Ivan loses to Lobban in final
SCOTLAND’S Greg Lobban denied national champion Ivan Yuen a seventh career PSA Tour title in winning the final of the New Zealand Southern Open in Invercargill yesterday.
Fifth seed Lobban claimed his ninth PSA Tour title with an 11-7, 11-6, 3-11, 11-9 win over the topseeded Ivan.
Despite having to struggle through two tough and long matches in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, Ivan said it had no bearing on his performance in the final.
“Not really,” Ivan told Timesport when asked he had felt fatigued.
“My performance overall wasn’t too bad but could have been better. There is a little of everything that I need to improve,”
Ivan, 26, who had been bidding to win his first tour title since November 2015, had a chance to extend the final to a fifth game when at 9-9 in the fourth, Lobban scrambled out of a defensive situation for a let-call before scoring winners in the next two rallies for victory.
World No 42 Ivan, who won his maiden national title last month, will remain in New Zealand for the SquashXL Open in Auckland which begins on Thursday.
Seeded second, Ivan meets a qualifier in the first round before a likely rematch with India’s Mahesh Mangaonkar, who Ivan defeated in five games in the Invercargill quarter-finals after trailing 4-8 in the decider.
Should Ivan get through to the semi-finals, he could run into World No 67 Lobban again.
World junior champion Ng Eain Yow is also competing in Auckland but meets top seed Campbell Grayson of New Zealand in the first round while Syafiq Kamal is up against fourth-seeded Australian Rex Hedrick. Ivan is using the tournaments in New Zealand to prepare for the World Games in Wroclaw, Poland on July 25-28 where he will be accompanied by Nafiizwan Adnan in the men’s draw.
Nicol David will be bidding for a record fourth consecutive World Games gold medal with top seed Camille Serme of France her biggest rival for the top step of the women’s podium. Devinder Singh