Milestone For Massaro After
Carol Weymuller Victory
Laura
Massaro
claimed her milestone tenth WSA World Tour title yesterday as the Englishwoman
completed her Carol Weymuller Open 2012 campaign with a win over
Raneem El Weleily.
Massaro almost failed to make it past the first round of the Gold Series
event after going two games down against Low Wee Wern of Malaysia. She
managed to turn the match around to win in five, but again lost the first game
against Annie Au in the quarter-finals before showing her resilience to
battle past the No.6 seed from Hong Kong.
In the semi’s, Massaro faced Alison Waters, a dangerous prospect
following her defeat of Madeline Perry in the first round, followed by
the shock win over world No.1 Nicol David. Massaro played a steady game
however and dismissed the threat of her compatriot in straight games to set up
the final against world No.2 Raneem El Weleily.
The Egyptian had faced a similarly tough route to the final when, after beating
Jaclyn Hawkes in straight games, she too had to battle back from a two
game deficit to overcome Joelle King of New Zealand.
She then defeated fellow-Egyptian Nour El Sherbini, banishing memories of
her British Open loss at the hand of the teenager, to make her second
consecutive WSA World Tour final after winning the CIMB Malaysian Open last
week.
Massaro came out on top after a closely fought first game, and extended a strong
lead in the second as her opponent struggled to find any consistency with her
short game. Short of ideas, El Weleily succumbed to defeat in straight games,
and Massaro’s win will really increase the pressure at the top of the WSA World
Rankings.
Massaro And
Weleily To Contest Carol Weymuller Open Final
Laura Massaro
and Raneem El Weleily will contest the WSA Gold Series Carol Weymuller
Open final, after defeating their respective national compatriots at Casino
Heights in New York.
Third seed Massaro ended the run of qualifier
Alison Waters in straight games, her first WSA victory over her fellow
Englishwoman in 2012. Waters defeated top seed Nicol David in the
quarter-finals, but was unable to reproduce the performance that extended her
tournament campaign.
Massaro will face last week’s CIMB Malaysian
Open champion Raneem El Weleily in the final, who overcame teenager Nour El
Sherbini in a close four-game clash. Weleily lost out to Sherbini when the
pair faced each other in the British Open semi’s back in May, but the world No.2
made no mistake on this occasion, dropping only the third game on the way to her
second successive WSA World Tour final.
Weleily last played Massaro in round one of this
event in 2011, when the Egyptian needed a fifth game tiebreak to overcome her
opponent. Earlier in the year, Massaro got the better of Weleily in the
Cleveland Classic. Massaro currently leads the head-to-head against the world
No.2, with seven wins to Weleily’s four.
Waters Dimisses David In Carol
Weymuller Quarters
Alison Waters stuns onlookers at
Casino Heights in New York as she dismisses world No.1 Nicol David in
the quarter-finals of the WSA Gold Series Carol Weymuller Open.
The English qualifier took four games to subdue the reigning World
Champion, who lost out to Raneem El Weleily in last week’s CIMB Malaysian
Open, making it David’s first consecutive tournament losses since 2009.
Waters will now face compatriot Laura Massaro in the semi-final.
The world No.3 beat Hong Kong international Annie Au after coming
from behind in a similar pattern to her first round clash.
Teenager Nour El Sherbini beat higher seed Jenny Duncalf in
straight games to prolong the Egyptian’s maiden Carol Weymuller campaign and
continue Duncalf's wait for a semi-final appearance stretching back to
January.
Sherbini will face Raneem El Weleily in the second semi-final of the
event, as the world No.2 fought back from two games down to defeat unseeded
Joelle King of New Zealand in five games. The final result could
have gone either way as little separated the pair in the fifth game, and a
tiebreak was forced before the Egyptian was able to finish off the tie.
Two Seeds Down In Carol Weymuller Opener
The fiercely contested WSA Gold Series Carol
Weymuller Open in New York yielded few surprises in round one at Heights
Casino last night, but a number of close results proved for an exciting opening
day of competition.
The only big surprise of the first round came as unseeded Joelle King
moved past eighth seed Rachael Grinham in straight games, attributing to
the Australian’s second successive first round exit. The New Zealand
international King will progress to face last week’s Malaysian Open champion
Raneem El Weleily, who beat King’s compatriot Jaclyn Hawkes.
With the draw for the Carol Weymuller Open being completed last month, newly
promoted world No.9 Alison Waters still had to qualify for the event
based on her previous months world ranking. The former world No.3 faced fifth
seed Madeline Perry in their first round clash, the player's third
meeting of 2012. Waters recorded her third successive win over the Irish
international in four games. She will now face Nicol David in the
quarter finals after the world No.1 beat Australian Kasey Brown in
straight games.
Other Englishwomen joining Waters in the quarters are Laura Massaro and
Jenny Duncalf who played contrasting games to ensure their progression.
Third seed Duncalf dismissed qualifier Dipika Pallikal of India in three
games, whilst Massaro faced world No.10 Low Wee Wern of Malaysia in a
five-game thriller.
The Englishwoman stormed back from two games down to draw level, before closing
out the win to advance to the quarters where she will face Annie Au of
Hong Kong. Au also faced a difficult start to the competition as she twice came
from behind to overcome a resilient Donna Urquhart in five games.
Teenaged prodigy Nour El Sherbini started her first Carol Weymuller
campaign with five-game battle against unseeded Frenchwoman Camille Serme.
Like Au, Sherbini was also forced to come from behind twice to force the fifth
and final game, in a contest that couldn’t have been much closer. With very
little separating the pair, a tie-break was forced which went in favour of young
Egyptian, 14-12 and the 17-year-old will have little time to recover before
facing Duncalf in the next round.
