MELBOURNE, Oct 21: World number six Paul Price won the World Squash Federation Challenge in an ill-tempered, 103-minute final against fellow-Australian Anthony Ricketts on Sunday.

Second seed Price triumphed 9-0 9-10 10-9 0-9 9-2 after winning the first game in just nine minutes.

In a sometimes-heated contest, Price led two games to one before Ricketts took the fourth game in 9-0 in five minutes as Price apppeared unable to stretch for balls.

Price, who said after the match he had simply been fatigued, recovered to win the fifth game 9-2 including gaining five points on strokes, infuriating ninth seed Ricketts.

Ricketts at one stage left the court to speak with the referee while earlier in the match Price had grabbed the world number 28 by the front of the shirt in a discussion about obstruction.

A tournament spokeswoman said the exchanges between the pair were friendly as they knew each other’s games well, although the move by Ricketts to leave the court and approach the referee in the fifth game was described as unusual.

An international teams event starts on Monday.

Plans for a men’s world championship from October 15 to 21 in Melbourne had to be shelved because of economic uncertainty following the attacks on New York and Washington.—Reuters