Unseeded Muhammad Asim Khan completed a fairytale week with victory in the Charlottesville Open final, beating defending champion Nick Wall to clinch his maiden PSA Tour World event title at Boar’s Head Resort.
The 27-year-old came into this event having never gone beyond the quarter-finals of a World-level event before, and nearly went out in round one, fighting back from two games down to beat Brazil’s Diego Gobbi.
He then upset second seed Yahya Elnawasany in the last eight before seeing off fifth seed Cesar Salazar in the semi-finals, setting up a final showdown with top seed Wall, who took home this trophy 12 months ago.
The English lefty had come through a five-game battle with Moustafa Elsirty in the semi-finals, but made a fast start in the final, opening up a 4-1 lead in the first game before taking the 20-minute game14-12
Khan was on the back foot in the second, facing two game balls at 10-8, but took the next four points to level 12-10, then taking charge to take the next two games 11-5, 11-6 to claim the title.
“I’m feeling very happy,” he said. “I didn’t expect any of this. I’ve been playing squash for the last few years – four or five years – and I was struggling a lot, not winning any matches in big tournaments like this. So this is something else, something big for me. It was one of my goals and I’m very happy to achieve that, and hopefully in the future I’ll win more bigger tournaments.