Cottrell to face rising star in final, Fisher’s rise continues
Three of the four 2022 Australian Indoor Championships finalists have been locked in after three thrilling semi finals at Club Tweed on Thursday.
Brianna Smith overcame some initial nerves to book her place in the final of the women’s final, edging out Sarah Boddington in a hard-fought first match of the day.
Smith settled into the contest well, moving ahead late in both sets to secure a 12-8, 9-8 victory.
A ‘very excited’ Smith said she backed herself to find a way in her first match on a broadcast rink.
“The nerves got me a bit in the start, but then I thought ‘right, let’s do this’. I’ve been playing well the last couple of days, so let’s try and copy that and I got on a roll so I was pretty happy,” she said.
She will face Kelsey Cottrell in the final, after the 2022 Australian Open singles winner edged out Dawn Hayman in a semi final to remember.
They went bowl for bowl throughout the match, with plenty of jack movement and tight heads highlighting one of the matches of the week.
Cottrell took out a close first set, before Hayman launched her way back into contention in the second set.
She took out six of the nine ends in the second set, but as she often does, Cottrell found a way to win and keep herself in contention for her first Indoor title, saying she was ‘pretty relieved’ after the win.
WATCH: 2022 Australian Indoor Championships live action
After trailing for much of the first men’s semi final, Dylan Fisher has booked his spot in Friday’s big dance after securing victory over Chris Le Lievre.
Le Lievre controlled proceedings early in the contest, applying pressure on Fisher from the outset to take the first set with an end to play.
The New Zealander appeared to be in control of the second set, leading 6-1 after five ends before Fisher made his move.
Fisher secured eight shots in a row to force the match into a tiebreak.
The Moonee Valley star would have gone into the decider confident, with momentum behind him as well as tiebreak wins in all of his previous encounters at Club Tweed this week.
Winning the first end of the tiebreak, Fisher picked up a full batch of four in the second end to claim victory and book a spot in the final.
“It was sort of similar to my other matches. I just had to knuckle down in the other set and find my rhythm,” Fisher said after the victory.
“Once you get the bowls in on the draw first it’s very hard to convert.”
Fisher said he didn’t worry too much when trailing in the second set, backing himself to find a way.
“I didn’t notice the 6-1 down too much because I thought I was starting to play a bit better,” he said.
“I thought if I could just win a couple of ends in a row all of a sudden things change, and it did for me thankfully.”
He will face the winner of Aaron Teys and Aron Sherriff who meet at 9am on Friday morning.
Friday’s schedule:
- 9am: Men’s semi-final 2 – Aaron Teys (Warilla, NSW) v Aron Sherriff (Broadbeach, QLD)
- 11am: Women’s final – Brianna Smith (St Johns Park, NSW) v winner of semi-final 2
- 2pm: Men’s finals – Dylan Fisher (Moonee Valley, VIC) v winner of semi-final 2
