Teenager Yathreb Adel won the WSA Tour5 Finnish Open after beating
second seed Birgit Coufal.
The sixteen-year-old Egyptian, along with her
three fellow top seeds, received a bye through the first round of the event in
Mikkeli, Finland. She then defeated unseeded compatriot Raneem Hassan Sharaf
in 21-minutes to progress through to the semi-final round.
There, the Heliopolis-based teenager recorded
the upset of the competition after stunning top seed Lotte Eriksen of
Norway in straight games. Upon reaching her 5th WSA final, Adel then faced
second seed Birgit Coufal of Austria.
Coufal had seen a tougher campaign to the final
than her final opponent, beating Mennat Nasser of Egypt in a close-fought
four games. She then came back from a game down to defeat Victoria Bell
of England to a similar scoreline.
Adel’s momentum through the early stages
continued throughout the Finnish Open final. The Egyptian did enough to finish
off a narrow first game, before continuing to dominate the rest of the final,
completing the rout in 22-minutes.
The win secured the former world No.30 her
fourth WSA World Tour title in five final appearances, and is a welcome return
to form for the Egyptian following an long layoff at the end of 2012 that saw
her slip 40 places in the WSA world rankings.
