Coline Aumard completed a Aussie double yesterday after clinching the *NT Alice Springs Open*, her second victory in as many weeks.
Victorious in last week’s *NT Open* in Darwin, Aumard continued her dominance as top seed in this weekend’s event at Alice Springs, where a first round bye saw her through to round two.
There she faced South Korean *Kim Ga Hye* who was forced to retire in the second game due to an injury. Continuing her run, the Frenchwoman then dispatched compatriot *Julia Lecoq* in straight games, before setting up a semi-final clash against local interest *Tamika Saxby*.
The world No.43 proved too strong for the fifth seed, who beat last week’s NT Open runner-up *Carrie Ramsey* in the quarter-final after the Englishwoman was forced to retire injured.
*Milou Van Der Heijden* had fallen at the semi-final stage of last week’s event but, seeded second for both events, the Dutchwoman was determined to make up for her early exit this time around.
The world No.50 stormed through her early clashes against *Natalie Newton*, *Jessica Turnbull* and *Song Sun-Mi* without dropping a game. In the final she faced Aumard, ranked just seven places higher than the Dutchwoman.
Early exchanges between the pair were closely fought, but the top seed gained the advantage late on to take a first game lead. The second game was a similar storyline, with the higher ranked player again doing just enough to stave off her opponent to extend her advantage to 2-0.
The narrow margin between the pair continued into the third with very little separating the finalists. Van Der Heijden was always hot on the heals of the leading finalist, and she took her opportunities well to signal her intent on fighting for the title. She did enough to close out the game, and yet another deadlocked battle in game four saw the players at loggerheads at a tiebreak, 10-all scoreline. Seven points were dispersed between the pair before Aumard again found herself with a championship-ball and was able to close out the contest 15-13 to claim successive back-to-back titles in Australia.
*Final:*
[1] Coline Aumard (FRA) bt [2] Milou Van Der Heijden 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 15-13
