Team USA’s Olivia Blatchford Clyne completed one of the most successful spells of her career with fourteen matches in sixteen days, and making two of her biggest PSA final appearances at the $75,000 Cleveland Classic and Bahl & Gaynor Cincinnati Gaynor Cup.
Blatchford Clyne was in sensational form during a midwestern stretch of professional tournaments that has spanned reaching the finals of the Cleveland Classic two weeks ago and the semifinals of the Detroit Athletic Club last week.
Blatchford Clyne’s performances has sent her up four positions in the world rankings to No. 16, and all three tournaments have included a match up against U.S. teammate Olivia Fiechter. Clyne defeated Fiechter in Cleveland, but Fiechter bounced back to win their DAC Pro Classic semifinal. Blatchford Clyne had also notched a major upset over world No. 1 and DAC top seed Joelle King in the quarterfinals–her first win against the New Zealander.
In Cincinnati this week, Blatchford Clyne won the third all-American match up against Fiechter in three games in the second round, and backed it up with a four-game quarterfinal win over Canada’s seven seed Hollie Naughton.
In a rematch of the Cleveland Classic final, Blatchford Clyne faced England’s world No. 10 Georgina Kennedy, but the match came to an unfortunate end in the second game when Kennedy was forced to retire due to injury, setting up a final against Egypt’s world No. 1 Nouran Gohar.
In Thursday’s final, the American pushed the world No. 1 to a close three-game contest, but the defending champion proved to be too strong winning 12-10, 11-8, 11-6 in forty-five minutes.
Blatchford Clyne’s performances over the last two weeks and three tournaments should propel her further up the world rankings next week.
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