Finals : Watanabe and Coll claim the titles

Satomi Watanabe stunned top seed Nele Gilis in straight games to claim her biggest ever PSA World Tour title, while in the battle of World #1 and #2 Paul Coll came from two games down to deny Ali Farag …

Read on for reports, quotes and photos …

Superb Satomi wins her biggest ever title

[4] Satomi Watanabe (Jpn) 3-0 [1] Nele Gilis (Bel) 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 (46m)

Japan’s Satomi Watanabe produced the performance of her life to beat top seed and World #4 Nele Gilis in straight games to become the inaugural Optasia Championships Women’s Champion.

Gilis came into the match having won two titles this season and with a 4-0 H2H record over World #19 Satomi, and started well enough as she established a 4-1 lead in the opening game. Watanabe wasn’t deterred and made her way back, levelling at 4-all and keeping a point ahead as the scores edged up to 9-all. The Roehampton-based Japanese had been hitting winning shots all game, and two more gave her the lead 11-9 after 15 minutes.

The second was more of the same, Gilis led 3-2 but Watanabe forged ahead again, 8-6, 10-8 and another winner to double her advantage.

Watanabe’s delayed crosscourt flicks were causing her opponent all sorts of trouble, an she utilised them again in the third, taking a 5-0 lead, all on winning shots. The only sticky patch came as Watanabe clipped the tin in three successive rallies for Gilis to recover to 5-6 – but that was the end of it, and with the help of two successive back-wall nick to reach match ball at 10-6, just one final winner was needed for Watanabe to claim her first World Tour title.

Coll comeback denies Farag

In the men’s final, one of the contestants – Egypt’s World #1 Ali Farag and New Zealand’s World #2 Paul Coll – was set to claim their second Optasia title. With the pair competing in their fifth match – and fourth final – of the season the score weas tied at two apiece.

It was Coll who started the better, moving from 3-all in the first to take a 7-3 lead, but Farag struck back, delighting the packed crowd with some wonderful recoveries and winning shots as he fought back to level at 7-all, taking the lead 11-8 after 18 minutes.

The second was all Farag, continuing his form from the first, taking a lead at 5-2 and reeling off the next six points for 11-2 after 9 minutes.

As the World Champion moved ahead in the third, 5-2 and 7-4, Coll was looking a little dispirited at times. But as Farag finally started to make some errors, Coll’s interest and energy levels rose, and playing as fast as possible he levelled at 9-all, earned and lost a game ball but worked for another one and a deep crosscourt gave him the game 12-10 after 20 minutes.

Farag was still observing the Ramadan fast, and was a handful of minutes short of the 18.13 timeslot when he could start taking on fluids. Not that it seemed to make much difference – he had the upper hand from the outset of the fourth, leading 4-2, 6-4 and 8-5 finding winners like he had in the opening games. But then he started clipping the tin, and Coll was back at 8-all then 9-all. Farag would get one match ball at 10-9 on a stroke, but Coll saved that with a crunching drive and two Farag tins later we were into a decider.

Water on board, Farag recovered from a 2-4 deficit in the fifth, then from 5-all found four winners in a row to move two points from the title. For the third game in a row though, Coll fought and fought back, throwing in a massive dive at 9-8 to Farag which probably kept him in the match.

As Coll levelled at 9-all Farag looked to be cramping up. Two more rallies, two more winners and Coll was the Champion!