England's 21-year-oldEmily
Whitlockclaimed the
biggestWSA World Toursquash
title of her career when she upset top-seeded AustralianRachael
Grinham, the defending champion, in the final of theCalgary
CFO Consulting Services WSA Women's Squash Week, theWSA
Challenger 15event atCalgary
Winter ClubinCalgary,
Canada.
Third seed Whitlock, ranked 27 in the world, made her
breakthrough in the semi-finals where she defeated Denmark's No.2 seedLine
Hansenfor the first
time.
The four-game win took Macclesfield-born Whitlock into
the 16th Tour final of her career - and her first meeting with the
experienced former world number one and world champion Grinham.
In the other semi-final, 38-year-old world No.13 Grinham
battled for four games to overcome fellow countrywomanDonna
Urquhart, the fourth seed from New South Wales who last week
celebrated her first Tour win since making her comeback after foot
surgery.
The domestic duel heralded Grinham's 70th appearance in a
WSA Tour final, since her first in March 1998!
Whitlock won the opening game in the final, but the
title-holder from Queensland regained the advantage to open up a 2/1
lead.
Defying the 14 ranking positions separating the pair, the
ever-improving Whitlock recovered to take the fourth, then surged ahead
to close out the match 11-9, 8-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 to claim the
highest-ranked scalp of her life!
"What ultimately got Emily the winning title was not only
her resilience to go for every winner that Rachael dished out, but to
then put them all away herself," said a spokesman for the event. "Truly
world class squash played by both!"
Whitlock was delighted to win the 11th WSA Tour title of
her career:"I
got to Calgary 10 days before the tournament started so I could prepare
properly for the altitude - and I felt that I improved as the tournament
went on.
"The match against Rachael was extremely demanding
mentally and physically but I stuck to my game plan, gritted my teeth
and chased everything down! The first game gave me a lot of confidence
that I could compete with a player of Rachael's reputation, although at
2/1 down things didn't look great!
"But I just kept going and made a few adjustments which
helped me in the last two games."