Belfast World Open Boost For Blake In Indiana

Ireland's Aisling Blake earned a significant confidence-booster on the eve of next month's World Open in her home country when she won her maiden WISPA World Tour title at the Women's Subway Goshen Open in Indiana, USA.

The Dublin-born 25-year-old from Sligo, who has been awarded a wildcard in the biggest squash event ever to be staged in Northern Ireland, was the second seed in Goshen - but upset top-seeded Canadian Alana Miller in the final to collect the first Tour trophy of her career.

Blake's strategy to "keep it straight and simple and not let her volley" worked like a charm as the auburn-haired lass from the emerald isle outplayed a frustrated Alana Miller in a six-minute first game.

The tall Canadian remained frustrated in the second, hitting the tin in the few opportunities given her, and quickly dropped the first four points. But she was able to get focused, change her game plan, and be more patient, which led to longer rallies and a point-for-point struggle to 6-6. Blake noted that "the second game could have gone either way," but a few loose balls from Miller and a few tight kills from Blake gave the second seed a two-game lead after 20 minutes.

The third game saw long rallies and tough play from both sides, but Blake's relentless straight length and tenacious court coverage gave Miller nothing to put away, and only four hand outs. Blake closed out her maiden tour victory 9-1, 9-6, 9-0, in 39 minutes.

Blake had earlier clambered back from two games down in the semi-finals to beat India's third seed Joshna Chinappa 4-9, 2-9, 9-7, 9-2, 9-2 in a 65-minute marathon to reach her first WISPA final - while event favourite Miller also had to pull out all the stops to overcome Japan's No5 seed Mami Nishio 9-7, 9-2, 8-10, 10-9 in 59 minutes.

Final:
[2] Aisling Blake (IRL) bt [1] Alana Miller (CAN) 9-1, 9-6, 9-0 (39m)