Dewald van Niekerk of South Africa and Rana Ismail of Egypt were crowned the Trustco All Africa Squash champions after winning the men and women’s finals on Saturday.
The top-seeded Van Niekerk (ranked 111th in the world) had little trouble in overcoming his fourth-seeded compatriot Damian Groenewald (215 in the world) in straight sets, displaying tenacity and great fitness as he wore his opponent down with some long rallies to win the match in 36 minutes.
Groenewald initially matched Van Niekerk, and at 6-4 down in the first set, he was still well in the match. Once Van Niekerk got into his rhythm though, there was nothing stopping him as he reeled off the next five points to win the set 11-4.
Groenewald once again matched Van Niekerk in the early stages of the second set to go level at 4-4, but Van Niekerk broke Groenewald’s resolve with his all-round consistency. Some unforced errors started to creep into Groenewald’s game as Van Niekerk took the second set 11-7.
Van Niekerk took an early 6-2 lead in the third set, and with Groenewald once again making some unforced errors, Van Niekerk went on to win the set 11-3 to complete a dominant victory.
Last week, Van Niekerk finished runner-up to Mohamed Nasser of Egypt in the BDO Namibian Open final, and he was relieved at winning the All Africa title.
“I’m really happy to win this title, it’s been a stressful two weeks with the previous tournament as well. This tournament was a big opportunity with a lot of international ranking points at stake, and I’m happy that I could do it in a special place like Namibia, because my sponsors are from Namibia,” he says.
“Hopefully this victory will put me in the top 100 in the world, which will be the first time ever for me — I’ve been working really hard to achieve that, so that will be very special,” he adds.
In the semifinals, Van Niekerk beat the third-seeded Abdallah Hafez of Egypt 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-8), while Groenewald beat the second-seeded Gabriel Olufumilayo of Nigeria 3-1 (7-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-7).
FIERY WOMEN’S FINAL
The women’s final was a fiery affair between Ismail, ranked 66th in the world, and South Africa’s top player Hayley Ward, ranked 104th in the world.
They weighed up evenly from the start, going level at 6-6, but Ismail’s class started to tell as she reeled in the points to win the first set 11-6.
Ward had a great opportunity to win the second when she led 10-8, but Ismail displayed her big match temperament as she drew level with two great drop shots before winning the set 12-10.
Ward came charging back, taking a 5-0 lead in the third set, and although Ismail managed to draw level at 7-7, Ward showed great determination to take the third set 11-8.
By then, the stakes were raised with both players regularly querying the umpire’s calls, which seemed to affect Ward’s game. Ismail displayed a stronger mentality to win the set 11-6 to take the match 3-1 in 41 minutes.
Ismail says she was proud of her performance.
“I’m proud of myself for pushing through, it was really tough for me in these conditions and I think I played pretty well and I’m happy to win this title,” she says, adding that she was not too happy with the refereeing.
“Namibia is the sister of South Africa so I expected a bit of biased refereeing so it was tough, it was like playing against the player and the referee. But I’m glad I managed to push through and happy to win the All Africa Championship title,” she said.
In the semifinals, Ismail beat the third-seeded Rofiat Abdulazeez of Nigeria 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-6), while Ward beat the 16th-seeded Isaac Blessing of Nigeria 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-2).
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