Top seed *Coline Aumard* clinched her first WSA World Tour title yesterday after coming through the *NT Open* at the *Darwin Squash Centre, Darwin, Australia.
The 23-year-old from Paris, France put in a strong performance to claim her maiden title, first defeating *Grace Mcervale* after an opening round bye. She then navigated a tricky tie against young Korean *Song Sun-Mi* in the quarter-finals, beating the No.6 seed in four games, whilst local fourth seed *Christine Nunn* fell at the hand of another Korean, *Kim Ga-Hye*. Aumard's form continued against the inform Kim in the next round, beating the world No.171 in straight games to book her second career final appearance.
The world No.43 would face third seed *Carrie Ramsey* in the culmination of the *WSA Tour5* event, the Englishwoman's first career final, following an impressive unexpected defeat of *Milou Van Der Heijden* of the Netherlands in the previous round. Ramsey battled to a giant 19-17 lead in the opening game of her semi-final, and later needed another tie-break game to dispatch the higher ranked player in a five game thriller.
Earlier in the competition she had beaten locals *Natalie Newton* and *Jessica Turnbull*, both in straight games, following a bye through the first round.
The final began in a similar form to Ramsey's previous match. Only a tiebreak could separate the pair, but it was the Parisian who stole the upper hand from the opening exchange. Ramsey, ranked 23 places below her opponent, hit back in the second, storming through a succession of points to hold game-ball by a good margin before finishing off game.
The higher seed returned to the court composed, and mounted strong counter attack which saw her retake the lead after a narrow third. With Ramsey’s earlier semi-final marathon beginning to take its toll, Aumard continued to exert her dominance and was deserving of the first title of her career after ending the contest on four games.
Aumard and Ramsey are seeded to face each other again in the *Alice Springs Open *at the end of the week.
