Serme Steals WISPA des Pyramides Show On Home Turf by Elliot Selby
July 5, 2011-
French star Camille Serme collected her sixth WISPA title on home turf
this week at the Silver 20 WISPA des Pyramides tournament in Le Port
Marly.
The popular stop on the tour, which is just on the outskirts of Paris,
saw some incredibly high level of squash all week and the fans were
treated to some great matches. The main draw featured sixteen players
from eleven different nations, a real international flavour to the
tournament.
Serme, 22, was making her return after being a semi finalist back in
2009. She had the pressure of the home fans on her but she started the
tournament well, easing past Canadian qualifier Stephanie Edmison. The
rest of the top eight seeds all made it through to the quarters without
too many problems, although it took Line Hansen over seventy minutes to
see off local girl Coline Aumard, recovering from 2-1 down.
Onto the quarter finals and Serme continued to delight the home fans by
dispatching Lucie Fialova without any problems. Former champion and
number two seed Natalie Grinham ran past Hansen in straight games and
this was closely followed by Indian number one Dipika Pallikal who
dismantled Tenille Swartz. However, Aisling Blake couldn't complete the
semi final line for the top seeds as she was upset by Joshna Chinappa
in four closely fought games.
The semi finals showcased two matches with contrasting styles in both.
Serme and Grinham, with their athletic and solid games up against
Indian stars Pallikal and Chinappa, two of the best attackers in the
game. It was the consistency and retrieving of the top two seeds that
won out in both matches with Serme and Grinham both coming through in
straight games to set up a mouth watering final.
Grinham, the former world number two , was making her 34th showing in a
tour final and a second appearance in a final in two weeks after losing
out to Samantha Teran in Mexico last week. Serme was featuring in her
first final since losing out at home to Nour El Tayeb in the Open
International Feminin de Creteil in February 2010. Their head to heads
were tied at one each, although Serme's victory came as the result of a
walkover.
Serme started the final superbly controlling the first two games.
Grinham hit back to steal the third. The pressure was on the home
player now as the fourth game became very tight, in the end though she
held her nerve and closed the match out 11-9 in one hour of gruelling
squash. For Grinham it was a second final loss to the home favourite in
consecutive tournaments. For Serme it was sweet revenge as she lost out
in the semi final here two years ago to Grinham. It was also her first
title in over two years.
A wonderful tournament in it's fifth addition. I am sure we will see it back next year, even bigger than before!
Results - WISPA des Pyramides 2011, Le Port Marly, France - $26,000 Final:
[1] C Serme (FRA) bt [2] N Grinham (NED) 11-4 11-4 6-11 11-9 (60m)
Semi Final:
[1] C Serme (FRA) bt [3] D Pallikal (IND) 11-6 11-4 11-9 (42m)