For those who comply with skilled squash you will have little doubt heard of the monumental latest achievements of Paul Coll!
In March, he turned the primary man ever from New Zealand to achieve World No.1 within the PSA Males’s World Rankings and, on prime of that, he not too long ago received the Windy Metropolis Open in Chicago.
This can be a large milestone for skilled squash so I had no selection however to put in writing up a weblog publish on Paul ‘Superman’ Coll (as he is typically referred to on the PSA Tour)…
The rationale Coll reaching World No.1 is so important is as a result of it is the primary time since Could 2017 (when Gregory Gaultier topped the rankings) that there hasn’t been an Egyptian males’s World No.1.
The Egyptians nonetheless closely dominate the highest 10 in March’s rankings with 7 or your complete prime 10 being from Egypt, nonetheless, Coll has now totally confirmed (in my view) that he’s the most effective.
A little bit of background on Paul Coll, he was born in 1992 and, from a younger age performed a spread of sports activities together with rugby, hockey, basketball, soccer, golf, and naturally squash.
When he was 15, Coll was chosen to play within the New Zealand Junior Worlds squad, that is believed to be the purpose from which Coll determined to focus his efforts on squash over different sports activities.
Since then, he is been on a relentless upward trajectory claiming numerous titles on the way in which.
In 2016, Coll made his identify recognized on the PSA Tour by successful the Australian Open from an unseeded place. Following this, he received the Channel VAS $100,000 occasion in London which propelled him into the highest 20.
Then, in January 2017, he turned the primary New Zealander since Ross Norman (in 1995) attain the highest 5. I need to admit, from that time I wasn’t positive if Coll had what it took to get any increased.
I assumed he’d hit a plateau and I used to be uncertain whether or not he’d ever be capable of convincingly overcome Egyptian legends equivalent to Mohamed ElShorbagy and Ali Farag who’re additionally within the prime 5.
Traditionally, he would attain some huge finals however would wrestle to beat these prime guys. Nonetheless, Coll’s sport took an enormous step up not too long ago and my predictions have been confirmed very, very fallacious!
Picture from Contained in the Video games web site
Throughout this season, Coll has now managed to beat Ali Farag (the earlier World No.1) increasingly more persistently. He beat him to win the CIB Squash Black Ball Open 2021 last (3-0), within the Canary Wharf Basic last (3-1), and within the world-famous Allam British Open (3-1).
One thing I discovered very attention-grabbing was that, in case you have a look at the head-to-head win-to-lose ratio between Farag and Coll, Farag has overwhelmed Coll 15 instances and Coll has solely overwhelmed Farag 4 instances… so, 3 of these 4 wins have been this season. This can be a crystal clear indicator that Paul has stepped up his sport to a brand new stage.
From my very own evaluation, it appears as if Coll has perfected the artwork of the affected person sport. He has by far the most effective size video games on the PSA World Tour, his accuracy to the again is unbelievable. This enables him to grind away at his opponents till they hit a weak shot after which he can take the ball in brief.
If he is below any strain, he has developed a pinpoint correct crosscourt lob to get himself out of bother, and, Coll’s straight drop (each volley and non-volley) has turn out to be way more correct and constant than it was once, making Coll much more harmful to play in opposition to.
Coll has additionally all the time been recognized for his health, explosive pace, and energy, so his opponents typically wrestle to complete factors in opposition to him as, until they’re hitting the nick, Coll is prone to attain pictures earlier than they bounce twice.
Paul Coll’s psychological resilience and mindset is among the most attention-grabbing components of his sport.
The strain of being World No.1 have to be monumental. On one hand, in case you attain that prime spot, there’s an opportunity that you can get complacent and really feel as if there’s nowhere else to go since you’ve got reached the highest.
Alternatively, the strain is now on you to maintain successful tournaments. You are just about anticipated to win on a regular basis.
Picture from PSA web site
In a latest interview with the PSA, Coll said “I’m not going to attend for them to come back after me and catch me, I’m going to maintain making an attempt to enhance and preserve going ahead. There is no such thing as a means I wish to stand nonetheless at No.1 or I received’t keep there for lengthy for positive.”
Paul simply backed up this assertion by claiming the win on the Windy Metropolis Open, which is his second-ever platinum title.
All through the match, Coll managed to beat James Willstrop, Adrian Waller, Joel Makin, Tarek Second, after which got here again from 2-0 down within the last to win 3-2 in opposition to Youssef Ibrahim.
This exhibits unbelievable psychological toughness and actually solidifies Paul’s place as World No.1.
For the time being, Paul Coll is certainly enjoying like a World No.1 and doing so persistently. The query now could be, how lengthy can he stick with it? Additionally, can he step it up even additional?
I do not know the reply to both of them, nonetheless, Coll must be on his guard. Being within the highlight of World No.1 signifies that gamers from throughout will seemingly be intently observing his techniques and enjoying type.
If somebody figures out a technique for beating Coll he might have an actual drawback on his arms…
However for now, I believe he deserves a little bit of time to bask within the glory of his achievements!
His subsequent problem is to defend his title on the Canary Wharf Basic which has began yesterday (on the time or writing).
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