Kennedy Claims First Title Of The Season After Taking Out Top Seed In Germany

England’s Georgina Kennedy defeated top seed Nele Gilis in an exciting four-game contest to claim her first title of the season in the 2024 German Open.

It was a conservative start to the match, with both players unwilling to take too many risks. The Englishwoman took a 4-1 lead after winning a series of longer rallies, but errors crept into Kennedy’s game as Gilis restored parity at 4-4.

The No.3 seed kept ahead for the majority of the rest of the first game, and despite the Belgian levelling the points at 7-7, Kennedy pushed on and scored three successive points to give herself three game balls.

A well-struck backhand kill from Gilis at 7-10, followed by a mistake by the England No.1 reduced the deficit, but Kennedy held her nerve and converted her third game ball with a cross-court after pulling the top seed into the front right corner.

Kennedy seemed to have found her stride in the second game, taking a quick 5-2 lead. a pin-point accurate forehand drop from the Belgian seemed to have settled her as she pulled back to 5-6, but the Englishwoman surged on to earn four game balls.

The Englishwoman got off to a confident start, winning the first rally of the third game with a boast from the back of the court. The rallies remained long and attritional and Gilis finally took the lead for the first time in the match at 5-4 in the third game, before finding her lengths and pushing on to an 11-7 third game win.

Kennedy seemed to have refound her footing as she took a swift 4-0 lead to go within seven points of victory. a little bit of edginess seemed to come into the Englishwoman’s performance as she hit the tin on her boast at 6-2, but Kennedy kept ahead, hitting an accurate counter-drop at 7-5 to take a three-point lead in the final phases of the game.

Gilis fought back to a tense tie-break, but the England No.1 managed to edge the final game 14-12 to defeat the top seed and claim her first title since 2023 Cleveland Classic.

“I’m really pleased,” said Kennedy after the match. “It’s such a battle with Nele [Gilis]. She’s won a lot of silverware this season and I hadn’t won any yet so I’m really happy to finally get my hands on a trophy, but that match was so close.

“She had game ball in that fourth game to take it to a fifth, and she was definitely getting some momentum. I’m really happy to close it out in four. I wanted to win a title this week so I’m really pleased that I did.

“I had a really good start to last year, winning a couple of titles back-to-back and that gives you a lot of confidence coming into the bigger tournaments. It’s been in my head all season that I haven’t won a title. There’s been a few events where I’ve lost earlier than I wanted to. I really wanted to win a title this week and I was glad I wasn’t the No.1 seed as it took the limelight off me a little bit.

“I’m just pleased with my squash. Even if I lost the match today I would’ve been happy with my performance and that’s all you can ask for.”

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Result: German Open 2024 – Presented by Sportwerk Final
[3] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt [1] Nele Gilis (BEL) 3-1: 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 14-12 (68m)