Yannick Wilhelmi ends home hopes after beating Aqeel Rehman in Austrian Open semifinal
The today’s crowd at EUROPARK shopping mall saw two amazing semifinals. Unfortunately for the home supporters there will be no Austrian player left in the final, as last year’s runner up and topseed Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI, WRL 94) beat Aqeel Rehman (AUT, WRL 121) 3/1. But anyway there will an exciting final to expect for sure!
We are slowly coming to an end and the matches are getting tighter. Tomorrow will be the final day of this year’s Austrian Squash Challenge and we are excited for what is in store. We will see a new Austrian Open champion crowned with the finals set to kick off at 16:30. But before that, we will have the famous VIP-tournament with olympic medalists and world champions to participate taking place.
Also there will be a big raffle with more than 100 prizes such as a Skydiving-voucher!
Todays first match was between defending champion and second seed Yannik Omlor (GER, WRL 96) and unseeded James Peach (ENG, WRL 172). It was decided in five long games lasting 62 minutes. Finally the Englishman was able to beat last years champion and higher seeded Yannik Omlor. Yannik didn´t make it easy for James and will be looking forward to the World Games in the next two weeks in the United States.
Overall it was an exciting and incredible match where both showed their best.
The second and last game today was between home favorite and fifth seed Aqeel Rehman (AUT, WRL 121) against the top seed Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI, WRL 94). It was decided after 46 mins. with a total score of 3/1 to the Swiss. It was a close affair and Aqeel fought hard in front of his home crowd. They really got behind him at different points during the match and pushed him to a strong performance. It seemed like the Austrian Champion was able to come back from 0/2 games down. Aqeel won the third and was 10/6 up in the fourth to force a deciding game. However, it was the Swiss player, Yannick, that eventually created a comeback and took the victory after winning the fourth game 13/11. Even though we are sad not to have Aqeel in the finals tomorrow, but we are sure it will still be a great match coming up.
Here are the full results of the semifinals:
17:30: James Peach (ENG, WRL 172) – [2] Yannik Omlor (GER, WRL 96) – 9/11, 11/8, 11/4, 8/11, 11/3 62min
19:00: [1] Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI, WRL 94) – [5] Aqeel Rehman (AUT, WRL 121) – 11/8, 11/5, 7/11, 13/11 46min
Final Saturday 16:30: James Peach (ENG, WRL 172) – [1] Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI, WRL 94)
Livescoring is also available on the PSA World Tour Website as well as on this website www.squash-im-europark.at.
All pictures are free to use under the reference of our photographer Jamsin Walter. There are more pictures in the gallery coming up.
