New Zealand squash great Paul Coll has booked his place in the final of the PSA Squash Tour Finals in Paris, keeping a remarkable purple patch rolling just a fortnight after he lifted the British Open trophy for a third time.
The 34 year old from Greymouth produced one of his most assured performances of the season to see off Egypt’s Mohamad Zakaria in the semi-finals at the Centquatre arena, winning 11-7, 11-7, 8-11, 11-1 in stifling evening heat. Zakaria, the reigning world junior champion and at 18 less than half Coll’s age, pushed back to take the third game, but the New Zealander simply turned up the pressure and ran away with the fourth to close it out.
It was the kind of result that has defined Coll’s career. Where younger opponents fade, he tends to find another gear, and the warm conditions inside the converted Paris arts complex played straight into the hands of a man whose fitness and relentlessness have long been his trademark. Speaking to RNZ afterwards, Coll said he had felt sharp from the start. “I was a lot more clinical with my short stuff today,” he said. “I was very happy with the overall performance.”
The win sets up a final against Peru’s Diego Elias, one of the most evenly matched rivalries in the modern game. The pair have met 20 times across their careers and have split those meetings exactly down the middle, 10 wins each, so there is little to separate them heading into the decider. Elias, a former world number one nicknamed the Puma for his quiet, prowling court coverage, came through his own semi-final against Egyptian top seed Mostafa Asal to reach the title match.
Getting there was anything but straightforward for Coll. To reach the last four he had to get past Wales’ Joel Makin, the world number seven and the defending champion of this very event. Beating the title holder on the way through underlines just how well the New Zealander is striking the ball at the back end of a long season.
The PSA Squash Tour Finals is one of the showpiece events on the professional calendar, bringing together only the top eight ranked men and the top eight ranked women from across the year. Played as two eight-player knockout draws, it rewards consistency over a full season rather than a single hot week, which makes Coll’s presence in the final all the more telling. To even qualify, a player has to have been among the best in the world month after month.
Coll arrives in Paris carrying as much momentum as anyone in the draw. At the end of May he claimed the British Open, the sport’s oldest and one of its most prestigious titles, beating Asal in the final after the Egyptian retired hurt during the fourth game. It was Coll’s third British Open crown, adding to his back to back wins in 2021 and 2022, and a reminder that the man from the West Coast remains very much at the front of the field.
That 2021 victory was a genuine landmark moment for New Zealand sport. Coll became the first New Zealand man ever to win the British Open, and the following year he climbed to world number one, the first Kiwi man to top the global rankings. For a player who grew up far from the traditional squash heartlands, hitting balls against a wall in a small Coast town, it has been an extraordinary climb.
What stands out about this latest run is its timing. Many players Coll’s age have long since drifted down the rankings or retired altogether, worn down by the brutal physical demands of a sport that asks for endless sprints, lunges and changes of direction. Instead Coll is contesting finals at the very biggest events, and doing it against opponents who were still at school when he turned professional. His durability has become a story in itself.
A win in Paris would cap one of the strongest stretches of his career and strengthen his case as one of the finest athletes New Zealand has produced in any sport, let alone one that rarely grabs the back page headlines at home. Squash has never enjoyed the profile of rugby or cricket in this country, yet Coll has quietly built a record that bears comparison with almost anyone.
The final against Elias is scheduled for the early hours of Sunday morning New Zealand time, the last act of four days of squash in the French capital. On recent form, and with the heat of the Paris arena seemingly to his liking, Coll will fancy his chances of adding another major trophy to a cabinet that already groans under the weight of his achievements.
Whatever the result, reaching the final of the season-ending championship two weeks after winning the British Open is a statement of where Paul Coll sits in world squash right now, and it is right at the top.
Will you be setting an alarm to watch Paul Coll go for the title on Sunday morning? Let us know in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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