Nicol & Natalie In Weymuller Final

In a repeat of this month's British Open final, Malaysia's Nicol David and Australia's Natalie Grinham will meet in the climax of the Women's Carol Weymuller Open at the Heights Casino in New York, USA.

Grinham, the second seed, beat France's Isabelle Stoehr - ending the run of the eighth seed who shocked world champion Vanessa Atkinson, the favourite, in the previous round. Stoehr had game ball at 8-6 in the first game, but the Australian used her speed and determination to fight her way back to win it 10-9.

After Stoehr levelled the match, Grinham regrouped in the third and maintained her momentum through to the fourth to win 10-9 6-9 9-2 9-1 in 65 minutes.

The other semi-final, between second seed Nicol David and England's fourth seed Vicky Botwright was adjudged by organiser Julian Wellings to be "the match of the tournament so far". Like in their British Open quarter-final two weeks ago, Botwright took the opening game.

David drew level but lost her focus in the third and seemingly abandoned what had worked so well in the second game. Botwright's confidence returned in the third as she again took the lead. The fourth went David's way, but again Botwright burst back in the decider to take a 4-1 lead, which she later converted to match-ball at 8-7.

Nicol, however, revealed the class which took her to the British Open title a short time earlier and played some of her best points of the match to draw level - and ultimately closed out the match 5-9 9-1 3-9 9-6 10-8 in 90 minutes.

Semi-finals:
[3] Natalie Grinham (AUS) bt [8] Isabelle Stoehr (FRA) 10-9, 6-9, 9-2, 9-1 (65m)
[2] Nicol David (MAS) bt [4] Vicky Botwright (ENG) 5-9, 9-1, 3-9, 9-6, 10-8 (90m)