World No.19 Marina Stefanoni advanced to her maiden Gold-level final on the PSA Squash Tour after stunning World No.10 Tinne Gilis in four games at the Squash Australian Open in Brisbane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She will be up against top seed Sivasangari Subramaniam, who defeated Tinne’s sibling Nele in the other semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stefanoni, the No.7 seed, delivered a superb attacking display to defeat the second seeded Tinne 11-8, 4-11, 11-3, 11-8 in a 43-minute encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Picking up where she left off from her quarter-final victory over No.3 seed Salma Hany, Stefanoni came charging out of the blocks, catching Tinne off guard and taking a 6-0 lead in a flash. Despite Tinne clawing her way back towards parity, 23-year-old Stefanoni hung on to take the opening game after 11 minutes of play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Undeterred by the first-game defeat, Tinne turned the tables on her opponent in drastic fashion, racing into a 6-0 lead in the second game. The Belgian No.1began to grow in the ascendancy down the backhand wing and had soon after levelled the match by an 11-4 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The back-and-forth nature of the match continued in the third, with Stefanoni charging into a 6-2 lead with some smart use of angles and attacks all across the court. The variations of Stefanoni, in particular, continued to stall the usually superb movement of Tinne as she moved to within a game of the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A quick start for Stefanoni once again proved key against an ever-more-looking exhausted Tinne in the fourth, with the American getting up 6-1 on the scoreboard. Tinne fired back with a run of seven straight points, but ultimately couldn\u2019t quite force a fifth game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stefanoni steadied the ship just in time to clinch four straight points and book her spot in the biggest final of her career to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Stefanoni said: \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to prove to myself that I can be in there with the top girls in the world. I\u2019m incredibly happy right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt feels amazing. It was exactly a week ago that I lost 3-0 to Tinne. That day, she was beating me in the back of the court, but I tried to turn it around and play fearlessly. I felt super good today and great yesterday. I\u2019m enjoying the outside and playing in the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.6 Sivasangari Subramaniam produced a battling performance to book her spot in the final, defeating World No.12 Nele Gilis in a hard-fought three-game duel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the straight-game scoreline, the 50-minute contest was ultimately decided by fine margins, with Malaysian No. 1 Sivasangari producing some quality squash in the match\u2019s pressure moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two players went blow-for-blow in a 17-minute first game, trading points from 4-4 to 7-7. However, two errors from Gilis at the backend of the first saw Sivasangari take the opening game by an 11-8 scoreline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Little separated the pair as the match entered a 23-minute second game, with Belgium\u2019s Gilis rallying from 6-2 down to lead 10-9 and sit within a point of levelling the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A crucial no let decision against Gilis when she was poised on game ball resulted in a crucial swing in momentum, though, with Sivasangari moving through to take the subsequent tie-break 13-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the ball dying off, and Gilis becoming ever-more-frustrated with a couple of refereeing decisions, the top seed took full advantage, racing into a quick-fire 7-2 lead with a string of quality combinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although Gilis threw in a couple of counter-punches, the damage had already been done in the opening stages of the game, with Sivasangari moving through to an 11-8, 13-11, 11-4 victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the match, Sivasangari said: \u201cIt was really tough today. She was down in the second and managed to fight back. I fought hard though and managed to clinch that and close it off in the third. I lost out in the quarters last year, and I\u2019m through to the final this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing venue, and I\u2019m really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The men’s final will see top seeded Kiwi Paul Coll taking on second seed Joel Makin of Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.2 and 2015 champion Coll continued his quest for a second Australian Open title after defeating rising star Jonah Bryant in three games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He entered his match with training partner Bryant with three wins from their three meetings on tour, and the Kiwi No.1 continued this winning run thanks to an 11-3, 11-9, 11-6 victory over the World No.11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI really had to stay on my mettle there,\u201d Coll said after the match. \u201cI know how tough Jonah is, I train with him all of the time, and even in training, he doesn\u2019t give me an inch, so I couldn\u2019t switch off, although I had a bit of a lead in the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
World No.6 Makin avenged his 125-minute defeat to Mohamad Zakaria at last week\u2019s New Zealand Open with an equally incredible 108-minute victory in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exactly a week on from their blockbuster semi-final in Christchurch, the pair were at it once again, leaving the 1135-strong crowd at South Bank Piazza captivated all throughout their time on court in the Brisbane heat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women’s singles: <\/strong>[1] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) bt [4] Nele Gilis (BEL) 3-0: 11-8, 13-11, 11-4 (50m); [7] Marina Stefanoni (USA) bt. [2] Tinne Gilis (BEL) 3-1: 11-8, 4-11, 11-3, 11-8 (43m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men’s singles: <\/strong>[1] Paul Coll (NZL) bt. [4] Jonah Bryant (ENG) 3-0: 11-3, 11-9, 11-6 (53m); [2] Joel Makin (WAL) bt. [3] Mohamad Zakaria (EGY) 3-2: 11-7, 9-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-8 (107m)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World No.19 Marina Stefanoni advanced to her maiden Gold-level final on the PSA Squash Tour after stunning World<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-10570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-squash"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Sivasangari-Subramaniam-MAS-v-Nele-Gilis-BEL_RGPM51152-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10572,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10570\/revisions\/10572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}