Alison Waters, Latasha Khan Into WSA Granite Club Toronto Semis
by Sam Cornett
"The Granite Girls"
March 27, 2012
Siyoli Waters def Tesni Evans 3-0
The 1st quarter final saw South Africa’s Siyoli Waters take on Tesni Evans of Wales.
The match started off strong with some long rallies and both players executing some fantastic shots and were retrieving a lot of balls.
Tesni fought hard with some great running and retrieving and showed her commitment with a big dive much to the pleasure of the crowd! She earned herself a couple of game balls however Siyoli dug deep and showed why she is the second seed of the tournament, closing out a great match, 11-8 12-10 14-12.
Misaki Kobayashi def Alex Norman 3-2
The 2nd match of the evening saw Misaki Kobayashi come out firing and took the first two games quickly before Alexandra Norman fought back from being down 8-10 in the 3rd to take the game 12-10 and get herself back in the match.
Norman seems much more settled in the 4th game racing out to a 4-0 lead. She looked much more composed, and controlled the T well, really working Misaki around the court. Norman took the game 11-6 to bring the match to a deciding 5th set.
The final game saw both players come out strong matching each other point for point
all the way to 10-8 giving Alex the chance to take the match but Misaki wasn’t done yet and played some excellent shots under pressure to win the game and match 12-10. 11-, 11-3, 10-12, 6-11, 12-10.
Latasha Khan def Sam Cornett 3-1
Next up saw the top seed Latasha Khan of the USA take on Canada’s Sam Cornett.
Both players showed their class right from the start with some great squash!
Cornett was quickly on to every ball and took a good 1st game 11-7.
At the start of the 2nd Latasha played very patient squash while Sam was coughing up errors to find herself down 6-0.
Latasha kept the pressure on and did not let Sam back in, leveling the match up at one game each. She kept up the good form, giving up few errors and showing the crowd some high-quality squash to take the match. The first seed progresses through relatively untested to the semi-finals, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-5.
Alison Waters def Amanda Landers-Murphy 3-0
Looking cool as cucumber, Alison took to the court to face up-and-coming Kiwi Amanda. Previously number three in the world and on a comeback from injury, Alison treated the crowd to some excellent speed, agility, and shotmaking. She constructed the rallies with low dying length, and made Amanda stretch far into each corner. Her beautiful shots left the audience in complete awe. However, Amanda didn’t let Alison off easy. The rallies were competitive, with Amanda putting Alison in the back, and attacking on every given opportunity. In the second, Amanda was down 7-2, leveled at 7-7 with some amazing shots to the front, but squandered the comeback. By the end of the third, Alison didn’t look any worse for wear, and is now looking to a Waters-Waters showdown tomorrow night. 11-7, 11-8, 11-7.
The squash lounge was chockablock with fans of all ages and levels tonight, and everyone is pumped for the semis!
Semifinal Lineup:
Latasha Khan vs Misaki Kobayashi
Siyoli Waters vs Alison Waters
DRAW
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