Gas City ProAm Semi-Final, 24-Jan 2015:

[1] Leo Au (Hkg) 3-2 [3] Shawn Delierre (Can)
            11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 7-11, 16-14 (170m)
  

The semi-final match between Leo Au and Shawn Delierre in  Holtrand Gas City Pro-Am 2015 in Medicine Hat, Canada, was, at a mammoth 170 minutes,  the longest squash match .... ever !!



It was a match that eclipsed the previous record set 32-years ago by legendary Pakistani six-time world champion Jahangir Khan, who took 166-minutes to get past Gamal Awad in the 1983 Chichester Festival in the era of ‘hand-in-hand-out’ scoring.

With the fifth game, which went to 16-14, lasting an incredible 78-minutes alone the victory saw Au, who stands at 5ft 4, complete a total of over 300-minutes on court during the four-day tournament, averaging 75-minutes-plus per day as he stormed to the title, earn his place in the annals of sporting history in the process.

"It was a tough week for me because I'm physically and mentally exhausted after the tournament," said Au.

"I'm really happy to win this match against Shawn. In the fifth game neither of us ever had a big lead, it was 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and always very tight.

"When we got to the tie-break I don't think anyone could tell who would win in that situation because both of us were tired and we were still pushing hard for each point. Fortunately, I managed to finish the match at 16-14!

"I was physically very tired in the final but I just fought for each point and didn't think much about other things. I'm happy that my fitness lasted until the end and that I was able to stay focused during the match."

PSA Chief Executive Alex Gough said: "The fact that Leo not only won his 170-minute match against Shawn, but then followed it up by winning the final in 85-minutes, with less than 24 hours recovery, is testament to the kind of physical conditioning that is par for the course on the PSA World Tour at present.

"In sports like premier league football players are lauded for completing two 90-minute matches inside seven days while we are regularly seeing players backing up from 60-minute plus battles on a daily basis at all events, from the Challenger level all the way through to World Series, demonstrating the supreme fitness levels that are required to play squash at the highest standard and the players deserve all the credit for the efforts they put in."
 

THE SCORESHEET
ref: Martin Knight

Matches you measure in hours

The longest matches ever recorded:

2015 Gas City Pro-Am: Leo Au (Hkg) 3-2 Shawn Delierre (Can)
               11-6, 4-11, 11-6, 7-11, 16-14 (170m)
1983 Chichester Festival: Jahangir Khan (Pak) 3-1 Gamal Awad (Egy)
               9-10, 9-5, 9-7, 9-2 (166m)
2013 National Capital Open: Shawn Delierre (Can) 3-2 Adrian Waller (Eng)
              11-13, 12-10, 14-12, 4-11, 14-12 (157m)
2008 Baltimore Cup : Shawn Delierre (Can) 3-2 Shahier Razik (Can)
               9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-5 (150m)
2015 Dougie Kempsell (Sco) 3-2 Joshua Larkin (Aus)
               6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 13-11 (149m)
2006 Hong Kong Open: Gregory Gaultier (Fra) 3-2 Adrian Grant (Eng)
              12-10, 11-3, 3-11, 7-11, 13-11 (146m)

And the longest three-game match:

2016 Gas City Pro-Am: Ben Coleman (Eng) 3-0 Shawn Delierre (Can)
              11-9, 13-11, 12-10 (130m)