Lauren Briggs* won her twelfth WSA World Tour title at the weekend,
beating her namesake Lauren Selby to four games in the final.
In a busy weekend of squash, three of the top four seeds would make up the
all-British semi final draw. *Victoria Bell* of Cumbria was the only non-seed left in the competition following her defeat of not only No4 seed *Merhan
Amr Mahmoud*, but later too the experienced No5 seed *Deon Saffrey*.
Bell’s run ended at the semi’s however as Briggs, yet to drop a game in the
event, continued the trend to book her predicted final place alongside
Lauren Selby.
Similarly, No2 seed Selby hadn’t dropped a game on her way to the final,
holding firm despite being pushed to tie-breaks in her first round match
against *Rachel Willmott* and quarter final against *Nada El Kalawaay*.
She moved past promising Scottish international Lisa Aitken in another
three games to set up a ‘Lauren vs Lauren’ final.
Briggs started the final quickly, amassing the first two games to little
response from her opponent. After a pause in play for an injury break
however, Selby returned to the court seemingly a different play. She was
quicker to the front of the court and found and attacking strategy that
worked against the top seed, and she duly took a close third game. Briggs
seemed to have weathered the storm and despite a close beginning to the
fourth game, established a stronger lead before closing out the match.
*Final*:
[1] Lauren Briggs (ENG) bt [2] Lauren Selby (ENG) 11-4, 11-5 11-13, 11-5
*Semi finals:*
[1] Lauren Briggs (ENG) bt Victoria Bell (ENG) 11-4, 11-4, 11-3
[2] Lauren Selby (ENG) bt [3] Lisa Aitken (SCO) 11-7, 11-8, 11-3
*Quarter finals:*
[1] Lauren Briggs (ENG) bt Milnay Louw (RSA) 11-5, 11-7, 15-13
Victoria Bell (ENG) bt [5] Deon Saffrey (WAL) 6-11, 8-11, 13-11, 11-5, 12-10
[3] Lisa Aitken (SCO) bt Frania Gillen-Burchurt (SCO) 11-9, 5-11, 11-9,
15-13
[2] Lauren Selby (ENG) bt Nada El Kalawaay (EGY) 11-9, 12-10, 11-9
*First round:*
[1] Lauren Briggs (ENG) bt Julianne Courtice (ENG) 12-10, 11-7, 11-5
Milnay Louw (RSA) bt [8] Sally Skaarenborg (DEN) 11-6, 11-9, 11-8
Victoria Bell (ENG) bt [4] Merhan Amr Mahmoud (EGY) 11-8, 11-9, 12-10
[5] Deon Saffrey (WAL) bt Cheyna Tucker (RSA) 11-7, 11-8, 13-11
Frania Gillen-Buchert (SCO) bt [8] Anna Jurjun (POL) 11-4, 11-1, 11-6
[3] Lisa Aitken (SCO) bt [W] Katie Smith (ENG) 11-7, 11-4, 11-8
Nada El Kalawaay (EGY) bt [7] Aparajitha Balamurukan (IND) 11-8, 10-12,
11-3, 11-6
[2] Lauren Selby (ENG) bt Rachel Willmott (ENG) 12-10, 11-5, 11-6
