Sandgate Open : Tamika takes the title

Sandgate Open 2021 : FINAL

Tamika Hunt (Aus) 3-0 [2] Sarah Cardwell (Aus)    11-5, 11-7, 11-5 (33m)

Final : Tamika takes the title

Tamika Hunt completed a spectacular cull of the seeds as she beat Sarah Cardwell in straight games to take the title – beating the 6th, 1st, 3rd and 2nd seeds along the way!

The victory marks the 10th PSA title for Tamika (formerly Saxby), but her first since 2017.

“Incredibly excited to be back on tour after two years away !!
Really loved competing this past week and purely enjoying being on the court again.

“Couldn’t have asked for a better return to the game taking out my biggest event yet, a reminder that you can’t ever give up, something might be around the corner!

“Thankyou so much to my friends and family who have helped me through the past couple years on this roller coaster with me, you are all amazing! Bring on the next one!”

Semis : Three in a row for Tamika

It’s a third upset in a row for Tamika Hunt (who you may know better as Saxby) as she wins through to the final where she’ll face second seed Sarah Cardwell.

Tamika took a two game lead over Jessica Turnbull, but the third seed fought back before losing out in the decider. After a close first game, Sarah eased to a straight-games win over Colette Sultana.

Photos from Craig Stewart (more on his facebook)

Preview: Top seed Grinham looking forward to Sandgate birthday treat

Having just lifted the PSA Gold Coast Satellite title, 43-year-old Rachael Grinham is looking for a quick repeat victory in this week’s Sandgate Open, where she is seeded to meet Sarah Cardwell in a repeat of the Gold Coast final – which falls on the former world #1s birthday.

It would certainly be nice to win on my birthday ! However as I said I’ll just be looking at the match in front of me, and hoping to do well. For me it is a victory if I complete a match uninjured and have played well and enjoyed myself!

I think I will be likely to feel the usual pressures of being top seed, however I’m not putting any pressure on myself as I know there are quite a few younger players in the draw who have been working a lot harder than I’ve been able to in this period leading up to the tournament.

I’m expecting some tough competition from many of the players in the draw, and will just be looking at the match in front of me to enjoy being on court at a tournament again and do the best I can.

Gold Coast PSA Satellite (14-17 Jan) :
Grinham and Calvert take the titles

Results

Tournament report from SquashOz