Two Out Of Two
For Ahmed After NSC Series No2 Title
Third
seed Salma Hany Ibrahim Ahmed stormed to success in the WSA Tour5 SRAM
NSC Series No2 title in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday.
The sixteen-year-old from Alexandria, Egypt defeated top seed Lisa Camilleri in
a surprising three-game semi to reach her second WSA career final. Before that
the teenager had made also short work of local qualifier Jadeleen Lee,
followed by an even more dominant win over unseeded Teh Min Jie,
defeating the Malaysian in just 20-minutes.
The Egyptian’s final opponent was home hopeful Rachel Arnold. The
seventeen-year-old beat seventh seeded compatriot Vanessa Raj in four
games in the opening round of the event, and completed a similar scalp against
fourth seed Tamika Saxby in 50-minutes in the quarter-finals. Second
seed Carmen Lee of Hong Kong lost out to compatriot Karman Siu,
setting up a semi-final appearance for the No.6 seed against Arnold.
Again the Malaysian demonstrated her talents in dismissing the Siu in straight
games to set up her second WSA final. Last month Arnold reached the NSC Series
No1 final as a qualifying entrant, and having again reached the culmination of
an event as an unseeded player, the teen was determined to prove herself this
time around.
Arnold started the match strongly and claimed a narrow opening game over her
younger opponent. Ahmed stormed back in the second game however, dominating the
play during which Arnold registered just one point before the Egyptian drew
level. Her momentum continued into game three as Arnold continued to struggle
re-establishing herself in the contest as Ahmed continued her dominance to take
the third game and with it, the lead.
A much closer fourth game saw some better play from Arnold, with the local
player doing much to counter the threat of the attacking third seed. A tiebreak
was forced at 10-all, but the higher ranked player showed the killer instinct to
close out the contest and claim her second WSA title from two WSA World Tour
finals.
