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Final
Rachael Grinham bt Natalie Grinham 3/0
Semi Final
Natlaie Grinham bt Tania Bailey 3/0
Rachael Grinham bt Natalie Grinham 3/1
Quarter Final
Natalie Grinham bt Omneya Abdel Kawy 3/1
Rachael Grinham bt Jenny Duncalf 3/0
2nd Round
Natalie Grinham bt Rebecca Chiu 3/0
Rachael Grinham bt Alison Waters 3/1
1st Round
Natalie Grinham bt Dominique Lloyd-Walter 3/0
Rachael Grinham bt Louise Crome 3/0
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"30 years old, and I've finally won my first
world championship!" said Rachael to the packed and
exuberant crowd at the presentations.
"It's been an awesome couple of months - I've been world
number one and now I'm world champion," said the third seed,
who has now increased her WISPA Tour haul to 27 titles.
"I was having a bit of a spiral downwards and over the
summer put in a lot more training - and things started to go
well," explained the senior Grinham, who has only lost one
match in 21 since August when she won the Alexandria
Sporting Club Open title in her adopted home country Egypt.
"Winning the British Open last month obviously gave me some
confidence - and this will too."
When asked what her feelings were when she was behind in the
second game, Rachael replied: "I wasn't thinking I was going
to lose the game, or the match - just that I wanted to make
her work!
"We know each others games so well, that when we play each
other we're often quite hesitant when we make shots - trying
to counter the response we're expecting.
"She made a lot of mistakes tonight that she wouldn't
normally do.
"I wanted to win quite badly - the fact I was playing my
sister didn't really matter!
"This was a championship I really wanted to win. And I am
thrilled to have done it at last!"
Asked if she felt any sympathy for her sister, Rachael was
quick to respond: "No! After all, she's got three
Commonwealth Games gold medals!"
Natalie Grinham conceded that she was "not too disappointed
to have lost" - then revealed that she had considered
pulling out of the event at the beginning of the week after
sustaining a wrist injury on the eve of the tournament.
"It eased off as the tournament developed - but I am
disappointed that I couldn't play better tonight. I felt I
played much better last night," said the 29-year-old, now
based in the Netherlands.
"She played her game and didn't let me play mine. She's very
fast - and when she gets the ball she does something with
it," added Natalie. "But if I've got to lose to somebody,
I'd rather it be her.
"I made a few errors - against her your shots need to be
perfect, and mine weren't!
"But I'm really happy to see Rachael playing well again -
she's the only player on the current Tour who can trick me."
When asked how she felt about playing in the first ever
world final between two sisters, Natalie replied: "It's
fantastic. Both of us being in the final, rather than one of
us winning it, is almost perfect. Perfect would have been if
I'd won it!" |