CAIRO, Sept 7: David Palmer produced the greatest comeback in the history of the World Open squash when he edged out Frenchman Gregory Gaultier 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 16-14, 11-2 to lift the title.

The second-seeded Australian saved five match points in the fourth game before he fought back to defeat the European champion in an ill-tempered final.

Gaultier, who upset top seed Amr Shabana in the semi-finals, could barely believe his luck when Palmer saved one of the match points with a mis-hit.

Palmer refused to give up and came from 3-8 and 6-10 down in the fourth game, taking five spectacular tumbles amidst a series of controversial refereeing decisions.

“I have been telling myself that I'm not really in Cairo, but back in my home town in Lithgow (New South Wales),” Palmer said after the one-hour 40-minute thriller.

“There is a mountain there and I tried to imagine I was doing just one more training run there with my dad. I tried to take the pressure off myself that way.

“Maybe Gregory deserved to win. He played a lot of the better squash but I am proud of the way I won it.”

A frustrated Gaultier waved his racket in disgust after he lost the fourth game 6-4 on a tiebreak at 10-all.

In the fifth game he seemed to run out of steam and was left speechless at the end, while his coach Andre Delhoste criticised the refereeing.

“The referee changed radically in the middle of the fourth game,” Delhoste said.

“The decisions were in Palmer's favour with no warning.”

Palmer disagreed: “He (Gaultier) was really standing on the ball tonight. It was frustrating. I didn't want to turn it into a physical match but I was getting no lets.”—Reuters