It was sweet revenge for New Zealand top seed Shelley Kitchen, who comfortably beat Australian Kasey Brown to claim the Australian Squash Open women's title yesterday.
World No 13 Kitchen took just over an hour to subdue second seed Brown 9-4, 9-7, 9-4 on the all-glass court.
Itwas a reversal for Brown who beat Kitchen in last month's Central Open final in Taranaki.
Kitchen always looked in control yesterday, the New Zealander never losing the initiative from the moment she raced to a 7-0 lead in the opening game.
"I think I played [yesterday] the way she played three weeks ago when she beat me," Kitchen said.
"We're very close and she's come up the rankings so quickly over the past year.
"I played on that court at the Commonwealth Games many times and I did really well on it there [winning a bronze medal].
"That second game was really close and I was so pleased to go up by two games.
"Being one-all is a lot different to being two-love up so that second game was so important."
Kitchen, with the nine other New Zealand players at the tournament, received an official good luck message from Prime Minister Helen Clark before the tournament began.
"It's good to see her showing that sort of interest," Kitchen said.
Brown said she never felt able to get the edge. "She was just on top of her game," she said.
