Aussie captures Northern Ontario Open

Frustrated with his lack of improvement, Ryan Cuskelly did something about it.

Back to the drawing board went the 27-year-old professional squash player from Australia, with some pretty impressive results. Saturday in Sudbury, Cuskelly picked up his second consecutive win on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Tour, knocking off Laurens Jan Anjema of the Netherlands 12-10, 11-7, 11-8.

Exactly two months after capturing the Oregon Open, Cuskelly mowed down, in order, Mike McCue, Alister Walker and Cesar Salazar en route to his $25,000 purse.

The key, he said, was re-finding his comfort zone.

"I went down the road of playing a slower game, and it wasn't putting any pressure on anyone," said Cuskelly. "I might beat some guys in the fifties (world rankings), but I was never beating anyone in front of me.

"I kept losing all the time, and I wasn't enjoying it."

Time for a change. So Cuskelly fell back on how he liked to play — aggressively, staying on the attack.

In that sense, a matchup with Anjema created a nice litmus test of his recent progress.

"He's a big guy and likes to take his space, so I thought if I could get the ball away from the middle, I could make him do the work," said Cuskelly, who surprised Cameron Pilley in taking the Australian Closed Squash Championship back in December.

"My shots were working today, sort of dragging him short, and twisting and turning him. That was sort of my game plan. The more I could get in front and work him around, the better chance I would have."

With both Cuskelly and Anjema on top of their games this week at the Northern Ontario Open Championship, a quick start in their head to head matchup would be key.

"The first game was massive, especially in a final," said Cuskelly.

Cuskelly becomes the fifth champion over the past five years of tournament play, following in the footsteps of Stephen Coppinger (South Africa - 2014), Marwan Elshorbagy (Egypt - 2013), Julian Illingsworth (USA - 2012) and Shahier Razik (Canada - 2011/2010).