Former World No. 13 Donna Urquhart Celebrates Seattle Success by Howard Harding March 9, 2015
- Australia's Donna Urquhart, a former world No.13 plagued by injuries
for the past two years, marked her comeback in sensational style in the
USA by winning the Women's Stratos Seattle Open, the WSA Challenger 5
squash event at Seattle Athletic Club in Seattle.
Competing in only her fourth WSA World Tour event since undergoing foot
surgery in September, the 28-year-old from New South Wales survived a
five-game quarter-final battle against England's Fiona Moverley before
overcoming Germany's Sina Wall in four games in the semis to reach the
15th Tour final of her career.
The top seed's opponent in the final was second seed Liu Tsz-Ling, the
world No.57 from Hong Kong making only her first Tour appearance this
year. 23-year-old Liu cruised through to the final without dropping a
game, despatching Norway's No.3 seed Lotte Eriksen in the semis to
reach the ninth Tour final of her career.
The final marked the pair's third Tour meeting since April 2011 - and
it took the Australian left-hander 50 minutes to extend her unbeaten
record over Liu to win the title by an 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 scoreline.
"It feels awesome to be in the final since my foot operation and to
actually win the tournament," said the jubilant Urquhart (pictured
above, left, with Liu), currently ranked 36 in the world, later. "I'm
so happy to be back on track and so much enjoying playing squash again.
"Liu played very well and put me under a lot of pressure today - every
time I was putting the ball loose she was putting it away, so I had to
find the right game plan.
"I'm taking confidence from this and hopefully will keep playing well next week in Calgary."
Urquhart is the fourth seed in the Calgary CFO Consulting Services WSA
Women's Squash Week championship which gets underway in Calgary,
Alberta, on Thursday.
RESULTS: Women's Stratos Seattle Open, Seattle, USA
1st round:
[1] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt Julia Lecoq (FRA) 11-1, 11-7, 11-8
[6] Fiona Moverley (ENG) bt [WC] Manuela Manetta (ITA) 11-5, 12-10, 11-6
[4] Sina Wall (GER) bt [Q] Elena Wagenmans (NED) 11-5, 11-5, 11-9
[8] Sachika Ingale (IND) bt [Q] Kelsey Engman (USA) 10-12, 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 15-13
Lee Ka Yi (HKG) bt [5] Diana Garcia (MEX) 11-7, 11-7, 11-8
[3] Lotte Eriksen (NOR) bt Enora Villard (FRA) 12-10, 11-5, 11-5
[7] Milnay Louw (RSA) bt [Q] Giselle Delgado (CHI) 11-4, 11-5, 11-6
[2] Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG) bt [Q] Majd Alkhateeb (JOR) 11-1, 11-3, 11-6
Quarter-finals:
[1] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [6] Fiona Moverley (ENG) 11-8, 5-11, 13-11, 8-11, 14-12
[4] Sina Wall (GER) bt [8] Sachika Ingale (IND) 11-5, 11-8, 11-4
[3] Lotte Eriksen (NOR) bt Lee Ka Yi (HKG) 11-6, 11-3, 7-11, 11-5
[2] Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG) bt [7] Milnay Louw (RSA) 11-2, 11-4, 11-8
Semi-finals:
[1] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [4] Sina Wall (GER) 11-6, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8
[2] Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG) bt [3] Lotte Eriksen (NOR) 11-5, 11-2, 11-3 Final: [1] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [2] Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG) 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 11-8 (50m)
