WORLD SQUASH NEWS

RESULTS: Women's Weymuller US Open Squash Championship, New York, USA

Final:
[3] Natalie Grainger (USA) bt [4] Linda Elriani (ENG) 6-9, 9-4, 9-6, 9-4 (50m)

Grainger Makes It In New York

Natalie Grainger emphatically marked her return to the WISPA World Tour after an eight month lay-off by winning the Women's Weymuller US Open Squash Championship title for the first time at the Heights Casino in New York.

The packed crowd was not disappointed with the climax of the nation's leading women's squash tournament which featured third seed Grainger, the US No1 from Washington DC, and fourth-seeded Englishwoman Linda Elriani - both of whom despatched higher-seeded opponents to reach the Heights Casino final.

The first game was tight with both players attacking, with few errors.  Grainger started slowly, but then came back before succumbing at six-all.  Elriani, the world No6 from Eastbourne in Sussex, took a 4-0 lead in the second game - then a turnaround saw Grainger going from 0-4 to 9-4 in just two hands.  The next two games were closely contested, but the punishing counter drops took their toll on Elriani, and a very happy Grainger took the title 6-9 9-4 9-6 9-4 in 50mins.

A disappointed Elriani said after the match:  "It's simple - I didn't stick to the plan I had thought through before the match, which I knew would work; burying her deep, playing it very wide, varying the pace and not going short too soon."

A jubilant Grainger summed up her feelings on winning her country's prized title for the first time:  "I have finally got my name on the board."

Grainger's victory - just seven days after clinching the Atlanta Masters crown in Georgia - brings to ten the number of WISPA titles the England-born former South African has won.  It also ends the run of four successive WISPA final defeats by Elriani.