Miko Äijanen wins Austrian Open

Miko Äijanen is the new winner of the Austrian Open 2019. The Finn overcame top seed and defending champion Lyell Fuller in four games.

Before the final there was a lot of action going on. Austrian National TV ORF and local TV station RTS and National Radio ORF broadcast highlights of the day such as the big raffle with more than 100 prizes, followed by a Taekwondo-Show.

After that the anual VIP tournament showed former and active world class athletes and non-sport stars as well in an entertaining show-tournament on the all-glasscourts.

Athletes such as former ski jump world champion Andreas Goldberger and current world class Ski racer Mirjam Puchner showed their Squash skills.

After that it was time for the international pros. The top two seeds from the Austrian Open made their way into the final.

It was an even start with both players playing a high pace. The crowed saw some exciting rallies which continued in the tiebreak as well. Lyell had the better end then and took the first game 13/11.

Hence a very close match could have been expected but Lyell surprisingly could not keep up with his performance in the first game and Miko showed no sign of slowing down either.

The next games were very one sided, while Lyell fought to still defend his title from last year, but Miko was too strong and dominant and very clinical.

After 45 minutes Miko won the match 11/13, 11/2, 11/4, 11/3.

Miko: ‚Thanks to everyone helped running this tournament. It was very nice to come and play here again and I had a great time here. Also I am very happy with the way I played in every match of the tournament.‘

Congratulations to Miko for becoming Austrian Open Champion and of course congratulations to Lyell as well on a great performance and reaching so far again in this tournament.

We woul like to take the opportunity to also thank all our sponsors, especially our host EUROPARK Salzburg. We are very thankful to have such great and long-term support, which was recently confirmed until 2022!

A big Thanks goes to all volunteers and people helping to organise the event. It takes a lot of work to make all this happen!

Now it is time to dismantle the court and pack everything up and slowly get back to business.

A full roundup of the Austrian Squash Challenge 2019 will follow. Meanwhile you find all information on our website www.squash-im-europark.at as well as on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Pictures can be used with the reference of our photographer Andreas Lutche – alutche-photography.com

And here is the full score of the final:

[2] Miko Äijanen (FIN, WRL 108) – [1] Lyell Fuller (ENG, WRL 105) – 11/13, 11/2, 11/4, 11/3