Satomi Watanabe claimed her 14th PSA Squash Tour title with victory at the inaugural Steel City Open, beating Georgina Kennedy 3-0 on finals day in Pittsburgh.
The World No.6 came into the tournament as the No.1 seed but was pushed hard throughout the week on way to the final, overcoming a one-game deficit to beat Nadien Elhammamy in round two, and then needing all five games to get past Jasmine Hutton in the semi-finals.
Standing in her way on finals day was No.2 seed Georgina Kennedy, who had beaten the Japanese star in three of their previous four Tour meetings.
Playing in front of a packed crowd inside the Steel City Squash venue, it was Kennedy who made the better start, moving to within three points of taking the opening game at 8-6 up, only to see Watanabe reel off the next four points on the bounce.
Kennedy saved the first game ball with a crisp forehand down the line, but another crunching forehand, this time from the Watanabe racket, would get the No.1 seed over the line.
Kennedy returned to court early in the game break to drill some more shots down the backhand side, and she once again had her nose in front midway through game two, leading 5-4 after a serve return found the back wall nick.
But that would prove to be the last point she would win in the game, as Watanabe strung together seven points in a row to move 2-0 in front.
She continued to get stronger in game three, too, needing little more than five minutes to bring up six championships balls.
Kennedy continued to fight until the end and won the next two points but Watanabe would not have to wait long for her moment of glory, hitting a sharp forehand dropshot winner to close out the victory.
“I’m really happy, really pleased with the performance this week,” she said after collecting her trophy.
“This hasn’t quite been the season that I was planning. I had some tough losses and injuries at the start of the season, so I’m really happy that at this point in the season, I finally started to find my squash again.
“I’m really grateful for all the support I was getting when I was back home, but also in London with Alison Waters, and especially with my fiancé, who I had a chat with before I played, so I’m very pleased and very happy.”
Result (final): 1-Satomi Watanabe (JPN) beat 2-Georgina Kennedy (ENG) 3-0: 11-9, 11-5, 11-6 (32m).
