Squash: Willstrop survives major scare at British Open

Willstrop was two games and 8-9 down to Cameron Pilley, the unseeded Australian, before winning.

HULL:

James Willstrop, the only player to have been denied the British Open title by a single point on two separate occasions, kept alive his dream of one day making that last shot with an extraordinary quarter-final escape.

The former world number one from England was two games and 8-9 down to Cameron Pilley, the unseeded Australian, before winning 9-11, 9-11, 14-12, 11-6, 11-2 in a one-hour 46-minute struggle which was so intense that it left both men doubled up with exhaustion at the finish.

“The intensity was just so great,” said Willstrop, his words issuing from the frontier of collapse. “I don’t know how I turned it around.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2013.