Larkin and Ho Named August Players of the Month

Two titles in as many events during August have seen Australia’s Joshua Larkin named the PSA Men’s Player of the Month, while Hong Kong’s Ho Tze-Lok took the women’s award.

Larkin, the 27-year-old from Australia, claimed the fifth and sixth titles of his career after a successful month saw him surge to victory at the City of Greater Bendigo International and the City of Greater Shepparton International.

Larkin was seeded first for both tournaments and dropped just a handful of games throughout the month as he put Darcy Walsh, Henry Leung, Bernat Jaume and finally Ryunosuke Tsukue to take the title in Bendigo.

And he also played to his seeding in Shepparton, with the top seed earning wins against Nyeon-Ho Lee, Jason Holmes, Syed Azlan Amjad and Rhys Dowling to reach the title-decider where he faced Jaume once again.

The Spaniard pushed Larkin all the way, going a game up on two occasions, but a resilient Larkin came through to secure the win with a 12-10 tie-break victory in the fifth to claim back-to-back titles for the second time in his career.

Ho was also on form in Bendigo as the 21-year-old took the honours to claim her third Tour title.

The World No.52 has been in a rich vein of form after opening her title account with victory at the Brisbane City Squash Sandgate Squash MS Open in March before going on to win the Perrier Challenge Cup a week later.

And she made it three titles in five tournaments as the number two seed swept to the crown in Australia, defeating Jenny Haley, Stephanie Wighton, Samantha Foyle and top seed Liu Tsz-Ling en route.