Waters Celebrates New Year Double In Cleveland

4 Feb 2010

England's Alison Waters became the first player to win two WISPA World Tour squash titles this year when she beat Egyptian rival Omneya Abdel Kawy in the final of the Women's Burning River Classic, the $39,000 WISPA World Tour Silver event at Cleveland Racquet Club in Cleveland in the US state of Ohio.

It was only ten days earlier that the pair faced off in the final of the Harrow Greenwich Open in Connecticut, where Waters won the first Silver title of the year without dropping a game.

"Tonight looked to be heading the same way after Alison took a 2/0 game lead, but Omneya had no intention of gifting Alison the title and the TAG watch that went along with the winner's purse," said tournament organiser Nathan Dugan.

Abdel Kawy won the next two games to draw level - but four tins in nine rallies from the second-seeded Egyptian was the major story of the fifth game as top seed Waters, the world No5 from London, was able to regain her confidence and reclaim the lead.

Despite a mini comeback from Abdel Kawy to go from 9-3 to 9-6, the game already appeared out of reach as Waters went on to win 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 3-11, 11-6 in 57 minutes.

The victory marked Waters' eighth match win in a row in 2010 and took her career WISPA title tally to four from 11 final appearances.

Final:
[1] Alison Waters (ENG) bt [2] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 3-11, 11-6 (57m)