WSA: Grinham’s fourth Monte Carlo title

By Alan Thatcher

November 3, 2012 - 11:02am

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All smiles before the final

Natalie Grinham won the Monte Carlo Classic for the fourth time after beating Madeline Perry in the final.

The Dutch international, who first won the event in 2006 and later retained the title in 2007, played out an assured campaign in the popular Monaco competition.  She claimed straight game victories in all of her matches on route to the final, dispatching qualifier Orla Noom, Tesni Evans and 2010 champion Omneya Abdel Kawy.

Her final opponent, top seeded Madeline Perry of Ireland, dropped an early game to her first round opponent, fifteen-year-old qualifier Nouran Ahmed Gohar.  She recovered to win in four games, before gaining a walkover as her second round opponent Lisa Aitken was forced to withdraw from the competition with a virus.

Perry progressed to face No.8 seed Heba El Torky in the semi-final, and after a close tie-break first game, the experienced Irishwoman closed out the victory in three games to ensure her first WSA World Tour final since April.

The top two seeds lined up for the final of the sixteenth Monte Carlo Classic final, and it was the tournament favourite Perry who started brightest to claim the first game.  Grinham got into her stride in the second however, and a narrow tie-break victory for the Dutchwoman pulled her back level.  From there, Perry was unable to get a look-in for the rest of the match.  Grinham claimed the third game by a large 9-point margin, and her opponent was well out of the contest as she won the fourth and final game by the same score-line.

It is the 34-year-old’s 18^th WSA World Tour title, and her second of the year following January’s Tournament Of Champions victory, proving that the former world No.2 is still very much a force to be reckoned with at the top of the women’s game.

Final: [2] Natalie Grinham (NED) bt [1] Madeline Perry (IRL)  6-11, 12-10, 11-2, 11-2 (35m)

Semi-finals: [1] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [8] Heba El Torky (EGY)      13-11, 11-2, 11-7 (31m)

[2] Natalie Grinham (NED) bt [5] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY)   11-6, 11-7, 11-9 (28m)