Weleily is unstoppable at the Carol Weymuller Squash Open
Raneem El Weleily won the biggest title of her career this week in NewYork at the Gold 45 Carol Weymuller Open, taking out four top 10 stars along the way in devastating style.
The tournament was at full strength with 16 of the top 20 players in the world taking part.
El Weleily's title chances almost ended in the first round when she had to save 2 match balls against world no.5 Laura Massaro before beating the British Champion 13/11 in the fifth. The first round saw all 8 matches being extended to at least 4 games. New Zealand's no.1 Joelle King also upset the seedings to beat Omneya Abdel Kawy 12/10 in the fifth. There were also tough wins for defending champion and top seed Jenny Duncalf, Madeline Perry, Rachael Grinham, Kasey Brown, Camille Serme and Annie Au.
The quarter finals featured some highly entertaining matches which kept the crowds enthralled through out. World no.2 Jenny Duncalf played the perfect match against Joelle King, not allowing the Kiwi to play her strong attacking game and won in straight games. Madeline Perry dropped the first game to Annie Au but kept her patience and started to find her length in the second before dominating the rest of match. Kasey Brown won the Aussie battle with Rachael Grinham. Brown had never beaten Grinham before in six attempts and after the first game it looked like it would be 7 wins in a row for Grinham. Brown stepped up the court and controlled the T with exquisite volleys and went on to take the match in 4 games. El Weleily came through another 5 setter, this time coming from 2-0 down to beat Camille Serme in the match of the night. The match could have gone either way but it was Weleily risk taking that paid off on the key points.
The semi finals saw both winners play near perfect squash. Weleily continued her amazing run, this time upsetting Perry in straight games. The Egyptian edged a tough opening game 14/12. This proved to be crucial and her confidence rose and she played faultless squash to win it 11/0. Weleily stayed strong in the 3^rd and halted a Perry comeback to win it 11/8 and move into her biggest final. Duncalf had a great record against Brown, only losing once in 8 previous meetings, but 4 of those matches had gone the distance. This time Duncalf was in imperious form and didn't allow Brown to step up and control the match. The defending champion won in straight games and moved into her 4^th Carol Weymuller final in a row.
The final was played out in front of a packed out show court. Weleily had never previously beaten Duncalf in 4 meetings but once again started the match playing quality attacking squash, at 7-7 Weleily broke away to take the game 11/7. Duncalf looked to be back in control in the second and moved into a 10/6 lead. The world no.2 couldn't convert her game balls and after some incredible rallies Weleily took the game 15/13. On the verge of winning her biggest title, she could have been forgiven for showing signs of nerves, but instead it seemed to fire her up even more and she forced the pressure on Duncalf even more, attacking anything loose. At 5/3 up Weleily broke away and took the 3^rd game 11/4.
A 3^rd career title for Raneem El Weleily and her first Gold level title. It was a fantastic week for her and will likely see her move into the World's top 8 in next month's ranking.
A great tournament, featuring high quality matches from the start, congratulations to Linda Elriani and the rest of the organising team. We look forward to seeing the tournament back even bigger and better next year.
All the players now go onto Philadelphia for the US Open with the main draw starting on the 2^nd October.
