Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng claimed his first World Tour title against Switzerland’s Dimitri Steinmann, while England’s Georgina Kennedy defeated top seed Nele Gilis to earn her first title of the season at the 2024 German Open.
[3] Gina Kennedy (ENG) 3-1 [1] Nele Gilis (BEL) 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 14-12 (68m)
[4] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-1 [6] Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-3 (66m)
Kennedy captures her first title of the season
[3] Gina Kennedy (ENG) 3-1 [1] Nele Gilis (BEL) 11-9, 11-6, 7-11, 14-12 (68m)
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 thirdseed 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 a earned 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. 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.”
Ng takes his first World Tour title
[4] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) 3-1 [6] Dimitri Steinmann (SUI) 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 11-3 (66m)
Malaysia’s Eain Yow Ng claimed his first World Tour title in an exciting final against Switzerland’s Dimitri Steinmann.
The Malaysian seemed unstoppable as he dominated the rallies from the first serve and accrued a decisive 9-4 lead. Steinmann grew into the match at the final phase of the first game, and picked up a series of late points to take the game to a tie-break from four game balls down.
A stroke in favour of the Malaysian gave the fourth seed a fifth chance to take a 1-0 lead, and took the game after the Swiss player struck the tin.
The second game played out in a similar vein to the end of the first, with close rallies that both were taking points from, but the Malaysian kept just ahead as he pushed to 10-8 and doubled his advantage after a Steinmann conceded a stroke on Yow Ng’s first game ball.
Game three was an equally close affair as the German-speaking crowd favourite was pushed on by the cheering Hamburg crowd. The ‘Jet’ covered well in the front of the court and continued to test Yow Ng to earn two game balls. The game went to a tie-break after Steinmann struck the tin, but the Swiss player kept composed and won the third game with a backhand drop into the nick.
The fourth game was a far less close-fought affair. Steinmann looked physically fatigued as Yow Ng continued to rely on attritional rallies that the sixth seed couldn’t keep up with.
The Malaysian dominated the game and won 11-3 to win the match in four games and claim the first World Tour title of his career.
“It was a big relief to get through today,” said Eain Yow after the match. “I think I played amazing all week so I was happy to pull through it.
“The final’s always different. There’s always some added pressure, there were different people messaging all day about my win yesterday so for me I knew today was going to be tough, especially against Dimi.
“He was just firing it in from everywhere and he wasn’t missing much, so I had to dig deep – keep running, keep getting all the balls back and sticking to my game plan and I think I did that.
“Just happy to get the title this week.”
