JAMIE Hopwood and Kathryn Cordell were crowned as the king and queen of the court after they won their respective York Open Squash finals at York Railway Institute this weekend.
Hopwood retained his men's title after a punishing four-set final against Matt Lowery, while 16-year-old Cordell became one of the competition's youngest-ever winners of the ladies' section after she toppled top-seed Kim Chadwick in straight sets.
The first game in the men's final was marked by long rallies with both players working hard but eventually Malton-based Hopwood took charge to win 9-3.
Top-seed Hopwood set off in the same attacking fashion in the second set to race into a 7-1 lead, but his IT Sports Wigginton team-mate Lowery rallied and came back to 7-5 and 9-9 before taking the game with a tight forehand drive.
In the third game, Lowery started mixing the pace and went into a 4-1 lead but Hopwood came back attacking both front corners and causing unforced errors before going on to win 9-4.
Hopwood's tail was up and he wrapped up the title in emphatic fashion 9-0.
The ladies final was more straightforward as second-seed Cordell, a pupil at Joseph Rowntree School, took control from the start.
The highly-rated youngster raced into a 9-5 9-3 lead and looked comfortable as she moved 5-0 ahead in the third set, but Chadwick staged a brave fight back before eventually going down 10-8.
In the men's plate event, Jonny Duffield, also of IT Sports Wigginton, beat Mike Nicholls in a five-set battle.
Duffield looked on course for a straight sets win as he opened up a 2-0 lead (9-7 9-3), but Nicholls gamely took the game to his rival, winning the next two sets 9-6 9-4 to set up a thrilling finale.
Duffield gained an early three-point and never looked back as he went on to take the title 9-4.
The Vintage final produced another five-setter with top-seed Bob Robinson edging out second seed Mike Ward 5-9 9-5 9-4 7-9 9-0.
The vintage plate was won by Arthur Williams 9-4 9-0 9-4 against Bob Palmer.
Updated: 10:06 Monday, February 17, 2003
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