Waters and Walker Crowned Irish Open Winners 2012

Waters deprives Perry of her 5th Irish Open title

England’s Alison Waters wins the Cannon Kirk Homes Irish Squash Open for the second time, proving her injury, which kept her out of the game and tour for a year, is well behind her.

Alison Waters won the Irish Squash Open today against Ireland’s Madeline Perry, coming through all the way from the qualifiers. Alison played flawless squash against Madeline to take the title 3/0, winning the first two games 11/4, 11/4. Making only a handful of errors in the first two games, Alison forced Madeline to play defensively and offered few opportunities to break her momentum. Madeline came out in the 3rd set with renewed energy, and stormed to a 6/1 lead, then led 7/2. She appeared to have found her rhythm at last breaking Waters’ stride. However Waters came back to 8-8. Madeline saved Waters’ first match point at 10/9, as Madeline’s shot shaved the side wall line, millimeters from being out. Alison grabbed her next match point to take the match 12/10 in the end. Alison’s current ranking of 32 in the world will undoubtedly climb when the May rankings are released.

In the men’s final, the no. 1 seed Alister Walker (BOT) took the title in four games, beating the no. 3 seed Alan Clyne. Clyne was the first Scotsman to reach the Irish Open final in 12 years, after a long gap since Peter Nicol’s 2000 win. Having beaten the no. 2 seed in the semi-finals under 24 hours ago in a game lasting 1 hour 52 minutes, Clyne displayed amazing resilience to contest every point with Alister. Alister displayed faultless squash in the first two games, and looked set to win the match. Clyne demonstrated his tenacity and clawed back to 9-9 after a long rally where he retrieved everything that Walker threw at him. Clyne went on to take the 3rd set 11/9. Walker came back strong in the 4th set, and took a 7/1 lead. Despite Clyne’s stamina, Walker took the title winning 11/3.

WOMEN’S FINAL (Q) Alison Waters (ENG) bt (1) Madeline Perry (IRL) 11/4, 11/4, 12/10 (40 mins)

MEN’S FINAL (1) Alister Walker (BOT) bt (3) Alan Clyne (SCO) 11/4, 11/6, 9/11, 11/3 (54 mins)