Fadaely Battles Back to Beat Grinham in Volkswagen Bega Open QFs

Sophie Fadaely battled back from the brink of defeat to end Rachael Grinham’s hopes of glory in the Volkswagen Bega Open quarter-finals. 

Grinham, 47, was playing just her second event since returning to the Tour after two years away, and had beaten Sugimoto Risa of Japan 3-0 in round two, using her pegged ranking of No.102 in the world to enter as the No.3 seed. 

That win over Risa set up an all-Australian last eight matchup with 20-year-old Fadaely, who was born 10 years after Grinham had joined the professional Tour. 

The first two games were both extremely close, but it was the experience of Grinham that proved to be decisive, as she won them 12-10, 11-9. 

Fadaely then saw three game balls come and go from 10-7 up in the third, with Grinham moving two points from victory by forcing a tiebreak. 

Another game ball came and went for Fadaely at 11-10 but she did finally get over the line at the next time of asking, clinching the game 13-11. 

With the match time passing the half hour mark, Fadaely took control of game four early, turning an 8-4 lead into an 11-8 win, and she carried that momentum into the decider, clinching victory with a run of seven straight points to move from 4-3 to 11-3. 

The 20-year-old will now play Erisa Sano Herring, who upset No.2 seed Sarah Cardwell 3-0, winning 13-11, 11-5, 11-9 in 27 minutes. 

Cardwell’s exit denied the home crowd any chance of an all-Australian women’s semi-final, but there could still be an all-Australian final, with 19-year-old Madison Lyon set to take on top seed Cheng Nga Ching of Hong Kong in the other semi-final. 

Lyon had to come from behind to beat compatriot Erin Classen, losing game one 11-8 before turning things around, closing out victory 11-5 in the fifth when a Classen backhand found the tin. 

In the men’s draw, Robin Gadola and Nasir Iqbal will face off in a matchup between two of the most in-form players on the Tour right now. 

Iqbal has won three of his last four tournaments across the past couple of months, while Gadola arrived in Bega having won last week’s Eastside Open, taking home that particular trophy for the second time. 

The two players will now battle it out for a spot in the final here in Bega after respective 3-0 wins over Tomo Endo of Japan and home favourite Rhys Dowling. 

The other men’s semi-final will see sixth seed Bryan Lim play second seed Matthew Lai, after Lim came through an 80-minutes tussle with David Bernet, winning the deciding fifth game 11-8. 

The semi-finals of the Volkswagen Bega Open kick off at 2pm local time, streaming live on the SQUASHTV Live Streaming YouTube channel.