Expression Network LLC Kinetic Racquet Women’s 30k QFs: Villard Fights Through Pain as Top Seeds Progress

Enora Villard fought through the pain barrier to reach the semi-finals of the Expression Network LLC Kinetic Racquet Women’s 30k, beating Alina Bushma in five games as the top four seeds all progressed at the Kinetic Indoor Racquets club. 

Villard – the No.4 seed – controlled game one to take it 11-4, but was pegged back by the Ukrainian player, who took game two in style, swatting a forehand into the nick on game ball. 

Busha then quickly established a 4-2 lead in game three when drama struck, as the players collided towards the back of the court, with Villard’s face crashing into her opponent’s shoulder. 

The incident was entirely accidental, but that would have been of little consolation to Villard as blood poured from her mouth and nose. 

She returned to the court around 20 minutes later with a determined look in her eye, as the match remained in the balance, and despite the undoubted pain she was in, Villard fought her way to victory in a third-game tiebreak.

Bushma took the fourth to force a decider, but Villard took command of proceedings midway through game five, bringing up six match balls when her opponent found the tin on a backhand drive. 

The first opportunity would come and go for Villard as a forehand smash sailed out, but victory would arrive moments later, as a deep cross-court forehand kicked off the back wall and out of Bushma’s reach. 

Villard’s reward for her hard-earned victory is a semi-final matchup with top seed Jasmine Hutton, who was made to work for her own win by Marina Stefanoni. 

The young American recently graduated from Harvard, and would have been hoping to celebrate that achievement in style this week, but found the No.2 seed standing in her way in the last eight. 

There was nothing to split them after two, with Hutton taking game one 11-5 and Stefanoni the second 11-6.

Jasmine Hutton celebrates her win over Marina Stefanoni.

Hutton – who calls the Kinetic Indoor Racquet Club home for parts of the year – clinched game three when a backhand volley from the Stefanoni racquet found the tin, but it looked as though we were going the distance when the American found herself 9-7 up in the fourth. 

Ultimately, though, Hutton wrapped things up to avoid a decider, winning three of the next four points to force a tiebreak, before clinching victory on a delightful backhand drop which wrong-footed Stefanoni.

That result ended a quarter-finals day which had started in more one-sided fashion, with each of the first two semi-finals finishing 3-0. 

Opening play against Egypt’s Nour Megahed was top seed Emily Whitlock, who was looking to avoid the same fate as Akanksha Salunkhe and Menna Walid, both of whom had been upset by Megahed earlier this week. 

The unseeded 18-year-old had overturned a two-game deficit in each of those two matches and she once again fell 2-0 behind here, though this time there would be no fairytale fightback. 

Instead, Whitlock closed out game three in style, hitting an inch-perfect forehand winner from high above her head on match ball to cap a dominant display, not dropping more than six points in any of the three games.

She will now face Melissa Alves, who got the better of sixth seed Torrie Malik. 

Despite there being 34 places between them in the rankings, there was little to separate the pair on court towards the end of game one, with Malik fighting back from 8-4 down to force a tiebreak. 

Alves would ultimately take it 13-11 when a Malik backhand sailed over the back wall, and the Frenchwoman was soon 2-0 up, racing through game two for the loss of just two points. 

Determined not to give in without a fight, Malik pushed her opponent hard in game three, closing to within a point at 9-8 down. 

But that would prove to be as close as she would get, as Alves sent her the wrong way on a crosscourt forehand to bring up match ball, then hitting another winner from the same side to end proceedings. 

The semi-finals begin at 12pm ET (5pm BST) on Wednesday, May 29^th, with both matches streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel. 

Results: 
[4] Enora Villard (FRA) bt Alina Bushma (UKR) 3-2: 11-4, 7-11, 12-10, 7-11, 11-5 (87m) 
[2] Jasmine Hutton (ENG) bt [5] Marina Stefanoni (USA) 3-1: 11-5, 6-11, 11-6, 12-10 (50m 
[1] Emily Whitlock (WAL) bt Nour Megahed (EGY) 3-0: 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 (32m) 
[3] Melissa Alves (FRA) bt [6] Torrie Malik (ENG) 3-0: 13-11, 11-2, 11-8 (28m)