Rachael doubles up at Cippenham 1-Star Open
The Cippenham Women’s and Girls 1Star Open proved to be an enormous success for both the club, and one of its star players, on Sunday.
The tournament was staged by the club as part of an initiative by Table Tennis England to encourage greater female participation in the sport, and it was a great experience for one of Cippenham’s own, as 16-year-old Rachael Iles won both events available to her.
She swept to victory in the u21s singles competition before seeing off all comers in the Open Singles competition in the afternoon.
In both finals she beat Greenhouse’s Parrmis Ahsani, however, Ahsani will rue the six match points that came and went for her in the final match of the day.
Twenty players were eligible for the u21s singles competition, with Rachael, Parrmis Ahsani, Anna Piercey, Luna Archard, Evie Knaapen and Jonabel Taguibao emerging as the winners of their respective groups.
Only Cippenham’s Anna Piercey of the top three seeds failed to make it through to their allotted semi-final with Anna being eliminated by Taguibao in the quarterfinals.
Taguibao was then beaten by Ahsani for a place in the final, while Iles made short work of Valerie Lysikova and Archard to reach the final. She then came back from a game down to beat Ahsani 12-10 in the fourth game to claim her first title of the day.
In the over-21s singles competition, Gabriela Tankel defeated Ridhi Rohit in an extremely well contested final that ebbed and flowed before eventually going Tankel’s way (16-18, 117, 10-12, 11-9, 12-10).
Both age groups then came together for the Open Singles event, with 36 players split into 11 qualifying groups.
In the final Iles and Ahsani clashed for the second time that day, and it was Iles who prevailed after saving six match points. Ahsani led 2-1, 10-6 and then 108 in the fifth and deciding game, but Iles’ fighting spirit saw her battle back from the brink to claim victory.
Prior to that, Rachael had seen off challenges from Rita Lopes, Jonabel Taguibao and, in the semi-final, Rushi Rohit. Parrmis had dismissed Donna Hammond, Gabriela Tankel, and Evie Knaapen while the other quarterfinalists were Anna Piercey and Valerie Lysikova.
The tournament was organised by Elena
Tant and refereed by Sue Hayes.