Alexander and Camilleri claim Top End titles
09-May-2010 - Squash Australia
Queensland duo Zac Alexander and Lisa Camilleri claimed the opening honours on the Australian squash tour with convincing wins at the Top End Open in Darwin on Sunday.
Alexander beat South Australia’s Mike Corren 11-6, 11-2, 11-5 in the men’s final while Camilleri downed Victorian Amelia Pittock 11-5, 11-5, 11-9 in the women’s decider.
The Top End Open is the first stop on the road to the Australian Open, to be held in Canberra from August 9-15.
The tour also takes in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Rockhampton and Sydney before culminating in the Australian Open, to be held on the all-glass court at the Royal Theatre in the heart of the nation’s capital.
The 21-year-old Alexander, who has risen to a career-high world ranking of 78, looked in great touch as he disposed of the more experienced Corren, 35, for the second time in a Professional Squash Association final this year.
Alexander, who also beat the South Australian to win the Australia Day Challenge in Brisbane in January, said these were the matches he had to win for the sake of his career.
“I’m on the way up and am becoming more mature, and he’s gradually coming down – I think age is finally catching up with him,” Alexander said,
“He’s been such a great player and he still has amazing racquet skills – that’s why he can still beat 95 per cent of the players in the draw.”
Alexander is now based in New York and will now head back to the US for some more training before returning to Australia for the Victorian Open in July and then the Australian Open.
Earlier Camilleri put some recent poor form behind her as she stormed to her second Top End Open squash title and her seventh on the world tour with her win over Pittock.
The 27-year-old from Tully in Far North Queensland made her name on the world tour in 2008 when she won five titles, including the Top End Open.
But she had a lean 2009, making just two finals, and had had a disappointing start to 2010 until her win in Darwin.
“I’ve had a pretty bad start to the year and lost a bit of confidence,” she said.
“I struggled in some tournaments overseas so I decided to come back to Australia and do a lot of training.”
Camilleri has moved to Melbourne and has been training under the watchful eye of former great Vicki Cardwell, whose daughter Sarah is one of Australia’s most promising players.
“She (Cardwell) is so passionate about squash – if you want to get on the court at midnight she will get out there with you and hit balls for you for two hours,” Camilleri said.
“It’s just a great atmosphere to train in.”
Camilleri, currently ranked 40th in the world, put her form slump down to an attitude problem and said she had been forced to look hard at herself.
“In 2008 I trained so hard to get into the Australian Institute of Sport – because I am older than most scholarship holders I felt I had to train hard to prove I belonged,” she said.
“And then I made it to the low 30s on the world rankings and once I got a scholarship, it’s stupid but I took my foot off the pedal.”
Camilleri will only play two more tournaments on the Australian tour, the Black Knight Open in Perth and the South Australian Open, before the Australian Open in Canberra in August.
Semi-finals
Men
3-Zac Alexander (Qld) bt 1-Matthew Karwalski (NSW) 11-9, 11-9, 11-9
2-Mike Corren (SA) bt 4-Nathan Stevenson (Qld) 11-7, 11-6, 11-6
Women
1-Lisa Camilleri (Qld) bt 7-Melody Francis (Vic) 11-6, 11-5, 11-3
4-Amelia Pittock (Vic) bt 2-Kylie Lindsay (NZL) 11-9, 11-0, 11-3
Final
Men
3-Zac Alexander (Qld) bt 2-Mike Corren (SA) 11-6, 11-2, 11-5
Women
1-Lisa Camilleri (Qld) bt 4-Amelia Pittock (Vic) 11-5, 11-5, 11-9