It
was the top two seeds who contested the final of the richest women's
event of the year so far, after contrasting semi-final victories for
England's Alison Waters and Egypt's Omneya Abdel Kawy
at the Field Club.
Waters made it three straight-game wins in a row as she beat
fourth-seeded Vanessa ATkinson to reach the final. Kawy twice had to
come from behind before ending the run of unseeded compatriot Raneem
El Weleily - who had ousted third seed Laura Massaro in a
sensational quarter-final upset.
But it was Waters who came through three close games in the final,
reducing the head-to-head deficit to 8-4 in the Egyptian's favour as
she repeated her win over Kawy in last year's Greenwich
quarter-finals.
Waters, 25, was playing her tenth WISPA final and bagged only her
third WISPA title out of 85 events, while the 24-year-old Kawy has
amassed six titles from 114 events and was making her 21st
appearance in a final.
Miranda Ranieri (Can) bt Emma Beddoes (Eng) 13/11 1/11
9/11 11/7 11/8
Joelle King (Nzl) bt Lily Lorentzen (Usa) 11/7 11/1 11/4
Alana Miller (Can) bt Amelia Pittock (Aus) 11/10 11/6 11/7
Aisling Blake (Irl) bt Olivia Blatchford (Usa) 11/9 11/4
11/2
22-Jan, Round One: Serme Suffers In Greenwich Opener
Raneem El Weleily produced the only upset on the opening day of the
Greenwich Open in the USA when she beat France's sixth seed Camille
Serme in five games to reach the quarter-finals of the at
Field Club of Greenwich.
The unseeded 21-year-old world No21 from Egypt beat Serme, ranked
nine places higher, 12/10 in the fifth, and will now face England's
third seed Laura Massaro for a place in the last four.
Egypt's second seed Omneya Abdel Kawy, twice a runner-up in
Greenwich, dashed domestic hopes by beating former US champion
Latasha Khan. The world No7 from Cairo will now line up against
Australia's fifth seed Kasey Brown, a straight games winner over
England's former world No4 Tania Bailey.
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