EBS Dayton Open Squash Championship, Dayton, Ohio, USA

Semi-finals:

[1] David Palmer (AUS) bt [3] Karim Darwish (EGY)              11-7, 11-10 (2-0), 11-8

[2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt [6] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY)     11-9, 11-8, 11-5

    Final:

[2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt [1] David Palmer (AUS)    11-10 (7-5), 7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7 (109m)

Lincou Upsets Favourite Palmer
In Dayton Open Final

France's world No7 Thierry Lincou, the No2 seed in the $50,000 EBS Dayton Open, showed an incredibly tenacious style of play as he upset Australia's top seed and world No4 David Palmer in a five-game final of the 5-star PSA Tour squash event in Dayton, USA, that lasted over an hour and a half!

The Frenchman won the first game in an incredible 31-minute contest ending in a tiebreaker, 7-5, after facing five game balls!  Palmer pounded back to win the second close game 11-7 in 17 minutes.  The third game was a test for Palmer as he tried to go up 2/1 quickly by attacking but Lincou quickly showed he wasn't tired, grabbing and returning every ball to force mistakes from his opponent.

The 31-year-old from Marseille started game four with the same strategy, but Palmer - facing defeat at 0-5 down - fought hard and ran off eight straight points to get back into the match.  He won 11-6 and set the stage for a fantastic decider.

"The 25-minute fifth game featured some incredible squash points and an understandable amount of lets as the contestants began to tire," reports tournament organiser Charlie Johnson.

Lincou, however, was not to be denied - and, from five-all, won four straight rallies to go up 9-5 before closing it out 11-7.

The Frenchman credited his 11-10 (7-5), 7-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-7 victory to a strong desire to win in Dayton where he had lost the 2003 Championship after first achieving his world number one ranking.

The win marks Lincou's first PSA Tour title success for more than a year - and the 19^th of his career.  It also consolidates his position in third place in the list of current players' total title wins - behind Palmer, with 21, and Amr Shabana, the world No1 from Egypt, with 20.

26-Jan, Quarter-finals:

[1] David Palmer (AUS) bt [7] Cameron Pilley (AUS)                       10-11 (0-2), 11-5, 11-5, 11-4

[3] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [8] Borja Golan (ESP)                          11-6, 11-10 (6-4), 11-8

[6] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) bt [4] Mohammed Abbas (EGY)       11-7, 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (3-1)

[2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt [5] Olli Tuominen (FIN)                       11-5, 11-3, 11-8

Hisham Upsets Compatriot Abbas
In Dayton Open

Sixth seed Hisham Mohd Ashour pulled off the only upset in the quarter-finals of the EBS Dayton Open when he beat fellow Egyptian Mohammed Abbas, the No4 seed, in straight games in the 5-star PSA Tour squash event in Dayton, USA.

The 25-year-old from Cairo was continuing the winning ways of his talented younger brother Ramy Ashour, the world No2 and last year's EBS champion. 

Abbas, a crowd favourite in Ohio, where he was competing in his fifth successive Dayton Open, battled with Ashour for 50 minutes.  But the outsider came from behind in the second and third games to secure an impressive 11-7, 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (3-1) upset to reach the last four.

Hisham Ashour's semi-final opponent will be Frenchman Thierry Lincou, the second seed who despatched Finland's fifth seed Olli Tuominen 11-5, 11-3, 11-8.

Egypt will also be represented in the other semi-final where former champion Karim Darwish will face Australian David Palmer.  Third seed Darwish, the 2004 champion, beat eighth seed Borja Golan 11-6, 11-10 (6-4), 11-8, while top seed Palmer, in his maiden appearance in the event, recovered from a game down to defeat compatriot Cameron Pilley 10-11 (0-2), 11-5, 11-5, 11-4.