WEE WERN CONTINUES AMAZING COMEBACK
She romps to fourth consecutive final after Australian Open action
LOW Wee Wern’s form since returning from a 20-month injury layoff has been nothing short of miraculous. The 28-year-old squash ace romped to her fourth consecutive final since making her comeback last month with a straightforward 11-3, 11-5, 11-8 win over third seed Tong TszWing of Hong Kong in the semifinal of the Australian Open yesterday.
She will play Egyptian Hana Ramadan in the final at the Mulgrave Country Club today. Ramadan, who defeated top seed Christine Nunn (Australia) in the quarter-finals, had downed Malaysian Rachel Arnold 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-3 in her semi-final.
Wee Wern, who had struggled with serious knee injuries in recent years, said she knew TszWing would not be at her best physically.
“I started off well and I knew Tong had two hard matches leading up to the semis, so I was capitalising on that.”
“She came back in the third set but I am glad I managed to close out the match 3-0. One last push tomorrow (the final) before heading home.”
The Penangite, who won the Malaysian Open and Tasmanian Open back-to-back last month, had scalped second seed Ho TzeLok of Hong Kong in straight sets in the quarterfinals.
Tsz-Wing, on the other hand, needed five sets against Aussie Sarah Cardwell in the quarterfinals and also went to a decider in her match against Anna Serme of the Czech Republic in the second round.
The semi-finals, however, was as far as it got for Malaysia’s Mohd Syafiq Kamal in the men’s competition as he went down 11-1, 11-4, 11-3 to Australia’s top seed Rex Hedrick.
Hedrick will play Swiss Dimitri Steinmann in the final tomorrow. Steinmann defeated Frenchman Sebastien Bonmalais 11-3, 11-5, 11-4 in his semifinal.
Malaysians Elvinn Keo, Bryan Lim and Ryan Pasqual had bowed out in the second round of the competition, which offers an equal prize money of US$11,000 (RM44,840) for both the men’s and women’s events.