Only weeks into full training after suffering a stress fracture of the foot, Cann was not expected to reach the final of what, until the start of the year, used to be called a ‘Grand Slam’ tournament.Said Cann: ‘I’m really pleased to win, I needed it to help me get my confidence back.
When you’re injured you can’t help worrying about if you can catch the others up and get back into the season.
The others have been in full training all season and have had a head start.’Despite being in the bottom half of the draw, where Julia Mann, the No 2 seed, had dropped out through injury, on Saturday she first beat Caroline Smith of Leicester 11-8, 11-4.She then played in the quarter-final stages against Kelly Matthews, of Hertfordshire, who is in the England squad.
Playing consistent badminton she won 11-6, 11-9 and was through to the semi-finals on Sunday morning.She won that game comfortably, against Julie Pike of Yorkshire, 11-7, 11-8.
In the other semi-final Hallam had more of a battle as she took on, and beat, fellow England player Jill Pittard 11-9, 11-6.Despite being the underdog in the final against Hallam, who has recently been playing in the Far East, where she beat the No 5 in the world and enjoyed good results against the world’s No 3, Gong Ruina from China, Cann went into the match determined to give a good account of herself.From the start Hallam set a fast pace and was catching Cann out with drop shots which took her to an 11-5 win in the first game.However, Cann responded to this by quickening up, and began picking up Hallam’s drop shots to such good effect that she took the second game 11-6.Undaunted, Hallam came again in the third and deciding game and was soon 6-1 in the lead as Cann found it difficult to score against her highly-rated England opponent.After changing ends, though, she picked up three points in a row to make it 6-4, only for Hallam to get a flurry of points and to take the score to 10-4, one point away from winning the match.Cann then won her serve back, lost it, and with Hallam serving, was again looking down the barrel of defeat.At this stage the 24-year-old Jersey girl kept her composure, won her serve back again and with some fantastic rallies on her own serve pulled the scores back to 10-10.In front of a stunned crowd, she then proceeded to take the game to her opponent and, in winning the next three points, she also won the game.Said Cann: ‘There was lots of support from the spectators.
People like to see the underdog doing well, they like to see someone else doing well, though no-one expected me to beat her – I didn’t expect to beat her! I’ve never done so before, even when I’m not injured!’No twinges at all from the injury while I was playing.
I’d missed the early season build-up in summer training and I’m in catch-up mode at the moment.’I’m going to Slovenia on Thursday to play in an EBU tournament and will be playing in another tournament in the UK after that.
I have about three weekends free until Christmas.
I’ll be competing in another elite tournament soon, in Yorkshire, and I’m travelleing to play in Toulouse, Scotland and Ireland.’Cann is sponsored by Abacus.
