By RJ Mitchell
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Rob Owen believes that nobody can beat World No.1 Paul Coll to the men’s PSA World Championships title if he continues his red hot form this week in Cairo.
Coll has already captured major titles at the Allam British Open and Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family this year, and Owen believes the former of those victories was the greatest since Jahangir Khan’s heyday, when the Pakistani legend picked up 10 titles in a row between 1982-1991.
Owen, who has played a major role in Coll’s metamorphosis from a member of the chasing pack to an assured major winner and undisputed World No.1, has no doubt that the Kiwi’s triumph in Hull, which saw him fail to drop a single game en route to the prestigious title, has provided concrete proof that at his best his charge is now operating at a level above his competitors.
Coll continues his title challenge tonight against Egypt’s Mazen Hesham in round three and Owen said: “In my opinion, Paul’s performance at the British Open was the greatest since Jahangir Khan was winning it and what that means in terms of the Worlds is very simple. If Paul Coll plays well, he will win it. In my opinion, no one can beat him playing well.
“Yes, if he plays averagely there are three or four players who can beat him and if he plays poorly there may be up to 15 players who can beat him, as Victor Crouin recently proved.
“But if Paul plays well, and there is no reason why he won’t play well, Paul Coll will be World Champion, it is as simple as that. He is the best player in the world by a margin and the others have got to do something special to combat that, yet even if they do that and Paul is playing well they won’t beat him.
“We are always looking at areas to improve, to me Paul is just about the finished article, but what I would say is that Paul is going to keep getting better at what he is doing.
Victor Crouin (right) is one of the few players to have beaten Coll this season
“The technical changes have been implemented and they are there now and are solid, and I won’t be doing much more there going forward. No one has ever been perfect, but in theory Paul could play a match where he doesn’t make one mistake, so there is always room for improvement, but I am not changing anything at this stage.
“There is nothing I see in Paul’s game at present that isn’t right, I just can see slight improvements we can make.”
“Of course, Paul is not unbeatable. It is just that no …….
Source: https://psaworldtour.com/news/view/10004/owen-no-one-can-beat-coll-if-he-plays-well