Raneem El Welily (le) made her 24th WSA Tour final, after defeating French star Camille Serme at the Windy City Open (pic: Jordan Mansfield) The world’s top 2 squash players will contest the women’s final of the Windy City Open after Malaysia’s World No.1 Nicol David and Egypt’s Raneem El Welily (le), the World No.2, prevailed in contrasting semi-finals in Chicago.
After her shock quarter-final exit at the Tournament of Champions in New York in January, David has been in scintillating form. The 31-year-old from Penang won in straight games (11-9, 13-11, 12-10) against Egypt’s eighth seed Nour El Tayeb.
Raneem El Welily was taken the full distance before surviving her Chicago semi-final against France’s Camille Serme (ri). 6th seed Serme opened up a 2/1 lead in their latest encounter, but El Welily regained control in the fourth before closing out the match 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-3 in 58 minutes.
David and El Welily will be celebrating their 21st Tour meeting since July 2006 – and their 11th in a final. The Malaysian currently leads the head-to-head 17/3.
Final:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) v [2] Raneem El Welily (EGY)
Semi-finals:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [8] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) 11-9, 13-11, 12-10 (52m)
[2] Raneem El Welily (EGY) bt [6] Camille Serme (FRA) 11-8, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-3 (58m)
