TOC: Pallikal meets Grinham at Grand Central

The women’s final match-up will be a test of experience versus youth as 33-year-old Natalie Grinham and 20-year-old Dipika Pallikal play for the title.

Experience carried the day – just barely- in Grinham’s semifinal match against 16-year-old Nour El Sherbini. “It’s not fair,” Grinham said jokingly after the match. “She’s half my age and twice my height.”

After dropping the first game 6-11, the second seed found her stride, winning the next two games 11-5. But El Sherbini came back in the fourth, winning it 11-7. “Nour changed her game a little bit in the fourth,” Grinham reflected. “I let her dictate the points, thinking that I would let her lose the match rather than trying to win it. So in the fifth, I knew I had to go out to win it.”

Local hope Latasha Khan of the USA, dismissed No8 seed Nour El Tayeb, after the Egyptian put in a valiant comeback effort from two games down, only for Khan to see off the match 11/1 in the fifth.  El Tayeb was followed out of the competition by Mexican No1 and No3 seed Samantha Teran who, after reaching the Greenwich Open semi final earlier in the week, was unable to mount a challenge against promising 16-year-old prodigy Nour El Sherbini.

Victories for the other seeds in round one were fairly straightforward, except for top seed Rachael Grinham, who had to fight back from two games down to defeat Kanzy Emad El-Defrawy in a long five-game battle.

The quarter final round gave audiences at Grand Central Station another surprise result, as New Zealand international Jaclyn Hawkes ended hopes of an all-Grinham final after beating the elder sister Rachael in three games. However, her sibling Natalie progresses will progress after beating Sarah Kippax of England in three, despite a closely fought final game.

Nour El Sherbini won the battle of the unseeded players for a place in the semi-finals, as the teenager ended home hopes by beating Latasha Khan 3-0 in 26 minutes.

Reigning Indian champion then caused a final upset of the early rounds as the No7 seed got the better of No4 seed Donna Urquhart of Australia in an intense five-game battle lasting over an hour.