Challenger Tour Round-Up: Glory for Knudsen, History in Namibia

Unseeded Colombian Matias Knudsen completed an extraordinary week to cap off a remarkable summer by beating top seed Rowan Damming to lift the I SPAC Open trophy. 

Knudsen came into this tournament having won his previous two events, climbing almost 600 places in the world since April, but was still ranked 77 spots below his opponent. 

When Damming took the first game 12-10 it looked as though this might be one step too far, but the Colombian had other ideas, racing through the second and third games 11-3, 11-4, before edging the fourth 11-8 to claim victory. 

Elsewhere, history was made in Windhoek, where Adegoke Onaopemipo became the first Nigerian ever to win a PSA Tour title. 

The No.4 seed staged a stirring comeback from two games down to beat South Africa’s Damian Groenewald in close to 90 minutes, while Egypt’s top seed Menna Walid claimed glory in the women’s draw. 

There remains a day to play in the Schräglage Squash Open, where the top two men’s seeds, Yannik Omlor and Valentin Rapp, will face off in an all-German final. The pair have met four times before at tour level, with Rapp winning three of those four encounters, although Omlor won their most recent matchup, at last year’s Nash Cup. 

In the women’s draw, England’s Kiera Marshall is targeting a first PSA Tour title having fallen at the final hurdle three times before. She takes on Singapore’s Au Yeong Wai Yhann, who has never reached this stage of a Challenger Tour event before. 

You can see all the results from this week’s PSA Challenger Tour events here.

Photo credit: Christian Lortat