Australia’s world No. 16 Ryan Cuskelly stormed to his sixteenth career PSA title without dropping a game at the Walker & Dunlop/Hussain Family Chicago Open Sunday, October 21, at in Chicago Illinois.
The sixth consecutive edition of the tournament hosted at Life Time Vernon Hills continued its rise in prize money with $28,000 on offer for the PSA Challenger Tour 30 twenty-four-player draw.
Cuskelly made his way through the draw with a round of sixteen victory over training partner and U.S. national champion Chris Hanson and a quarterfinal victory over world No. 55 Joshua Masters. In the semis, Cuskelly held off seventeen-year-old Egyptian phenom Mostafa Asal in three games. Ensuing semifinal saw twin brothers Cesar and Arturo Salazar pitted against one another in a match that went the distance to five games with Cesar, world No. 25, prevailing 11-8 in the fifth.
With the advantage of a fatigued final opponent, Cuskelly powered through the final 11-5, 11-6, 11-3 in thirty minutes.
“Cesar had a brutal match with his brother yesterday and they nearly knocked each other out,” Cuskelly said. “I knew he might have been a little tired so I just tried to make the game as hard as I could at the start. I’m happy with my week. I started the season slowly so I just wanted to play some good squash and I proved that this week and won all of my matches 3-0.”
The 2018 Chicago Open title marks Cuskelly’s second, adding to his 2014 title.
