England’s Daryl Selby scored one of the best wins of his career in the first round of the Case Swedish Open – fighting back from two games down to beat fourth seed Thierry Lincou and make the quarter-finals of the long-established PSA World Tour International 70 squash event at the Linköping Sporthall in Linköping.
The illustrious Frenchman, who boasted an unbeaten record against Selby in three meetings since 2008, made an excellent start against the 29-year-old from Essex.
But Selby, who moved ahead of the former world champion in the world rankings for the first time this year, slowly took control of the match – and after 68 minutes confirmed his ranking superiority by clinching a 4-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-3 victory.
“Big comeback today against the legend Titi,” tweeted the world No12 later. “Happy to have finally beaten such a great player and not the easy way!”
Fellow countryman Tom Richards also had to come back from a two-game deficit to earn his place in the last eight. Now ranked 19 in the world, Richards fought back to overcome English qualifier Chris Simpson 6-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10 in 70 minutes.
Richards will now meet Frenchman Gregory Gaultier after the top seed from France despatched Indian number oneSaurav Ghosal 11-8, 11-3, 11-6 in 49 minutes.
RESULTS: PSA International 70 Case Swedish Open, Linkoping, Sweden
1st round:
[1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-8, 11-3, 11-6 (49m)
Tom Richards (ENG) bt [Q] Chris Simpson (ENG) 6-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-8, 12-10 (70m)
Stephen Coppinger (RSA) bt [Q] Campbell Grayson (NZL) 11-9, 8-11, 7-11, 14-12, 11-4 (92m)
[3] Peter Barker (ENG) bt Rasmus Hult (SWE) 11-4, 11-8, 11-7 (31m)
Daryl Selby (ENG) bt [4] Thierry Lincou (FRA) 4-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-3 (68m)
Simon Rosner (GER) bt [Q] Amr Khaled Khalifa (EGY) 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 (33m)
Nicolas Mueller (SUI) bt Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS) 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 12-10 (57m)
[2] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [Q] Henrik Mustonen (FIN) 11-7, 11-7, 11-4