England's Tania Bailey secured a surprise place in the final of the CIMB Malaysian Open Squash Championships after notable upsets in today's (Friday) semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur.
I Since winning a historic three Commonwealth Games gold medals in her home country last year, Grinham has become one of the most in-form players on the WISPA Tour - reaching nine Tour finals and defeating nemesis Nicol David in April's Seoul Open final to win her 11th crown. But today belonged to Bailey - who scored one of the biggest scalps of her recent career by crushing the younger Grinham sister 9-2, 9-4, 9-0 in just 28 minutes.
The other semi-final nearly produced an even bigger upset when Rachael Grinham - the senior of the Toowoomba twosome - extended Malaysian star Nicol David to five games. David, the world number one going for a hat-trick of successive Malaysian Open titles, failed to score a singe point in the opening game.
But the country's most successful international sportswoman lifted her game to see off the Aussie challenge - beating third seed G
-5, 4-9, 9-4 in 72 minutes. Issued on behalf of: PSA/WISPA For further information: Howard Harding Tel: (44) 1737-243333 or (mobile) (44) 7773-325130 WSQ 3985 Email: [email protected] 27 July 2007
