13-Feb, Finals:
Finnish titles for Emily and Olli
  

[1] Olli Tuominen (Fin) bt [3] Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy)                           11/5, 11/4, 5/11, 11/9 (58m)

Olli Tuominen took his fourth Finnish Open championship in Mikkeli today, beating Egypt's Karim Abdel Gawad by 3 games to 1 in the final.

Tuominen got a good start to the match and managed to keep the speed high, and Gawad was not able to challenge Tuominen in the first two games.

In the third Gawad got into the game and now he was in command as he pulled a game back. In the fourth game Tuominen was again leading the pace and got an early lead of 5-1.

Gawad came back once again but the four points cushion was enough for Tuominen to take the game and the match.
 

Emily Whitlock (Eng) bt Siyoli Waters (Rsa)                               11/6, 11/8, 11/3 (30m)

In the women's event it was top seeded Emily Whitlock all the way. Although she was the favourite, the crowd was looking forward to a much more even fight.

Whitlock was clearly the better player on the day and took the title by 3 games to 0 to claim her first WSA title.

YouTube Replays

13/11 11/6 11/3 (44″)

Campbell Grayson

11/5 11/4 5/11 11/9 (58″)

[3] Karim Abdel Gawad

11/4 11/6 8/11 11/8 (34″)

Omar Abdel Meguid

09-Feb, Qualifying Finals:

Kashif Shuja NZL bt Alejandro Garbi Caro ESP        11/5 11/5 7/11 6/11 11/8 (60")
Amr Swelim ITA bt Karim Ali Fathi EGY                        11/8 9/11 11/7 15/13 (66")
Mohamed Zahed EGY bt Lewis Walters ENG                    9/11 11/8 11/4 11/3 (43")
Raphael Kandra GER bt Peter Creed WAL                     11/6 10/12 11/7 11/9 (53")

08-Feb, Qualifying round one:

Kashif Shuja NZL bye
Alejandro Garbi Caro ESP bt James Simpson ENG                  11/4 11/9 11/6 (33")
Karim Ali Fathi EGY bt Erno Teitti FIN                                    11/8 11/3 11/6 (34")
Amr Swelim ITA bt Markus Vanhanen FIN                             11/4 11/7 11/3 (25")
Lewis Walters ENG bt Tuomas Häkkinen FIN                          11/3 11/1 11/3 (15")
Mohamed Zahed EGY bt Mazen Hesham Ga Sabry EGY  14/16 11/9 11/8 11/7 (56")
Peter Creed WAL bt Jaakko Vähämaa FIN                            11/9 13/11 11/6 (33")
Raphael Kandra GER bye

11/6 11/8 11/6 (30″)

[4] Siti Munirah Jusoh

11/6 11/8 11/3 (30″)

[2] Siyoli Waters

10/12 11/5 11/5 7/11 13/11 (60″)

[2] Siyoli Waters

Qualifying:

Emilia Soini FIN 3-0 Emilia Korhonen FIN 11/9 11/3 11/2 (20")

12-Feb, Semis:

Tuominen to his fourth Finnish Open final
Poku Salo reports

Finland’s top seeded Olli Tuominen, the three time Finnish Open winner, reached his fourth final in the Savcor Finnish Open today in Mikkeli.

In the semifinal Tuominen was the dominating player. New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson managed to save three game balls in the first game, but that was the closest he got.

The standard of the second men’s semifinal didn’t come even close to the first. Karim Abdel Gawad came out as the winner against Omar Abdel Khalifa, as there always must be a winner in a squash match.

Emily Whitlock was as strong as expected in her semifinal against Siti Munirah Jusoh and took a place in the final with a 3-0 victory in 30 minutes.

The most entertaining match of the day was the match between second seed Siyoli Waters from South Africa and Carrie Ramsey from England.

The first game was a close encounter which Ramsey eventualy won 12-10. Waters found a new gear in the second and that took her to a 2-1 lead. Ramsey managed to come back in the fourth and leveled the match at two games all.

The fifth game started with Waters again taking control and she went from 5-3 to 8-4 and and 9-7 wbut Ramsey took the next tree point and had match ball. Waters saved the first match ball but Ramsey got another which Waters again saved and went on to take the three next points to win the match.

Watch LIVE

Watch LIVE
 

11-Feb, Quarters:

Tuominen struggles to the semis
Poku Salo reports
 

Olli Tuominen (1) FIN 3-2 Amr Khaled Khalifa EGY                       11/4 11/13 10/12 11/3 11/4 (62”)

Top seeded Olli Tuominen keeps the home hopes high after taking a hard fough victory in the quarters.

Tuominen had a good start and was dominating in the first game. Egypt’s Amr Khaled Khalifa came back in the second and took the game after saving one gameball. Tuominen had his chances in the third but did not manage to materialice on a 9-6 lead and went down 12-10.

Perhaps the pace had been too much for the egytpian and Tuominen took control in fourth game. This was too much for Khalifa and the Finn had no problems in taking the match in 62 minutes.

The fourth seed Henrik Mustonen also had a tough match being 2 games to one up but was eventualy beaten by New Zealand’s Campbell Grayson in 70 minutes.

Omar Abdel Meguid and Karim Abdel Gawad from Egypt also took a place in Sundays semifinals with victories over Amr Swelim and Kashif Shuja.

For the Ladies

In the women’s event Emily Whitlock, Siti Munirah Jush, Carrie Ramsey and Siyoli Waters went through to the semis.

10-Feb, Round One:

Coppinger and Fialova out in the first round
Poku Salo reports

 

Omar Abdel Meguid EGY 3- 2 Stephen Coppinger RSA (2)                       9/11, 12/14, 11/7, 11/8, 11/9 (80″)

Second seed Stephen Coppinger from South Africa was the biggest casualty of the Savcor Finnish open first round tonight in Mikkeli. Coppinger got a bad start to the match and was already 8-2 down in the first. He fought his way back into the match and managed to take eight of the next nine point to get the game 11-9.

The second game was even all the way with Coppinger managing to save one game ball to take the game 14-12. The third game was Meguid’s from the start and he took it 11-7. In the fourth game it looked as Coppinger was going to take the match after leading 4-2, 6-3 and 8-6 before Meguid took five points in a row to level the match at two all.

The fifth was a copy of the fourth. Coppinger had 6-4 and 9-6 but again Meguid took five points in row to claim a place in the quarter finals.
 

Victoria Bell ENG 3-2 Lucie Fialova CZE (3)                                6/11 8/11 12/10 11/6 11/8

In the women’s event third seed Lucie Fialova from the Czech Republic was set for the quarters. She took the first and second games in style and reached match ball at 10-.6 in the third.

Victoria Bell of England was however not ready to let it go and won the next six point to clinch the game. From the on it was Bell who dominated and she went on to win the match and a place in the quarters.

AND THE OTHERS...

Of the five Finns in the main draw first seed Olli Tuominen and fourth seed Henrik Mustonen pleased the home croud by going throuh to the quarters. Matias Tuomi ain the men’s and Saara Valtola and Emilia Soini in the women’s draws were knocked out.

The glass court in the shopping mall STELLA has proved to be a good choice for the event and from Friday all matches will be played there.