Dream final at the Mozart Open Ladies

Today was the first day of action on the glasscourt at EUROPARK Salzburg shopping mall with many spectators ready to watch world class squash.

It was semifnal day of the Mozart Open ladies PSA world ranking tournament.

The first semifinal of the evening was between second seed Alison Thomson (SCO, WRL 82) and fourth seed Kiera Marshall (ENG, WRL 89), which was an absolute nail-biter and went to five games.

The first three games were very even and close. Both players showed amazing retrieval skills and played high quality squash. Alison Thomson was able the take a 2/1 lead after saving three gameballs in the third game.

However in the fourth game the second seed lost her concentration while Kiera Marshall could race to a 9/0 lead and eventually win the game 11/3 to level games 2/2.

The deciding game was real thriller. It went point by point towards the end of that game. Alison Thomson was again able to save two matchballs to reach a tiebreak. In return Kiera Marshall saved herself a couple of matchballs but was not able to convert any of her further matchballs.

In the end it was Alison Thomson who won the game 17/15 after 69 minutes of play.

Both players deserved to reach the final tomorrow, but of course there could be only one.

The second semifinal was contested by the tournament favorite Saran Nghiem (ENG, WRL 66) and underdog Michaela Cepová (CZE, WRL 205). It was a contrasting match to the previous semifinal where the English player was just too solid and. Michaela Cepová showed a great fight but wasn’t able to push her opponent enough.

This means that Saran Nghiem won 3/0 and will face Alison Thomson tomorrow at 16:30 in the final of the Mozart Open!
Here are the full scores of the semifinals:

[2] Alison Thomson (SCO, WRL 82) – [4] Kiera Marshall (ENG, WRL 89) 8/11, 11/6, 12/10, 3/11, 17/15 69min
[1] Saran Nghiem (ENG, WRL 66) – [9/16] Michaela Cepová (CZE, WRL 205) 11/4, 11/7, 11/6 22min

Final on Saturday at EUROPARK Salzburg:

16:30 [1] Saran Nghiem (ENG, WRL 66) – [2] Alison Thomson (SCO, WRL 82)

Matches will be streamed live on the Austrian Squash Challenge Facebook page. Livescoring is available on the PSA World Tour Website.

All pictures are free to use when mentioning our photographer Stefan Müller. More pictures can be found in the gallery of our tournament website.