Fifth Title For Perry In Dominant Delaware Win
Sarah Jane Perry
completes her fifth WSA World Tour title after beating Samantha
Cornett in the Tour10 Delaware Open 2013.
The 22-year-old from Birmingham, England put in an assured campaign
in Delaware to fulfil her top seed status, and began by defeating
qualifier Hollie Naughton of Canada in four games. Next, the
world No.29 dispatched eighth seed Olga Ertlova of the Czech
Republic in a straight-games win.
Perry then had to recover from a game down to defeat Heba El
Torky of Egypt, ranked just four places below the Brit. After
succumbing to a 12-10 tiebreak loss in the first game, Perry stormed
back in to an 11-0 retaliation in the second, before closing out the
contest and ensuring her seventh WSA final appearance.
In the final, the Englishwoman faced WSA 2012 Sportsmanship Award
winner Samantha Cornett of Canada. The second seed had also
enjoyed a confident run en-route to the final, beating Diana
Elisa Garcia Fierro from Mexico in round one, before defeating
home-hope Sabrina Sobhy in four games in the quarter-final.
A two-game lead against fourth seed Emma Beddoes nearly ended
in disaster for the Canadian however, as the Englishwoman fought
back level in the pair’s semi-final clash, but Cornett was able to
squeeze a narrow 13-11 tiebreak to end the 70-minute marathon and
put the world No.34 into her seventh WSA final.
Perry started the brighter of the pair in the final, varying her
length and short-game to test her opponent’s recovery from the night
before. Cornett tried to slow the onslaught by lifting the ball,
but Perry was efficient with her volley-drop’s and the Englishwoman
closed out the first game. More of the same followed in the second,
with Perry’s touch affording her some breathing room whilst working
Cornett into the corners. The Canadian conceded some tired errors
towards the business end of the game, allowing Perry to march to a
two-game lead.
A more focussed Cornett emerged for the third game, and was
determined not to let Perry have it all her own way. She increased
the pace and took her time looking for the winning shots, which
enabled her to stay in the contest. Perry’s use of holds and deft
flicks were all that gave her the edge in the final game, and the
top seed was able to gain match-ball at 10-8, before a resilient
Cornett came back to force the tie-break. She was unable to force
the contest to a fourth game however, as Perry ended the contest
12-10, to claim WSA title number five, her fourth in under 9-months.
