Women’s PSA Squash Tour I: Aleshina Claims Maiden PSA Title

Alesya Aleshina became the newest winner on the PSA Tour yesterday, as she claimed victory at the Women’s PSA Squash Tour I, held in Moscow.

The Challenger 3 level tournament, which was played at Squash Club Moscow, featured 16 Russian players in a domestic-only event, with Aleshina being the No.6 seed in the draw.

The young Russian, who will only turn 19 at the end of next month, started out with a confident victory over wildcard Polina Gurova, dropping just three points across the entire match.

She came up against the tournament’s top seed, Varvara Esina, the Russian No.1. After dropping the first game, she came back to lead 2-1, only for Esina to send the match into a decider. It would be Aleshina that won out though, taking the fifth 11-7 to advance after 50 minutes of action.

The 18-year-old then downed No.8 seed Ekaterina Marusan in the last four to book her spot in the final, where she needed less than half an hour to take the victory, beating No.3 seed Varya Kliueva in four games to take her maiden PSA title.

Results: Women’s PSA Squash Tour I
Final
[6] Alesya Aleshina (RUS) bt [3] Varya Kliueva (RUS) 3-1: 11-6, 9-11, 11-8, 11-5 (29m)

Semi-Finals
[6] Alesya Aleshina (RUS) bt [8] Ekaterina Marusan (RUS) 3-0: 11-4, 11-2, 11-5 (18m)
[3] Varya Kliueva (RUS) bt [WC] Ksenia Gornaia (RUS) 3-0: 11-5, 11-5, 11-5 (15m)

Quarter-Finals
[6] Alesya Aleshina (RUS) bt [1] Varvara Esina (RUS) 3-2: 8-11, 11-4, 12-10, 8-11, 11-7 (50m)
[8] Ekaterina Marusan (RUS) bt [4] Olga Kuznetsova (RUS) 3-0: 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 (14m)
[3] Varya Kliueva (RUS) bt Kseniya Borkova (RUS) 3-0: 11-8, 11-3, 11-5 (21m)
[WC] Ksenia Gornaia (RUS) bt [7] Ekaterina Glinchikova (RUS) 3-0: 11-3, 11-3, 11-2 (12m)

Round One
[1] Varvara Esina (RUS) bt [WC] Anastasia Spitsyn (RUS) 3-0: 11-1, 11-0, 11-2 (12m)
[6] Alesya Aleshina (RUS) bt [WC] Polina Gurova (RUS) 3-0: 11-2, 11-0, 11-1 (23m)
[8] Ekaterina Marusan (RUS) bt [WC] Kate Russ (RUS) 3-0; 11-7, 11-2, 11-5 (21m)
[4] Olga Kuznetsova (RUS) bt [WC] Aleksandra Pikulina (RUS) 3-0: 11-4, 11-4, 11-4 (14m)
[3] Varya Kliueva (RUS) bt [WC] Katia Ushakova (RUS) 3-0: 11-1, 11-3, 11-1 (15m)
Kseniya Borkova (RUS) bt [5] Mariya Golubeva (RUS) 3-0: 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 (17m)
[7] Ekaterina Glinchikova (RUS) bt [WC] Maria Tsytlenok (RUS) 3-0: 11-3, 11-6, 11-5 (20m)
[WC] Ksenia Gornaia (RUS) bt [2] Maria Arseniev (RUS) 3-0: 11-0 rtd (2m)