Sobhy-Perry Granite Cup Semis Report by Howard Harding February 20, 2015
- England's Sarah-Jane Perry continued the giant-killing run she began
last week on the other side of the Atlantic when she defeated defending
champion and top seed Amanda Sobhy in the semi-finals of the Women's
Granite Open at the Granite Club in Toronto.
Perry, the world No.16 from Kenilworth, arrived in Canada later than
anticipated after overcoming fellow countrywomen Alison Waters and
Laura Massaro, ranked three and five in the world, respectively,
en-route to winning the British National Championship title for the
first time against expectations.
Seed four in Toronto, Perry romped to a 2/0 lead over Sobhy before the world No10 fought back to draw level.
But the 24-year-old English underdog - in her maiden meeting with US
number one Sobhy - dug deep to regain the initiative before closing out
the match 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-6.
"Unfortunately lost out 3-2 to a solid @SJPerry15," tweeted Sobhy
later. "Fought well to come back from 2-0 down, but lost juice in the
end. Fun match to play tho"
Perry progresses to meet Dipika Pallikal, the third seed who survived a
four-game battle with fellow Indian Joshana Chinappa, winning 11-13,
11-6, 11-9, 11-9.
Perry, the 2013 Granite Open champion, was delighted with her
continuing success in Toronto: "Really happy to be through to the final
after a few tough matches. Looking forward to the final.
"It's been a while since I last played Dipika so it should be
interesting. I will definitely be having a couple of days of
well-deserved rest afterwards."
Perry was given a stern test in her opening match in the event -
needing almost an hour to see off fellow Briton Deon Saffery, the world
No.45 from Wales.
"That was a tough first match," Perry recalled. "It was always going to
be after only arriving late on Monday but Deon came out firing, making
it very difficult for me. She didn't let up the whole match and I was
chuffed to be able to push through against such a tough opponent who
was playing well.
"Everyone keeps reminding me I'm British Champion, which feels great
but I've got a job to do here and a really tough match ahead of me in
the next round so I'm just keeping my focus on that for now."
