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 Cleveland Classic 2014
30 Jan - 04 Feb,
Cleveland, Usa, $50k |
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04-Feb, Final:
[1] Nicol David (Mas) 3-0 [Q]
Annie Au (Hkg)
13/11,
11/5, 11/6
Nicol the Champion again
 Malaysia's
top seed Nicol David collected her second Cleveland Classic title
with a straight-games win over surprise finalist Annie Au.
Au, who had beaten three Enlishwomen ranked#2, #4 and #9 in the
world on the way to the final, led the first, but David
recovered from 7-10, saving four game balls before taking the lead,
and always looked the likely winner in the next two games.
"It's a great feeling you can't describe it to people to work that
hard in training and have it pay off on the court," said David.
The win marks David's 73rd WSA title from 92 finals, and takes
her unbeaten run to 35 matches and eight consecutive tournament wins
(and she is still to lose a single game in 2014!).
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Draw & Results
ProAm Doubles
Great week for Annie
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 Match Points from Bob Botti
Game one: Both players locked in early on. A marvelous set of
retrieves by David. Au answers with 2 nice kills. She moves out to a
6-3 lead, then 8-5.
David claws back to 7-8 but Au is in her groove. 2 beautiful kills
and sheleads 10-7. David responds! A point then another then finally
10-10. Phenomenal point at 11-11 to David and she closes it out
13-11.
 Game
two: Nice touch by both. David pulls ahead 6-2 using good pace down
both rails. David happy to exchange points 11-5 game 2.
Game three: Still plenty of fight left in Au. Back and forth to 5-5.
Each player making the most of earned openings. Great squash! David
working Au to a 7-5 lead.
Au hits a wonderful crosscourt slide drop to pull to 7-8. But David
is not deterred. She keeps working the plan. Au is dead on her feet
and quickly it is 11-6 match David.
 David:
"It's a great feeling you can't describe it to people to work that
hard in training and have it pay off on the court."
Au: "Nicol top player no matter how I played the ball she
just went and got it."
Thanks to Joe the club and the referees. Well done again.
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  Cleveland
Classic 2014
30 Jan - 04 Feb, Cleveland, Usa, $50k |
Round One
01 Feb |
Quarters
02 Feb |
Semis
03 Feb |
Final
04 Feb |
[1] Nicol David (Mas)
11/2, 11/8, 11/3 (40m)
[Q] Noue El Sherbini (Egy) |
[1] Nicol David
11/5, 11/6, 11/6
[5] Camille Serme |
[1] Nicol David
11/7, 12/10, 11/4
[Q] Nour El Tayeb |
[1] Nicol David
13/11, 11/5, 11/6
[Q] Annie Au |
[5] Camille Serme (Fra)
9/11, 11/6, 11/8, 11/5 (54m)
[Q] Sarah Kippax (Eng) |
[6] Joelle King (Nzl)
11/6, 11/6, 11/5 (30m)
[Q] Nour El Tayeb (Egy)r |
[Q] Nour El Tayeb
8/11, 11/9, 11/4, 12/10
[3] Raneem El Weleily |
[3] Raneem El Weleily (Egy)
11/8, 10/12, 11/5, 11/7 (40m)
Kasey Brown (Aus) |
Dipika Pallikal (Ind)
12/10, 11/4, 11/9
[4] Alison Waters (Eng) |
[4] Alison Waters
8/11, 5/11, 15/13, 11/9, 11/5
Omneya Abdel Kawy |
[4] Alison Waters
6/11, 11/7, 9/11, 11/2, 13/11
[Q] Annie Au |
Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy)
11/4, 11/9, 8/11, 11/8 (49m)
[8] Low Wee Wern (Mas) |
[Q] Annie Au (Hkg)
11/5, 11/9, 11/3 (30m)
[7] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) |
[Q] Annie Au
11/5, 12/10, 14/12
[2] Laura Massaro |
Madeline Perry (Irl)
15/17, 11/4, 6/11, 11/5, 11/5
[2] Laura Massaro (Eng) |
31-Jan, Qualifying Finals:
Nour El Tayeb (Egy) 3-0
Rachael Grinham (Aus)
11/5, 11/5, 11/5
Sarah Kippax (Eng) 3-1
Line Hansen (Den)
11/8, 11/6, 5/11, 11/9
Annie Au (Hkg) 3-0
Latasha Khan (Usa)
11/4, 12/10, 11/3
Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-0
Emma Beddoes (Eng)
12/10, 15/13, 11/3
30 Jan, Qualifying Round One:
Rachael Grinham (Aus) 3-0 Sam Cornett (Can)
11/3, 11/7, 11/6
Nour El Tayeb (Egy) 3-0 Cecilia Cortes (Usa)
11/6, 11/2, 11/1
Line Hansen (Den) 3-0 Sarah Cardwell (Aus)
11/5, 11/6, 11/4
Sarah Kippax (Eng) 3-2 Sabrian Sobhy (Usa)
9/11, 12/10, 11/5, 6/11, 11/3
Latasha Khan (Usa) 3-2 Olivia Blatchford (Usa)
10/12, 11/9, 11/6, 13/15, 13/11
Annie Au (Hkg) 3-0 Nouran Gohar (Egy)
11/7, 11/9, 11/2
Emma Beddoes (Eng) 3-0 Melody Francis (Aus)
11/7, 11/6, 11/4
Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-0 Micaala Seth (Can)
11/3, 11/4, 11/1
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03-Feb, Semis:
[1] Nicol David 3-0 [Q] Nour El Tayeb
11/7, 12/10, 11/4
[Q] Annie Au (Hkg) 3-2 [4] Alison Waters (Eng)
6/11, 11/7, 9/11, 11/2, 13/11
Au axes English trio to reach Cleveland final
Top seed Nicol reached the
final of the Cleveland Classic with a straight-game win over
qualifier Nour El Tayeb - recovering from a big deficit in the
second - and will meet another qualifier in the final after Hong
Kong's Annie Au beat fourth seed Alison Waters 13/11 in the fifth to
complete a hat-trick of upset wins over England's top ten players.
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Joelle King and
her team mates won the Tub O' Towels Play The Pro (Jamie
Lynch, Lauren Cunningham, Joelle King & Matt Sullivan) |
Match Points from Bob Botti
Nicol David beat Nour El Tayeb 11-7, 12-10, 11-4
 El
Tayeb showed nerves early then settled in but David steadily pulled
away. 11-7 game one David.
El Tayeb upped the pace and took the lead from the start. She lead
7-2 then 10-7 but David reeled her in and kept going to take the
second 12-10.
Out of box David kept the pressure on. Quickly it was 7-0. Soon it
was 11-4. Match to David.
David: When down 10-7 "Keep in that mindset. Make every point
count."
El Tayeb: "if I win that second game hard to say what would
have happened."
Annie Au beat Alison Waters 6-11, 11-7, 10-12, 11-2, 13-11
Good points right off the mark. Both players focused. Waters a
little bit better. 11-6 game one to Waters.
 Second
game more of the same. This time Au a bit better. 11-7 and we are
tied.
Third game back and forth. Several nice points at the end 12-10 to
Waters.
Foruth game Au comes out hot Up 5-1 and keeps the pressure on to win
11-2.
Fifth game a real dog fight. Several errors late by Waters and Au
leads 10-8.
 Waters
fights back to 10-10. Marvelous kills by both players. Eventually Au
wins, out 13-11 on a cross court lob.
Au: "in the second I tried to slow down the pace. Gives me
time to set up myshots."
Waters: "We both had times when we were controlling the
match. We both played our best in the last game."
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 Excitement
and Controversy
at Cleveland pro/am
Olivia Bruno Reports
9 am at the Cleveland Racquets club was the place to be Sunday.
The annual pro/am doubles, in conjunction with the WSA
gold event, featured 6 WSA players attempting to play a version
of squash that they were very unfamiliar with.
 Adventurous
pros Sarah Caldwell, Rachael Grinham, Jenny Duncalf, Nour El
Sherbini, Latasha Khan and Sarah Kippax participated
in this year’s event.
There were various degrees of success in the two pools of three
teams format, and the determination of finalists from Pool B was
very controversial.
Participants were told it was two games each, and in the event
of a tie, points were counted. Defending champions Sarah Kippax
and Joe DeGrandis lost the first game 15/13 against Latasha and
Jim Naylor, but came out strong to capture the second 15/7.
 In
accordance of the rules, they should have moved into the final,
but club pro Joe Russell came out of nowhere and said that a tie
breaking first to 5 points would be declared the winner. Jim and
Latasha prevailed 5/3.
Jim and Latasha lost in finals to Marc Spector and Nour,
who was playing in her first doubles event. The winners were
awarded the highly coveted tub of Tub O’ Towels.
Joe and Sarah vow to return next to capture the title as
“they were robbed of a chance of defending the championship”.
Joe DeGrandis…..”I am mentally devastated!”
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02-Feb, Quarter-Finals:
[1] Nicol David 3-0 [5] Camille Serme
11/5, 11/6, 11/6
[Q] Nour El Tayeb 3-1 [3] Raneem El Weleily 8/11, 11/9, 11/4, 12/10
[4] Alison Waters 3-2 Omneya Abdel Kawy
8/11, 5/11, 15/13, 11/9, 11/5
[Q] Annie Au 3-0 [2] Laura Massaro
11/5, 12/10, 14/12
Upsets abound in Cleveland Quarters
Qualifiers Nour El Tayeb and Annie Au produced
stunning upsets in the quarter-finals of the WSA $50k event in
Cleveland as they beat Raneem El Weleily and Laura Massaro - both
previous champions, and there was almost a third upset as Alison
Waters saved three match balls in the third before beating
Omneya Abdel Kawy.
Waters will meet Au for a place in the final while Tayeb faces top
seed Nicol David who beat Camille Serme in straight games.
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 David:
"I have played Camille before and she is a tough competitor. The
rallies were long, she made me work hard but I was able to set up
the opening and I was able to put the ball away."
Serme:
"I was pleased with the way I played today, it's the best I have
played against her. Nicol got everything back and there wasn't much
I could do about it."
 Tayeb:
"I can't believe how well I played. I was feeling confident so I was going
for winners and they were working for me today. I practice with
Reneem all the time and the shots I used I have copied from her. I
am very happy here in Cleveland!"
El Weleily:
"It was tough as Nour played very well today and she knows my game
well. I was finding it hard to keep my focus today and the way Nour
played didn't help."
 Waters:
"I'm very happy that I was able to come back from being 2-0, I
didn't get off to a great start and made lots of errors in the first
game.
In the second game I played better and cut down the errors but
Omneya was attacking the front very well. Going into the 3rd I knew
I had to get stuck in and commit to grinding it out and once I won
the third game I knew I was in for a chance. It was a hard match and
Omneya is always very difficult to play against."
Abdel Kawy:
Alison did well to come back. I had match points in the 3rd and 4th
game and went for some winners but hit the tin, sometimes they work
and you win the match. Alison came out strong in the 5th and I
couldn't find my way back into the game."
Au:
"I was hitting good length today and was using the lob well. Laura's
deep game wasn't as good as it usually is and I was able to take the
ball early and was confident finishing off the point."
Massaro:
"Annie played a great match tonight and she always does well
here as the court really suits her game. The ball moves off the
front wall quite slowly and I was having trouble getting the ball
into the back corners.
"Annie doesn't hit the ball hard, lifts the ball very well and was
hitting into the back corners more consistently than me. The slow
pace of the game and her variation of shots made it very difficult
for me to find my rhythm."
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01-Feb, Round One:
Egyptians advance in Cleveland
While top seeds Nicol David and
Laura Massaro advanced in contrasting styles, the first round of the popular WSA $50k event
in Cleveland was marked by the advance of the Egyptian trio of
defending champion Raneem El Weleily, unseeded Omneya
Abdel Kawy, and qualifier Nour El Tayeb.
Ray Lindsay reports
Nicol David bt Nour El Sherbini 3-0
David was on point for this match. She was very methodical, moving
the ball on court, not making any errors. Her game plan was to run
El Sherbini around the court, just long enough each point to wear El
Sherbini out. Nicol’s only scare was in game two, when she went down
7-2, before storming back to take the game 11-8.
 Camille
Serme bt Sarah Kippax 3-1
The second match of the day was the longest at 54 minutes. The first
game was a well fought tense game by both players. They were clearly
figuring out how to play one another. With Kippax getting the edge
in game one, the crowd was looking for an upset. Alas, Serme had
some good between game coaching and came out with more poise and
control for the next three games. Although Kippax was able to stay
in the match with Serme, it was only a matter of time, before Serme
would write her ticket to the quarter finals.
 Raneem
El Weleily bt Kasey Brown 3-1
This match was one of the more powerful matches of the evening, with
both players matching each other’s high pace and tempo. After losing
the second game, El Weleily took control of the match simply coming
out even stronger with a more aggressive tempo. Brown could not keep
up.
 Nour
El Tayeb bt Joelle King 3-0
The first upset of the evening! El Tayeb played a fantastic match,
being aggressive and retrieving really well. She was not making any
errors and was anticipating much of King’s shots. King did not have
a great match. She did not seem comfortable on the court making
errors on easy shots.
 Omneya
Abdel Kawy bt Low Wee Wern 3-1
The games were close and the match was well contested. Neither made
too many errors in the match. Kawy was thrown off by a few of the
referee decisions in game three, but was able to overcome. Although
the games were close, Kawy was typically in control and showed to be
the stronger player.
 Alison
Waters bt Dipika Pallikal 3-0
This was a well contested match. Both players were jockeying for
position and it looked like Pallikal could pull out a few games.
Ultimately, the difference was that Alison did not make mistakes.
She was always winning the longer points, which took the wind out of
Pallikal’s sail.
Annie Au bt Jenny Duncalf 3-0
Another upset today. Au was very good today at slowing the pace down
and lobbing the ball into the back corners. It was clearly giving
Duncalf trouble. Duncalf was down 9-5 in the second game and it
looked like she was about to gain control of the match. However, Au
had enough of a cushion to take the game 11-9. The third game was
all Au as she cruised to the 3-0 victory.
Laura Massaro bt Madeline Perry 3-2
The last match of the day was a real thriller, and almost a big
upset as second seed and 2011 Cleveland champio Laura Massaro came
from 1/2 down to deny Madeline Perry.
“I am just happy to get through that match as It was a tough first
round for me to have, said Massaro. "Madeline is a tough very tough
competitor.”
“It is a shame," admitted Perry, "because I played well all though
the match but I came off the pace a little in the last two games.
Laura played a great match.”
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31-Jan, Qualifying Finals:
Double Egyptian success in
Cleveland Qualifying
There was double Egyptian success in
the qualifying finals of the eighth edition of the Cleveland
Classic, as Nour El Tayeb and Nour El Sherbini were
joined by England's Sarah Kippax and Hong Kong's Annie Au in the
main draw of the popular WSA $50k event.
Ray Lindsay reports
Nour El Tayeb bt Rachel Grinham 3/0
The Egyptian girl showed silky skills in defeating former World
Champion Grinham in a match that last 35 minutes. A lack of length
from Rachael meant Nour could dominate the match showing impressive
touch and deception.
Sarah Kippax Kippax bt Line Hansen 3/1
 The
first game had a few disputed lets, Line made a few crucial errors
in the middle of the game that gave Kippax a buffer to end the game.
In the second Line started well with a 3/1 lead but a series on
unforced errors proved her downfall. Kippax got in front and
dominated play, forcing the errors.
The third was a reverse of the 2nd,Line managed to get in front and
force errors, Line won to pull a game back.
Line had a handy lead 6/1 in the fourth then made a few errors to
get Kippax in the game, Kippax drew even and finally pulled away to
win a tough game 11/9.
Annie Au bt Lastasha Khan 3/0
 Annie
showed fantastic speed around the court and made very few mistakes
to win the first 11/4, but Khan came out a lot stronger in the
second, playing better length.
At 9/10 a lucky service nick got her to 10/10 all but she could not
capitalize and lost 10/12. The third was Annie all the way winning
11/3.
Nour El Sherbini bt Emma Bedddoes 3/0
 The
last match of the night was the best. The English girl was up 10/8
in the first then hit the tin, which gave Nour an opportunity, which
she took, winning 10/8.
The second game was the longest of the night, Beddoes again up but
could not finish, Nour never gave up and ended up winning a great
game 15/13. The third game was a bit of a procession, with El
Sherbini winning in 8 minutes 11/8.
Sherbini now meets top seed Nicol
David while Tayeb meets sixth seed Joelle King. Kippax is up against
France's Camille Serme and Au meets Jenny Duncalf.
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Cleveland Classic Qualifying Round One -
what they said ... |
 “I
felt good and was moving well which is the main thing for me these
days.
"I was hitting the ball quite well too and had a plan with a couple
of things to focus on which I managed to stick to. Also didn’t make
too many mistakes which always helps.
"Hopefully I will play well v Nour tomorrow. I’m just enjoying
playing well and feeling physically in shape at the moment.”
Rachael Grinham |
 “I
felt like I played well and moved well. I wanted to make sure that I
was moving well and that my head was in the game! Happy to be
through to play Rachael in the next round.”
Nour El Tayeb |
 “I
felt like I was lacking a bit of length to start with and found her
quite tricky having only played her once in practice before.
"I felt the court better after a couple of games but she dug in
really well although I think I got the better of her in the end
through fitness.
"She moves really well and has good shot selection so is a good
prospect for the future.”
Sarah Kippax |
 “I
think I played ok and I think Sarah can play better than she did
today against me. Whoever I play tomorrow will be tough out of
Sabrina and Sarah. I hope it's a 5 setter!”
Line Hansen |
 “I’m
really happy I won. I was a bit tense during the match and Olivia
played well. I am excited to be playing Annie Au tomorrow.”
Latasha Khan |
 “It’s
been a while since I’ve had comfortable match like that so it gives
me confidence as I have been out (injured) for a while.
"I haven’t been confident in my shots and mentally thinking they are
not very good but today I was thinking positively and played my
shots well.
"Hopefully tomorrow I will play well again, I have never played Emma
or Melody before.”
Nour El Sherbini |
 "Pleased
to get off in three. Mel is dangerous in the middle of the court and
can either make an error or hit a winner but fortunately today she
made more errors. It’s good to get going again after Greenwich last
week.
"I haven’t played Sherbini before so although it will be tough I am
looking forward to it.”
Emma Beddoes |
 “She
is only 16 and I can see she is very attacking, eager and never
gives up so I had to concentrate on not giving her any chances and
not to make any errors.
"I enjoy Cleveland, the billets and the people at the club are very
friendly. It’s a good venue with live broadcasting & a comfortable
player’s lounge!”
Annie Au |
Eight up for Cleveland Classic
The eighth edition of the Cleveland Classic (the first four were
billed as the Burning River Classic) sees the world's best
players return to Cleveland Racquet Club in pursuit of the WSA $50k
title.
The previous three editions have been won by the world's top three -
Laura Massaro in 2011, Nicol David in 2012 and Raneem El Weleily
last year, and all three are in this year's impressive draw.
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