Kennedy Retains Cleveland Classic Crown

England's Georgina Kennedy retained her Cleveland Classic title after defeating Olivia Clyne of USA in the 2023 final of the PSA World Tour Silver event at the Cleveland Racquet Club in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Kennedy, who defeated her compatriot Sarah-Jane Perry in the 2022 final, continued her rich vein of form in the USA to maintain her grip on the trophy in successive years after also reaching the quarter-finals at the Tournament of Champions and scooping the Carol Weymuller Open trophy.

The pair had only met twice on the PSA World Tour going into the final, with Kennedy winning both previous encounters. Both players made a strong start to the opening game as the pace turned up a few notches at the tail-end.

Kennedy landed four successive points to go 9-7 up, but Clyne saved two game balls to force a tiebreaker. Kennedy was able to eventually pull away from Clyne to clinch the opener 13-11.

It was neck and neck in the second with the scores locked at 7-7, but Kennedy established some crucial breathing space to nudge 10-8 in front, before converting game ball at the first attempt to go two games up.

Kennedy came firing out of the blocks in the third as she looked to seal the title in straight games but Clyne, making her first appearance in a final since 2019, responded superbly as she halved the deficit after winning 11-7.

Losing the third fired the defending champion up, who moved into a 6-2 lead before Clyne surged back to reduce the arrears to two points.

Kennedy, however, was able to hold off the Clyne fightback to convert Championship ball at the first time of asking and make it back-to-back titles in Cleveland.

Afterwards Kennedy said: "I'm thrilled to have retained the title. I've said it a few times this week but I definitely did not expect it.

"Coming into this event with the strength of the draw, the fact that I made it to the final is a huge achievement for me and I knew it would be an extremely good battle with Liv.

"She's been playing amazing squash - I watched her match yesterday and I was definitely worried.

"She's so attacking and puts you under so much pressure, so I'm really proud of myself for coming through that because that really could have gone either way."

Kennedy and Clyne head to Detroit next for the DAC Pro Squash Classic, a silver-level event, which takes place between February 7-11 at the Detroit Athletic Club.