ON A ROLL DOWN UNDER

Wee Wern bags Australian Open crown

LOW Wee Wern proved that she is really on fire as she won her third PSA title in a row at the Australian Open yesterday. The 28-year-old, who earlier this week was named PSA Player of the Month (July), showed her maturity as she calmly subdued a late fightback from Egyptian Hana Ramadan en route to winning 11-6, 119, 10-12, 11-6 in the final at the Mulgrave Country Club.

Wee Wern, who downed Hong Kong's Tong Tsz-Wing in the semi-finals, said her victory made all the hard work she had put into her comeback worthwhile.

"I am very pleased to win this, Hana is a tough opponent and I really had to keep to my game plan to win it" said Wee Wern, when contacted today.

"Three wins in three (PSA) tournaments, it can't get much better than that. It definitely makes all the hard work put into the last 20 months worthwhile.

"It is time to head home now, my next tournament will be the Asian Games."

Wee Wern reached the final of the National Championships last month in what was her first tournament back after being sidelined for 20 months due to serious knee injuries.

She then went on to win back-toback PSA titles at the Malaysian Open as well as the Tasmanian Open, also last month.

She will be competing alongside Nicol David, S. Sivasangari and Aifa Azman in the team event at the Indonesia Asian Games later this month.

Meanwhile, the men's final at the Australian Open witnessed Australian Rex Hedrick defeating Swiss Dimitri Steinmann 11-4, 12-10, 11-5. Hedrick had earlier in the semi-finals defeated Mohd Syafiq Kamal in straight sets.

The Australian Open is a US$11,000 (RM44,840) event in both the men's and women's categories.