Final:
Nour El Sherbini 3-1 Dipika Pallikal        11/7, 5/11, 11/7,11/8

Sherbini takes her biggest title yet
Larissa Stephenson reports

The Champion Fiberglass TXOpen crowd at the Downtown Club at the Met in Houston was treated to 48mins of superb squash in today’s final match.

Nour El Sherbini, the world #13 and recent World Open finalist had little trouble reaching the final while her opponent, world #10 Dipika Pallikal, battled through two tough five game matches in her quarterfinal against Nicolette Fernandes then her semifinal against Madeline Perry.

Both players started off battling some early nerves, getting tangled and playing several lets, but El Sherbini quickly settled to take the first game 11-6.

Both players have similar attacking styles but Pallikal showed more patience in the second set, working solid tight drives and controlling the pace well, giving El Sherbini fewer options to take the ball in short. The referees became the focus in the middle of the second game, with many decisions causing frustration for both players.

Pallikal held on to take the second game, but lost focus in her game plan, becoming increasingly rattled by the referee’s decisions.

Nour stepped up in the third game, working in nice holds and great length, adding some of her trademark sublime drop shot nicks to take the lead. More conversations with the referee from both girls, and to Pallikal’s frustration the third ended with a stroke to El Sherbini off a Pallikal drop shot.

The fourth was the closest of the games, point for point to 7-all with both girls working more length and showing good patience before attacking.

El Sherbini managed to pull away and gain a couple of points, giving her a cushion at 10-7. Pallikal fought back, holding her nerve and hitting some great shots to work El Sherbini around the court and save one match ball, but that was all she managed as El Sherbini held on to take the match, backing up her impressive form from the World Open to take the title here at the Texas Open.

11/5, 11/9, 9/11, 11/6 (55m)

[3] Camille Serme

11/7, 5/11, 11/7, 11/8  (48m)

[4] Dipika Pallikal

11/7, 11/13, 13/11, 10/12, 11/4 (75m)

 [2] Madeline Perry

09-Apr, Qualifying Finals:

Joey Chan (Hkg) bt Victoria Lust (Eng)                     11/5, 10/12, 12/10, 11/8
Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt Siyoli Waters (Rsa)            11/5, 11/6, 11/6
Emma Beddoes (Eng) bt Kristen Lange (Usa)            11/5, 11/4, 11/5
Donna Urquhart (Aus) bt Anna Kimberley (Eng)        11/3, 11/5, 11/6

08-Apr, Qualifying Round One:

Victoria Lust (Eng) 3-0 Daksha Pathak (Usa)                11/4, 11/3, 11/1
Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-0 Larissa Stephenson (Nzl)      11/9, 11/6, 11/6
Siyoli Waters (Rsa) 3-0 Roxanna Keshavarz (Eng)        11/3, 11/2, 11/6
Kristen Lange (Usa) 3-0 Anaka Alankamony (Ind)       11/7, 11/4, 13/11
Anna Kimberley (Eng) 3-0 Belen Etchechoury (Arg)     11/2, 11/6, 11/5

10-Apr:
Round One in Houston
John F Leavy reports

In the first match of the day, which lasted 67 minutes, we had an upset as Nicolette Fernades beat  World No 11Annie Au. Fernandes used her strength to continually exploit au’s backhand and kept her on her heels.

A crowded grandstand were treated to an entertaining first match that kept everyone probably past there 1 hr lunch time

A 36 minute match btw D. Pallikal and D Urquhart which showed the coaching of S. Fitzgerald may be paying off for the lady from India. First game Urquhart had 5 games balls but let Pallikal back in and lst that one. After that one the focus went out of the Aussie and it was 3-0

WSA President K Brown and qualifier Beddoes hit the ball hard on every point. Difficult calls for the ref’s on this one but Beddoes better lengths won out. Brown looked strong in the 3rd but Beddoes stepped it up at 6 all and prevailed

M Perry seemed sluggish n the 1st. with J chan hitting good lengths and high lobs. But Perry became clinical in the next 3 moving her opponent with deep lengths and great drops to finish quickly after that

R Grinham looked all of 21 not 37. Against J Chinappa Grinham volley every lose ball into the nick and kept her opponent moving corner to corner. Veteran style against a younger opponent the Aussie looked like days of old

Sobhy’s 1st game looked like she was unbeatable. Great lengths, volleys that were strong, and nicks into the front left. But Serme, the 2012 Champ figured out the pace, hit next to no tins in the next 2 games, and had it all figured out how to beat the young American.

Two Egyptians up next. El Sherbini never let her country woman into the 1st 2 games and O. Kawy looked flat. El Sherbini had her opponent gong the wrong way many times with trickle boasts, and drops, that even Kawy was applauding. 3 game was back and forth, and there was a tie breaker but El Sherbini never looked like she was going to give up control

Two different styles, two different sizes, but entertaining to see Perry use her great wrist and Wern use a classic squash style to win. First 3 could have gone either way for both players with some stroke calls hurting both.

In the 4th they collided and both went down with Perry getting the worst of it. After conso with the Physio, on site, and the referee checking on her Perry was able to win the 3rd. But Wern came out in the 4th with a determined look and went up 7-6 and never looked back