Japanese player won the first two games, including the second on a tie-break to take control, before Idrakie took the third 11-4. The comeback was quashed, though, as Kobayashi won the fourth game 11-5 to take victory, his first on the PSA World Tour.

Result – Men’s Final
[5] Ryosei Kobayashi (JPN) bt [3] Addeen Idrakie (MAS) 3-1: 11-8, 12-10, 4-11, 11-5 (62m)

Result – Women’s Final
Aifa Azman (MAS) bt [1] Vanessa Chu (HKG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-4 (23m)