Gaynor Cup RD2 Roundup: Turmel & Clyne Score Upsets to Reach Quarters

England’s Lucy Turmel and USA’s Olivia Clyne eliminated the No.3 and No.4 seeds on day two of the Bahl and Gaynor Cincinnati Gaynor Cup, with the pair beating World No.8 Sarah-Jane Perry and World No.9 Olivia Fiechter, respectively, at the Cincinnati Country Club.

Turmel will line up in the quarter-finals of a PSA World Tour Silver event for the first time tomorrow and had never beaten a top 10 player coming into today’s clash with compatriot Perry.

But, in the pair’s first meeting on the PSA Tour, the Ipswich-born 23-year-old produced a fine performance to oust the England No.1, winning by an 11-7, 2-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-4 margin.

“It’s my biggest win so far, it’s massive,” said Turmel.

“I’m very happy to win, but SJ is a teammate of mine and she has helped myself, Gina [Kennedy] and Jazz [Hutton] a lot. She’s very open to advice and texts me when I have good results. I just want to say thanks to SJ for everything she’s doing for us.

“We played in a PSL match a couple of years ago. I’ve watched her a lot though and know her style. I had a very clear game plan today, but it’s very hard to stick to it with SJ because she chops and changes her tactics.”

Turmel’s reward is a fixture with No.5 seed Salma Hany after she avoided a surprise defeat against World No.23 Emily Whitlock. 

Elswhere, Clyne and Fiechter were meeting for the third time this month after a win apiece at the Cleveland Classic and DAC Pro Squash Classic. Fiechter had triumphed in their previous match en route to her title win at the DAC Pro, but Clyne produced a sublime performance today in Cincinnati to dismantle her fellow American in straight games.

“I had a feeling that it would be a tough ask for Olivia to come here after a huge high following her win in Detroit where she played fantastic squash,” Clyne said.

“I know from my own experience that the next match is really hard. I’ve played quite a few matches the last couple of weeks and I definitely felt down yesterday evening. I talked through my game plan a thousand times today, and I tried to be as focused as possible and not give her a thing.”

Clyne will go up against Canada’s Hollie Naughton in the next round following Naughton’s 11-3, 11-3, 12-14, 11-2 win over Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold.

Meanwhile, World No.1 Nouran Gohar got her title defence under way with a 3-1 victory over compatriot Mariam Metwally. Metwally, who received coaching from Gohar during her first round fixture with Malaysia’s Low Wee Wern, took a shock one-game lead but soon fell victim to her opponent after Gohar finally got her length game working from the second onwards.

“Mariam is a very attacking player, so I had to be on my toes,” said Gohar, who will play fellow Egyptian Sana Ibrahim next.

“After ToC we had three Silver events back to back. I felt Cleveland was too soon, so it was between Detroit and Cincinnati [the event she’d play next], but I just love the people here, I love the atmosphere, I love everything about it, so I decided to come here for a second year. I’m happy they’ve upgraded the event from a Bronze to a Silver, so there are more [ranking] points.”

No.2 seed Rowan Elaraby certainly had to be on her toes to avoid an upset against England’s Jasmine Hutton. The World No.7 was pegged back by Hutton after opening up a two-game advantage, but Elaraby held her nerve in the tie-break to advance to the quarter-finals. Her opponent there will be England’s Georgina Kennedy, who has beaten Elaraby in the last two events.

“I’m really happy to be through, I think I was playing good squash in the first two games but I lost a bit of focus,” said Elaraby.

“I’ve got a good game plan for her [Kennedy] tomorrow. We’ve played twice in the last two weeks, so I’m looking forward to taking my revenge this time.”

Kennedy overcame Malaysia’s Tsz-Wing Tong, winning 11-6, 11-8, 11-2 in 25 minutes.

The Cincinnati Gaynor Cup continues tomorrow with play beginning at 17:30 (GMT-5). Matches will be streamed live on the PSA World Tour website.

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Results – Second Round: 2023 Bahl and Gaynor Cincinnati Gaynor Cup

[1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt Mariam Metwally (EGY) 3-1: 8-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 (39m)

Sana Ibrahim (EGY) bt [8] Nada Abbas (EGY) 3-1: 11-8, 6-11, 11-5, 11-7 (43m)

[5] Salma Hany (EGY) bt Emily Whitlock (WAL) 3-2: 10-12, 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7 (59m)

Lucy Turmel (ENG) bt [3] Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) 3-2: 11-7, 2-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-4 (52m)

Olivia Clyne (USA) bt [4] Olivia Fiechter (USA) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-3 (27m)

[7] Hollie Naughton (CAN) bt Rachel Arnold (MAS) 3-1: 11-3, 11-3, 12-14, 11-2 (36m)

[6] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt Tsz-Wing Tong (HKG) 3-0: 11-6, 11-8, 11-2 (25m)

[2] Rowan Elaraby (EGY) bt Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 3-2: 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 3-11, 11-6 (57m)

Draw – Quarter-Finals: To Be Played February 14th

[1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) v Sana Ibrahim (EGY)

[5] Salma Hany (EGY) v Lucy Turmel (ENG)

Olivia Clyne (USA) v [7] Hollie Naughton (CAN)

[6] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) v [2] Rowan Elaraby (EGY)