[ Today ] [ SEMIS ] [ QUARTERS ] [ Round ONE ] [ Day TWO ] [ Day ONE ] [ Draws ]

En Bref #4

[1] Laura Massaro (Eng) bt [4] Nour El Tayeb (Egy)
                        11/5, 11/9, 11/6
[2] Raneem El Weleily (Egy) bt [6] Heba El Torky (Egy)
                         11/4, 14/12, 11/4

Top two to contest Sharm final

The 2010 Sharm El Sheikh International final will be contested by the event's top seeds after Laura Massaro and Raneem El Weleily both completed straight game wins.

Englishwoman Massaro leads 5-3 in the pair's head to head encounters, but they have already met five times in 2010 with Egypt's El Weleily holding the advantage with three wins.
 

I wanted to win so badly today, I forgot to focus about the game. I so wanted Qatar not to be a flash in the pan, I wanted to confirm my performance.

Laura surprised me today, she played deep shots, took every opportunity to attack and I didn’t expect her to be so good. I KNEW she was going to be good, but I honestly didn’t expect her to be sooo good.

My length was probably a bit short, I went for too many shots, I should have kept my ball deep. And in the 2nd, I’m up 9.5, and I was already thinking, oh well, it will be 1/1, and I said to myself, well, losing 3/1 to Laura won’t be too bad….

Laura was just too good today, she hit what, 3, 4 tins the whole match? Just too good.

[1] Laura Massaro (Eng) bt [4] Nour El Tayeb (Egy)
                        11/5, 11/9, 11/6

TOO MUCH PRESSURE…

That little girl, yes at 17, one is still a little girl, Nour, just was afraid to disappoint. The crowd, the people that believe in her. And it took her about a game and a half to relax and let her arm do the talking.

Mind you, Laura didn’t really help her, did she. Playing to perfection, deep lengths, drives and crosscourts, delicate volleying, perfect build up of the rallies, Nour couldn’t do much to stop the flow.

But in the second, Laura may have relaxed just a little bit, and Nour, get a bit more confident, believing for a few minutes that may have an influence of that match, and volleyed everything that came under her racquet.

And surprise surprise, it worked. Point after point, she took a comfortable advance, 9/5.

And then, she made the common error of thinking she won that game. Laura felt the little loss of focus, and rushed in there, to score 6 points in a row, playing stunning squash, forcing several errors out of the young Egyptian to pocket the game, 11/9.

In the 3rd, Nour stayed and fought all the way, throwing herself on every difficult shot Kanzy like! And although Laura was ahead, Nour was never far, 4/3, 5/4, 8/6.

The rallies were patient, accurate close to the walls, very well constructed, Laura attacking and Nour retrieving, then the reverse. Lovely, lovely squash really.

Experience prevailed in the end, but like Laura stated, what a player, at 17, Nour is. If I had to advise her on improving her game, I would suggest she starts counter dropping a bit more. It’s a weapon she didn’t use much today, and it’s a shame…

I thought I played really well today, I’m really pleased with this performance, especially against somebody as dangerous as she is.

And I needed to play as well as that to beat her.

Before the match, yes, I was a bit wary, I wasn’t sure I could beat her, but once I got on there, I played two very deep shots at the back that she couldn’t pick up, and that gave me the confidence in my game, and I knew that she would have to play really well and battle out with me to beat me.

I felt confident in the middle, tried and keep her behind me, and keep her under pressure when she was going for her shots.

But for a 17 year old, to move like that and play that type of shots, it’s really impressive.

[2] Raneem El Weleily (Egy) bt [6] Heba El Torky (Egy)
                         11/4, 14/12, 11/4

WHAT’S THE HURRY MATE…?

Sorry, people, but watching this match reminded me of a story Rahmat Khan, former Jahangir Khan’s coach told me years ago. JK was poorly, lots of fever, and knew he couldn’t last more than an hour. So he played like the train was going to leave without him, till the Australian player he was facing – sorry, forgot his name – just looked at him and stunned by the speed JK was playing told him, “What’s the hurry mate”???

Well, that’s what I wanted to say to those two girls today! Jeeeez, the bus was not going to leave without you, you could have taken the time to play like, I don’t know, more than 10 balls over the service line???

I’m pushing the drawing a bit, but I’m sure you see what I mean… No real rhythm, no long rallies, just, well, bam bam bam!!! I wish there was a way to unplug Heba, to calm her down… She is soooo tense, all the time. That can’t be good for building up rallies and applying a game plan… Blesssss.

And Raneem, well, is not for staying too long on court either, is she. So, imagine the two together…

I had the impression to watch a film fast forward mode. I’m not sure what happened. A few too many errors from Heba, shoot out from both in the front corners, but it’s Raneem that stays standing when the curtains falls.

The end.

Definitely very happy to reach the final.

Heba and myself we’ve been playing each other for a long time. Last year, she beat me in Hurghada, and at the Nationals, and I won in Heliopolis, we always have epic battles! She plays a very random squash, you never know the shot she is going to play until she actually plays it, you have to keep on your toes constantly, especially on that court where the ball dies at the front…

I’ve played Raneem more last year than this year, and it was rather balanced, she wins some and I won some.

But today, I didn’t expect to win, because I was not playing during this tournament. I just tried and did my best… But I have to say I was maybe expecting her to make more mistakes than she did! I counted her unforced errors today, and I only counted two! Sometimes, Raneem loses matches because of her errors, not because the other one is playing winners! So maybe I was a bit too passive, waiting for her to make mistakes, that she never made…

And I really wish her well tomorrow.