Dipika Pallikal clinches Winnipeg squash title

After conceding a game in the opening round, top seed Dipika Pallikal showed her true class in the Winnipeg Winter Club Women's Open by reclaiming the World Squash Association (WSA) Challenger 15 title without dropping a further game.

In the final, Pallikal defeated second seed Heba El Torky, the 24-year-old World No.26 from Egypt who finished runner-up in 2014, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8 here Sunday to win her 10th WSA Tour title.

El Torky survived a hard-fought five-game semi-final against Samantha Teran Sunday, the third seed from Mexico and nine years her senior, eventually clinching victory on her third match-ball, 10-12, 11-13, 11-6, 11-6, 12-10.

The 2013 champion from India reached the final, the 15th of her career on the WSA World Tour, after beating Donna Urquhart, the fourth seed from Australia making her Tour return after a six-month foot injury break, 11-5, 11-5, 11-8.

Right from the start of the final, Pallikal looked in full control. She was striking the ball crisply and cleanly, mixing in an array of wicked offensive shots, mostly forehanded attempts and well timed flicks.

Perhaps El Torky's hour and 45-minute semi-final match from the day before had left her a little exhausted, but Pallikal looked in as good a form as she had been anytime this week.

After being down 6-10 in the second, El Torky climbed back to 9-10 capitalising on some errors of Pallikal, but the unruffled Indian waited for her chance. She was rewarded for her perseverance after winning a very long backhand rally enabling her to take the second game.

The third game was a little tighter, but the outcome looked inevitable as Pallikal rolled on to win her second Winnipeg Winter Club Women's Open title.