Northumbria Open 2022 – Results

The Northumbria Open 2022 welcomed over 90 players to The Northumberland Club from 24th – 27th March, for a long weekend full of exciting and first-rate squash! Amongst the bumper entry were 27 world ranked players participating in the men’s and women’s $1000 PSA satellite draws.

The men’s PSA draw was headed by world ranked #77 Richie Fallows as well as Joel Arscott (wr #177), Owain Taylor (wr #197) and Lewis Doughty (wr #251)! There was also a notable entry from Finnlay Withington (wr #279), the winner of the Northumbria Summer Open 2021!

In the women’s PSA event the top 3 seeds were all very similarly ranked on the world tour, with top seed Rana Ismail (wr #101) being closley follow by England youngsters Saran Nghiem and Asia Harris, ranked #115 and #155 respectively. Asia was looking to take another title in the region, having won the women’s event in the Northumbria Summer Open in August 2021!

PSA MEN’S FINAL – [3/4] Owain Taylor 3 – 0 [5/8] Finnlay Withington

The men’s final was a high-quality encounter between 2 slightly unexpected players in Owain and Finnlay. Owain was 1-0 up in his semi final encounter with [1]Richie Fallows but, unfortunately, Richie was forced to withdraw in the 2nd game due to injury. Finnlay came through a tough quarter final match against [3/4] Lewis Doughty winning 3-1, before facing Joel Arscott in the semis, causing a second upset by beating the 2 seed 3-0 (11/4 12/10 11/8)!

In the final, Owain stayed composed and in control against Finnlay’s shot-making and great retrievial abilities to come through in straight games (11/7 11/7 11/7) to be crowned the Northumbria Open 2022 Men’s Champion!

PSA WOMEN’S FINAL – [1] Rana Ismail 2 – 3 [2] Saran Nghiem

In the women’s event it went to seeding, as top seeds Rana and Saran both progressed through to the final. Saran had a good battle with fellow England junior Asia Harris in the semi final, winning 3-0 (11/8 11/7 11/9). In the other semi final, Rana put an end to Kim Hay’s unseeded run through the draw. Kim having defeated 2 seeded, world ranked players to reach the semi final!

Saran beat the no.1 seed in a closely contested final 3-2 (11/3 6/11 3/11 11/6 11/3), showing real determination to come back from 2-1 down and claim the Northumbria Open 2022 Women’s title!

The graded events were also full of quality with great matches and well-contested finals throughout all the grades!

Main:

A	[3/4] Paul Lord	[1] Jamie Todd	3-0
B	[2] Joe Elliott	[1] John Armstrong	3-0
C	[3/4] Mick Devine	Luke Radley	3-1

Plate:

Men’s	Seif Heikal	Nick Ratnanrajah	3-0
Women’s	Mia Smith	Zoe Shipsey	3-0
A	Sam Sweeney	Kieran Mahoney	3-1
B	Sam Ponente	Emily King	3-0
C	Stuart Mitchell	Dave North	3-1

A big thank you has to go to Dave Barnett for organising and to all those who helped out over the 4 days for putting on an excellent event, as well as to the players and spectators for creating a great atmosphere throughout the tournament!

We would also like to thank all of our amazing sponsors, as without them them this event wouldn’t be possible!