By Avenash Ramzan
Guyanese Ashley Khalil and Ashley DeGroot will face the Barbados duo Amanda Haywood and Sumairaa Suleman in the final of the Women’s Doubles at the ENet Senior Caribbean Squash Championship on Wednesday evening at the National Racquet Centre, Wooldford Avenue, Georgetown.
The finalists pulled off contrasting wins in their respective semi-final matches on Wednesday morning at the same venue.
Khalil and DeGroot, buoyed by vociferous home support, needed just 13 minutes to defeat Mia Todd and Mehar Trehan of Jamaica in straight sets.
The Guyanese won 11-4, 11-3, much to the delight of their band of supporters.
In the other semi-final, Haywood and Suleman had to dig deep to pull off a 2-1 success over Michaela Rensburg and Emma Turnbull of the Cayman Islands.
Rensburg and Turnbull won the first set 11-5, but Haywood and Suleman stormed back to take the game with 11-4, 11-7 wins in the ensuing sets.
Post-match comments
Ashley Khalil (On pre-game strategy): “We were looking for the weaker player and just kind of pounce on that. And while we pressured the weaker player, we were not forgetting the other player, so we would send some crosses over just to keep them active and then once we got an opening, just go for it.”
Ashley DeGroot (On playing Barbados in the final): “It’s going to be a tough one- Barbados has a stronger team than last year. We won this the last two years so we’re trying to keep it home and play our best.”
Amanda Haywood (On facing Guyana in the final): “They’re going to be a tough team for us. We just have to go in there as tough opponents as well; just play our game and don’t get too worried about the crowd. I’m sure the Barbados contingent is going to be loud as well, so it’s going to be a loud night all round.”
Sumairaa Suleman (On having to bounce back from a set down): “After the first game we were just learning, and after that we finally got into a rhythm that we knew worked and we just continued doing that.”
The Women’s Doubles final will serve off at 18:30h.
