Blatchford Powers To Paderborn Prize by Howard Harding April 20, 2015
- Top-seeded American Olivia Blatchford denied Cyrielle Peltier title
success in her maiden appearance in a WSA World Tour final when she
beat the second seed from France in four games in the climax of the
Women's Paderborn Open, the WSA Challenger 5 squash event in its second
year at Ahorn-Squash in the German town of Paderborn.
After honours were shared over the first two games, world No.73 Peltier
started well in the third - but unforced errors let New Yorker
Blatchford, ranked more than 30 places higher, back into the game. The
French underdog tried to slow the pace down, but Blatchford kept
speeding it up - forcing a growing error factor from Peltier which led
to the US favourite moving 2/1 ahead.
"At 11/7 in the fourth it was over - but both players gave a
magnificent display of high quality squash," explained Tournament
Promoter Norman Farthing. "Furious attacking play dashed with deadly
slow-play tactics, to brilliant shot-making from both girls!"
22-year-old Blatchford (pictured above, right, with Peltier) was full
of praise for her opponent after her 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 victory:
"Cyrielle has played an excellent match and kept trying to break my
game. I do not like to play slowly, so I had to attack. Luckily I
managed to do what I set out to do."
Le Mans-born Peltier added: "I was being stretched too much with the
pace in the first game and had to change my tactics to counteract her
fierce play. It worked well but sadly not long enough. Olivia has more
than earned the victory, she played fantastically."
The Paderborn City marketing manager Bernd Schaefers-Maiwald commented
in his speech that he had witnessed the World Men's Team Championships
in 2011 and thought the physical effort shown by the men was
outstanding - but what he had seen at the women's final "was simply
amazing".
The Paderborn title triumph brings up the fifth WSA Tour title of Blatchford's career - but her first in Europe.
