Hall’s return to professional ranks pays dividends with hard-earned Pontefract win

Playing in his first professional tournament for three years, Kenilworth’s Chris Hall knocked out the top three seeds on his way to victory in the Pontefract PSA event in Yorkshire.

Up against number two seed David Wardle in the first round, a nervous Hall took a close first two games 13-11 and 12-10 before hitting form to take the third 11-5 and secure a 3-0 victory.

The quarter-final pitted the 27-year-old against Manchester’s Chris Lengthorn.

Having found some confidence from his earlier victory, he powered through with a fine display of fast, attacking squash to win 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 and set up a last-four meeting with third seed Danny Hockburn, who came into the tournament on the back of some impressive wins.

Playing controlled squash and counter-attacking when Hockburn opened up the court, Hall was always a few points ahead in each game despite some fast and brutal rallies.

An 11-4, 11-4, 11-8 scoreline put him through to the final against top seed Ashley Davies and Hall got off to a flying start, opening up a 10-5 lead in the opener.

However, Davies fought back well to come out on the right side of some long rallies to take the game 13-11.

The second game followed a similar pattern, with Hall this time resisting Davies’ fightback to win 12-10.

A strong display of attacking squash and retrieving won Hall the third game 11-5 before he closed out the match with an 11-9 success in a hard-fought fourth.

Hall is now looking to play a number of events on the World Tour in 2015 with  the ultimate aim of working his way into the world’s top 100.

He is currently appealing for a sponsor to help achieve this dream and can be contacted at [email protected]