KASEY CRUISES THROUGH THE FINALS:

The 2010 version of the EBS Dayton Open finished up Sunday Feb. 21 in front of a packed gallery made up of patrons, sponsors, club members and lots of junior players and their parents in town for the Midwestern Jr. Squash Championships. They were treated to a clinic on how to control a match, put on by the top seeded Kasey Brown of Australia.

Although England's Sarah Kippax kept it close in game one, it was clear that Kasey planed to dominate the T, dominate the front of the court, and dominate the match. Both of the first two games had some incredible rallies, where Sarah was fighting hard to find the form she had last time she played Kasey and took her to five games, but she just couldn't find it.

Down two games and love-six in the third, Sarah still managed to win the hearts of the gallery with one incredible rally to score her 1st point of game 3. After a long rally of drives up and down each wall, Kasey got a loose ball front right that she played in short & tight, somehow Sarah got there from the back left, redropped & tried to recover, Kasey dropped it in front right again incredibly tight & Sarah dug deep, changed directions and went back in to make another great save and re-drop that went a little left of Kasey, who then played it backhand again in REALLY TIGHT front right while Sarah was scrambling back to the T. Sarah incredibly made it back into the front right corner again, stretched out beyond belief, and redropped again. Kasey reared back to drive a hard cross court with a swing that reached almost back to the crowd but as soon as Sarah played the drop, she exploded back toward the middle of the court and somehow got the tip of her frame on the canon shot that Kasey fired and played down front left low for a winner: the gallery ERUPTED! It was a great finish to a great point.

Although Sarah won only two more rallies in the match, she continued to battle hard and everyone appreciated he great athleticism and professional play of both players. At the awards ceremony, Sarah was gracious in defeat and thanked the sponsors for supporting the event and thanked this promoter for all the attention to the players needs over the course of the event. Kasey echoed this thanks and also mentioned how great it was to see the strength of jr. play on site and how it illustrates the growth and popularity of the game. Both player promised to come back next year when we again host the Dayton Open in conjunction with the largest junior tournament in the Midwest.