GRITTY FARAG PREVAILS

World No. 1 recovers to retain S'pore title, while teen wins first squash gold event

- David Lee

This is how legends are made. American singer Sam Tinnesz's chorus provided a fitting end to the US$220,000 (S$296,000) Vitagen Singapore Squash Open, as Egypt's world No. 1 Ali Farag proved his mettle by coming back from two games down to beat world champion Diego Elias of Peru and retain his men's title on Nov 24.

Farag, who won 3-2 (6-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-1, 11-4) in 70 minutes at the OCBC Arena, told The Straits Times: "You can have all the technique and tactics, but none of it matters if you don't have the character and grit to back it up."

In a generally good-spirited encounter that saw four-time world champion Farag applauding some outstanding winners from his world No. 3 opponent, it was Elias who surprised initially.

He came out firing on all cylinders to take the first two games, despite having come back from two games himself to beat Kiwi Paul Coll in the semi-finals the day before.

However, the tables soon turned on the 28-year-old Peruvian, who had beaten Farag en route to becoming the first South American squash world champion in May.

With the third game finely poised at 8-8, Elias was just three points away from sealing his first title in his third consecutive Singapore Open final.