Natalie Grainger adds San Diego title to her win in LA . (Photo © 2007 F. Borchert)

Chastened by how close she had come to losing to the same opponent a mere seven days ago and determined to leave nothing to chance this time around, top seed Natalie Grainger steamrolled her way to a 9-2, 3 and 3 victory over second seed Raneem El Weleily this afternoon at San Diego Squash in the final round of the inaugural Betteridge & Breitling San Diego Classic.

In so doing, Grainger completed a California sweep (having won in Los Angeles last week via a rallying 3-2 final against El Weleily, who had led 2-1 at the break), earned not only the winner’s portion of the $ 7,000 purse but a Breitling watch valued at $ 4,500, sent an emphatic message to her precocious teenage world-junior-champion co-finalist of the long road that lies ahead and gave herself an early 30th birthday present one week before the July 8th fact.

Unlike their prior encounter one week back, when El Weleily’s excellent anticipation, court vision and wondrous touch brought her to within a couple of points of a four-game win, Grainger right from the start applied so much offensive pressure that her constantly beleaguered Egyptian foe was constantly in retreat and trying to extricate herself from daunting predicaments. The fairly recently crowned U. S. National champion was volleying aggressively, keeping El Weleily behind her and depriving her of either the time or the space she requires to execute her delicate angles. Grainger has always been at her best when she jumps out ahead at the start of a match, as was compellingly the case on this occasion, and she was able to generate such a maelstrom of momentum that there was nothing that El Weleily could do to slow her down.

The resulting flurry of Grainger winners and mostly forced and sometimes desperate El Weleily tins made the outcome of the 31-minute match pretty much a foregone conclusion by the middle of the second game, but the packed spectators in the gallery (many of whose members themselves competed in the several skill-level flights and contributed to the proceeds that will go to Surf City Squash, the local Urban Squash organization), which was hosting women’s professional squash for the first time after holding several exhibitions in recent months of such male luminaries as former PSA No. 1 John White and former No. 7 Stefan Castelyn, were still amazed at the athleticism and skill of these two elite WISPA torch-bearers, neither of whom had lost a single game prior to the final.

Though she was unable either to close out the Los Angeles final last week or to find a way to neutralize Grainger this afternoon, El Weleily, only 18 and already in the WISPA top 25 with four WISPA final-round appearances to her credit, has given full notice these past 10 days of how significant a factor she almost certainly will be (barring injury) at this elite level for a long time to come. She is talented, determined and possessed of court wisdom beyond her years, and she is definitely a player who bears watching.

Betteridge and Breitling San Diego WISPA Open    [THE DRAW]
FINALS RESULTS:
[1] Natalie Grainger (USA) def [2] Raneem El Weleily (EGY) d [4] Manuela Manetta (ITA) 9-2 9-3 9-3