Tania Bailey reached her first British Open final, beating Cassie Campion in a see-saw women’s semi-final. Tania began in positive fashion and Cassie looked a little nervous at the start. Tania took the first game 9-2 but Cassie turned the tables in the second, playing in a far more positive fashion to win the game 9-3.

We now had a battle on our hands and it was Tania who came out fighting in the third. She stepped up the pace again and made very few mistakes as she won it 9-4. Cassie took the fourth 9-3 but could not maintain her dominance as Tania raced to a 5-1 lead in the fifth. But Cassie hit back to lead 6-5 before again recovering to nick it 9-7. A very apt description, because at 7-7 she got a back-wall nick to move to match ball. She finished with a penalty stroke to enter her first British Open final.

“After the second game I tried to hit the ball cross-court,” explained Bailey, “Cassie was cutting off anything straight and I won a lot of points on cross-courts. I’ve only ever beaten Cassie when she was really injured, and I don’t think I believed I could beat her until yesterday’s match, which gave me lots of confidence.”

A philosophical Campion was “disappointed not to make the final, but I played as well as I could – I just felt a bit laboured. I can’t take anything away from Tania though, she played really well.”

Looking forward to the final, Bailey said ” I’m pretty much back to where I was before the lay-off, but I’m a better player in my head now. I don’t care who I play tomorrow. I am just delighted to be there.”