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Granite Open 2015
16-20 Feb, Toronto, Canada, $25k |
20-Feb,
Final:
Perry on a roll in Toronto
Fresh from becoming British National Champion, Sarah-Jane
Perry continued her great run of form as she took the title in
Toronto.
Perry followed up her semi-final win over top seed and defending
champion Amanda Sobhy with a four-game win over Dipika Pallikal in
the final to claim her eighth and biggest yet WSA title.
Jessica
DiMauro reports
We had a packed house for the
2015 Granite Open Final tonight! Our biggest ever crowd and also our
most enthusiastic, thanks to Jimbo for getting everyone going.
Thanks to all of our members for packing the audience. It was so
nice for the ladies to play in front of a crowd. They deserve a ton
of praise and respect for all they do. And I'm happy we were able to
give that to them!
We were lucky to witness an unbelievable match that saw:
Sarah-Jane Perry 3-1 Dipika Pallikal 8-11, 11-6, 12-10, 11-7
Dipika was very strong in the first game and Sarah-Jane seemed to
make a few too many unforced errors. When she cut those out and
turned the intensity up a bit, SJ pulled away from 6-6 in the second
to win 11-6.
It looked like Sarah-Jane may run away with the third when she got
to a 6-2 lead. But Dipika fought her way back and then the match
see-sawed all the way to 10-10, before SJ won 12-10.
In the fourth, Dipika got to 6-5 up and then 7-6 up but couldn't
hold on. Sarah-Jane then won five points in a row on her way to her
second Granite Open Championship!
 SJ:
"Thrilled to win my second Granite title! I love it here and it
seems to make me play well. A fantastic tournament as always and I'm
already looking forward to coming back next year.
"A tough couple of weeks ... looking forward to a few days off now
before Chicago."
remember this 2013 article from SJ ??? |
watch the
final
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  Granite
Open 2015
16-20 Feb, Toronto, Canada, $25k |
Round One
17 Feb |
Quarters
18 Feb |
Semis
19 Feb |
Final
20 Feb |
[1] Amanda Sobhy (Usa)
12/10, 11/1, 11/2 (22m)
[Q] |Amanda Landers-Murphy (Nzl) |
[1] Amanda Sobhy
11/6, 11/3, 11/8 (25m)
Delia Arnold |
[1] Amanda Sobhy
11/7, 11/8, 8/11, 8/11, 11/6
[4] Sarah-Jane Perry |
[4] Sarah-Jane Perry
8/11, 11/6, 12/10, 11/7
[3] Dipika Pallikal |
[6] Nicolette Fernandes (Guy)
10/12, 9/11, 11/4, 11/7, 12/10
Delia Arnold (Mas) |
[8] Joey Chan (Hkg)
11/9, 11/6, 4/11, 11/8
Line Hansen (Den) |
Line Hansen
11/5, 12/10, 9/11, 11/5 (45m)
[4] Sarah-Jane Perry |
[4] Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng)
11/13, 11/7, 11/6, 12/10 (55m)
[Q] Deon Saffery (Wal) |
Tesni Evans (Wal)
8/11, 11/8, 11/5, 11/7 (60m)
[3] Dipika Pallikal (Ind) |
[3] Dipika Pallikal
11/8, 9/11, 11/6, 7/11, 13/11 (75m)
[5] Jenny Duncalf |
[3] Dipika Pallikal
10/12, 11/7, 11/9, 11/9
[7] Joshana Chinappa |
[Q] Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn)
7/11, 11/5, 11/7, 11/7 (44m)
[5] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) |
[wc] Nikki Todd (Can)
11/8, 11/8, 11/6 (29m)
[7] Joshana Chinappa (Ind) |
[7] Joshana Chinappa
11/1, 11/8, 11/6 (23m)
[2] Rachael Grinham |
[Q] Sam Cornett (Can)
9/11, 11/13, 13/11, 11/6, 11/6 (55m)
[2] Rachael Grinham (Aus) |
16-Feb, Qualifying Finals:
Sam Cornett (Can) 3-0
Hollie Naughton (Can)
11-7, 14-12, 11-8
Deon Saffery (Wal) 3-2
Olivia Blatchford (Usa)
9-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8
Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn) 3-1
Milou van der Heijden (Ned
11-7, 11-4, 12-14, 11-5
Amanda Landers-Murphy (Nzl) 3-2
Siyoli Waters (Rsa) 11-13, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8, 12-10
16-Feb, Qualifying Round One:
Sam Cornett (Can) 3-0 Maria Toorpakai (Pak)
11-4, 11-9, 11-5
Hollie Naughton (Can)
3-0
Latasha Khan (Usa)
11-8, 11-4, 11-4
Olivia Blatchford (Usa) 3-0 Maddie O'Connor (Can)
11-6, 11-2, 11-2
Deon Saffery (Wal) 3-0 Reyna Pacheco (Can)
11-3, 11-8, 11-6
Milou van der Heijden (Ned) 3-0 Diana Garcia (Mex)
11-2,15-13, 11-8
Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn) 3-0 Micaala Seth (Can)
11-0, 11-3, 11-6
Amanda Landers-Murphy (Nzl) 3-0 Melina Turk (Can)
11-6, 11-6, 11-2
Siyoli Waters (Rsa) 3-0 Thaisa Serafini (Bra)
11-8, 11-7, 11-2
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19-Feb, Semis:
Perry holds off Sobhy comeback
as Pallikal wins all-Indian clash
Third and fourth seeds Dipika Pallikal and Sarah-Jane Perry will
contest the final of the Granite Open after Pallikal beat gfellow
Indian Joshana Chinappa in four games while Perry held on after
losing a two game advantage to beat top seed Amanda Sobhy.
 Jessica
DiMauro reports
I asked the ladies if anyone
could volunteer to play with our juniors before the semis, and
without hesitation, they responded and offered their time. It is
unbelievable how kind and generous these ladies are.
 We
had nine ladies playing with the kids for two hours before the
semis.
Thanks so much to Rach, Jen, Milou, Melina, Liv, Nicolette, Deon,
Line and Hollie! The kids were so excited and they will remember the
opportunity for years to come!
The first semi started out with Sarah-Jane Perry looking like
she was in control of the match. Sobhy made some uncharacteristic
errors on her backhand drop and Sarah-Jane kept control.
But Amanda Sobhy was not going to lay down easy. She cut out
the errors and won the third and fourth. SJ looked like she may be
out of steam. But as has been the trend in her recent matches,
Sarah-Jane pulled away at 6-6 in the fifth and did not look back.
This was the ladies' first time ever playing each other!
Sarah-Jane Perry 3-2 Amanda Sobhy
"I just love squash and can't seem to spend enough time on court
at the moment!!" said SJ. "Even at 2-0 7-3 AND 2-1 7-3 I apparently
didn't want to finish the match. Joking aside, Amanda is such a
fighter and all credit to her.
"I'm really happy to make it through to the biggest final of my
career and hopefully I can carry my good form into the final
tomorrow. Oh...and hopefully my body will make it out in one piece
too!"
The second semi was as exciting. A battle of the top two Indians,
Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa, was intense,
crisp, tight, really amazing squash.
 We
were thrilled to see this match up of two first time Granite Open
players. Every game was close all the way through but Dipika won
some some big points to give her the win.
Dipika Pallikal 3-1 Joshna Chinappa
"Playing Josh is always tough," said Dipika. "We had a really
long match at the Asian Games last year and I knew it was always
going to be hard. All the games were really close and it could have
gone either way . Really happy to be in the finals here in Cold
Toronto :)"
Friday is the final of the fourth annual Granite Open. I hope you
will all come out and fill the stands. Let these ladies know how
much we appreciate them and how impressive they are!
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19-Feb, Semis
Perry holds off Sobhy comeback
as Pallikal wins all-Indian clash
Third and fourth seeds Dipika Pallikal and Sarah-Jane Perry will
contest the final of the Granite Open after Pallikal beat gfellow
Indian Joshana Chinappa in four games while Perry held on after
losing a two game advantage to beat top seed Amanda Sobhy.
18-Feb, Quarters
Jessica DiMauro reports
We kicked off quarter finals night with our Sponsor Pro-Am Doubles
Event.
We had six great ladies give of their time to run around with some
of our Granite Open sponsors (who are pretty good doubles players!).
Thanks to Nikki, Melina, Amanda, Latasha, Milou and Olivia.
As it turned out, Title Sponsor, Gary Slaight won the Event with
Granite Pro Nikki Todd!
 All of the matches were very even and everyone had a great time.
Thanks to the players and sponsors for making it a nice two hours
leading into the singles matches.
First up were Sarah-Jane Perry vs Line Hansen. Line had a
very tough match last night but that did not seem to slow her down
today. She was red-faced and determined to push the British National
Champion. Awesome match, long rallies, lots of holds, fiesty
retrievals and good sportsmanship on court. Perfect way to start the
night off.
Sarah-Jane Perry 3-1 Line Hansen
"I started well but as the match went on Line found more and more
shots. She was slotting anything I left loose! After she took the
3rd, I knew I had to get back in front and try and control the pace.
Thankfully it worked and I'm really pleased to be through to the
semis."
 In the second quarters, Amanda Sobhy kept her dominant ways
and took the match in 25 minutes. Delia Arnold had a tough
battle in the first round and Amanda did not really let her get into
the match.
Amanda Sobhy 3-0 Delia Arnold
"Happy to win in 3 today against Delia. She's a strong player and
put the ball away if I gave her anything loose in the middle. Now I
play SJ tomorrow. We have never played before so it should be a good
match."
 Definitely the match of the night, the third quarter final between
Dipika Pallikal and Jenny Duncalf was 75 minutes filled with
constant excitement. The match was so tight, all the way through.
The athleticism was unreal! The rallies went on forever and no one
in the crowd could believe the gets both players were making. So sad
that someone had to lose that. Congrats to both girls for an
excellent match.
Dipika Pallikal 3-2 Jenny Duncalf
"Really happy to win. Jen played really well today. I knew I had
to stick in there and play the rallies out. When I was match ball
down, I told myself to play the rallies out and stay in there for as
long as it takes. And that really helped. Happy to win!"
 In the last match of the night, the fans were waiting for Rachael
Grinham to turn things around like she did in the first round
against Sam. But it just wasn't to be tonight. Joshana Chinappa
played unbelievable squash. She was so focused and determined.
Her length was penetrating and her drops were dead on.
Joshana Chinappa 3-0 Rachael Grinham
"Playing Rachel is always hard. I felt that she didn't play her
usual game today. I am quite glad to have won in three."
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17-Feb, Locals bow out in round one
Jessica DiMauro reports
Wow! Another unbelievable night. For all the short, crazy
injury-filled matches last year, we are definitely 'getting our
money's worth' this year at the Granite Open!
Thanks to the ladies for all their hard work. Everyone left it all
on the court and treated the crowd to great squash and great
athleticism.
Sarah-Jane Perry, fresh off her British National Title, faced
qualifier Deon Saffrey in the first round. Deon did not let
that intimidate her one bit. She fought hard and lost a very close
four game match.
Perry 3-1 Saffrey 11-13, 11-7, 11-6, 12-10 (55m)
"That was tough. Deon was really up for it and played some great
squash and made it very difficult for me. I love it here at Granite,
so I am glad to be back but also looking forward to some rest before
tomorrow's match." SJ
In the battle of the Amandas, Amanda Landers-Murphy kept it
very close in the first game, losing a tight 12-10, but Amanda
Sobhy showed us why she is the #1 seed and won the 2nd and 3rd
11-1, 11-2. Very strong!
Sobhy 3-0 Landers-Murphy 12-10, 11-1, 11-2 (22m)
"Happy to be back at the Granite Open. When I saw it on the
calendar, I knew I was going to miss that week of school because
there was no way I was going to miss this event." Sobhy
Jenny Duncalf and Misaki Kobayashi were next up. Two
great movers wowed the crowd! Misaki took the first but Jenny stuck
in there and pulled away as the match went along. Misaki started to
look like the two qualifying matches may have caught up to her!
Duncalf 3-1 Kobayashi 7-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7 (44m)
"Pleased to have played my first match at a Granite Open! Feel like
I'm the only girl who hasn't been here before (!) so it's great to
get through to the quarters after a good match with Misaki. I
struggled to read her flat hits and get used to the fast pace of the
ball in the first game but once I began to read her and settle into
the match, I felt more comfortable and managed to impose my own
game. Looking forward to the next one!" (Jenny)
In the 6:45 time slot, we had two matches on. People could not
decide which to watch. Joey Chan and Line Hansen
battled it out on one court, while Dipika Pallikal and
Tesni Evans gave it everything on the other court!
It seemed like Dipika got stronger as the match went along. In her
Granite Open debut, she treated the crowd to some hard hitting
length and soft drops.
Pallikal 3-1 Evans 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-7 (60m)
"Playing Tesni is always hard. She's got such good hands that you
have to be on your feet all the time. It's my first time out here
and in the first game the ball was really bouncy and I couldn't do
much with it. She played well to come back in the first to win it.
In the second, I went on court wanting to play in different paces
and it worked. Very happy to win." (Dipika)
Line had the first upset of the night, beating Joey Chan in a great
match. We knew this was going to be a tough one and these ladies did
not disappoint.
Hansen 3-1 Chan 11-9, 11-6, 4-11, 11-8
"Joey has really good hands so I tried to give her as little time as
possible, think it worked in big parts of the match. Really happy
with the win and looking forward to playing the British Champion
tomorrow, aka SJ!! By the way LOVE this event!!" (Line)
The 7:30 time slot was the only other time when two matches were
scheduled at the same time.
Granite squash pro, Nikki Todd had the home crowd cheering
her on against Joshana Chinappa but Nicolette Fernandes
and Delia Arnold were not going to let them steal all of the
fans. All four girls worked really hard, played great squash and
earned lots of admiration and respect from the crowd.
Chinappa 3-0 Todd 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 (29m)
Arnold 3-2 Fernandes 10-12, 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 12-10
"Nikki is a talented young player and I saw her playing at the World
Teams 2 months back and I knew what to expect. It was a tough,
close, three games and am glad to have won in three." (Joshana).
Last but certainly not least were Sam Cornett and Rachael
Grinham. Rach got off the plane from Australia around 5:30pm and
made it over to her match to entertain us all (even Sam), for almost
and hour. Sam played unbelievably to win the first two games. She
really had Rach on the ropes at the end of the third, but hit two
untimely tins to lose that game. Suddenly the momentum switched and
Rach took the next two quite convincingly.
Grinham 3-12 Cornett 9-11, 11-13, 13-11, 11-6, 11-6 (55m)
"Yeah, I mean obviously I'm happy to get through. Sam really played
well in the first two . I just hung in there and got the third and
then mentally the match swung my way." (Rach)
Thanks to all of the ladies for the kind words about the tournament!
It must be that you know how much we all appreciate the work you put
in and the kindness you show when offering to help with just about
anything we ask!
Looking forward to our Sponsor Pro Am Doubles event Wednesday, 4-6pm
and then quarter finals from 5:45pm to 9pm.
Come out and support these ladies!!!!!! They work soooo hard!!!!!!
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16-Feb, Qualifying Complete in Toronto
Jessica DiMauro reports
If the morning's first round qualifying matches all finished in
straight games, tonight's qualifying finals were awesome!
Fittingly, we started the night off with a 12-10 in the fifth!
Unbelievable rallies, great shots and very clean squash as Amanda
Landers-Murphy beat Siyoli Waters 11-13, 11-5, 8-11,
11-8, 12-10.
"I won last time but lost the time before that, so I knew it was
going to be a tough battle," said Amanda. "Siyoli is tough to play,
very strong player. So I just tried to play to my strengths and not
let her dominate too much."
Misaki Kobayashi looked like she was in control for the first
two games of the second match, but Milou van der Heijden
wanted her first Granite Open to go on for a while longer! She dug
deep and won the third but Misaki responding quickly, taking the
match in four, 11-7, 11-4, 12-14, 11-5
"It was first time playing against Milou and I didn't know what
to expect from her," said Misaki. "So I tried to play the basic game
and attacking at the right time and glad it worked. In the third,
she started playing better and I was rushing too early, made errors,
but happy to come back in the 4th game and qualified into the main
draw, excited for tomorrow!"
In the third match, the crowd filled in to watch home favourite
Sam Cornett playing fellow Canadian Hollie Naughton. Sam
didn't let the crowd down, Hollie played well, very mature and good
movement but Sam stayed strong and won a tight 3-0, 11-7,
14-12, 11-8.
"I'm very happy to qualify at the Granite Open, and I'm looking
forward to tomorrow!" said Sam. "Tonight's match was tough, Hollie
is playing well and hitting a solid ball. A good result for me and I
hope to play even better tomorrow."
The final match of the evening was another long fight. Olivia
Blatchford took a 2-0 lead but Deon Saffery fought back
to level the match at 2-2. The fifth game went back and forth until
Deon pulled out the decider to win 9-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8.
"It was always going to be a nice, fair game, either way," said
Don. "We have quite similar styles so it came down to length and
errors. Happy about the result and looking forward to tomorrow."
First round matches start at 4:30pm and run all the way until after
9pm! There are some amazing match ups. I hope you will come out to
support the ladies and all their efforts. Let's pack the crowd!
Granite Pro Nikki Todd will play her first match in this
year's Granite Open at 7:30pm vs Joshana Chinappa, and Sam
Cornett will play right after, at 8:15pm against former World
Champion, Rachael Grinham.
If you can't make it in, please tune in to Josh Ginou's professional
live streaming.
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Live Streaming & Replays
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