Waters Wipes Out Grinham In Malaysian Open Upset
Men's semi-finals:
[1] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt [4] James Willstrop (ENG) 11-3, 11-4, 12-14, 11-9 (59m)
[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [3] Wael El Hindi (EGY) 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8
Women's semi-finals:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [3] Natalie Grinham (NED) 11-6, 15-13, 12-10 (46m)
[4] Alison Waters (ENG) bt [2] Rachael Grinham (AUS) 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 (44m)
England's Alison Waters recorded one of the most decisive wins of her career when she upset Australia's No2 seed Rachael Grinham in straight games in today's (Friday) semi-finals of the CIMB Malaysian Open to reach the final of the $53,500 WISPA World Tour Gold squash event at The Curve Shopping Mall at Mutiara Damansara in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Ranked six in the world, the 25-year-old Londoner marked her fourth win in six meetings over world No4 Grinham in an 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 victory in 44 minutes.
Waters, now in her third Tour final of the year and the eighth of her career, will face event favourite Nicol David, the world number one from Malaysia who is now one match away from her fifth successive title.
David reached her seventh final in a row when she despatched third seed Natalie Grinham, the world No3 from the Netherlands, 11-6, 15-13, 12-10.
The two finalists will be meeting for the tenth time on the WISPA Tour since 2004 - with Waters looking for her first win.
The top two seeds will line up in the final of the men's $52,500 PSA World Tour event.
Favourite Amr Shabana, the three-time world champion competing in KL for the first time since 2000, dropped his first game of the tournament in overcoming England's fourth seed James Willstrop.
The 30-year-old from Cairo overwhelmed the Yorkshireman in the first two games - then Willstrop struck back to take the third. But Shabana battled on to overcome the tiring Willstrop, ultimately winning 11-3, 11-4, 12-14, 11-9 in 59 minutes to reach his first PSA final of the year - but the 34th of his career.
World No4 Shabana will face another Englishman in the final when he takes on Nick Matthew. Buoyed by last week's gold medal success in the World Games in Chinese Taipei, Matthew beat Egypt's third seed Wael El Hindi 11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-8 - and is now in his 27th career Tour final.