There were eight places in the main draw of the Wadi Degla Women's World Championship to be won today, with matches against the top two seeds Nicol David and Laura Massaro the prize for two of today's winners.

Egypt were guaranteed three palces in the main draw, but ended up taking four as Mariam Metwally was joined by the El Torky sisters Heba and Nouran in winning their all-Egyptian matches.

Yathreb Adel made it four for Egypt as she beat Siyoli Waters to earn a draw against top seed and seven-time champion Nicol David - Metwally drew defending champion Laura Massaro.

Mexico's Samantha Teran turned in the performance of the day as she came from two games down to beat Misaki Kobayashi in 71 minutes, the same time it took Malaysia's Delia Arnold to beat Coline Aumard.

The qualifier lineup is completed by England's Emily Whitlock and Welsh number one Tesni Evans.

All of today's winners are back on court in the first round tomorrow, starting at noon and finishing with four matches on the glass court from 17.30.

Qualifying Finals:

Mariam Metwally (Egy) 3-0 Salma Hany Ibrahim (Egy)
        11/9, 11/6, 11/3 (37m)
Samantha Teran (Mex) 3-2 Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn)
         4/11, 11/13, 11/6, 11/7, 11/6 (71m)
Heba El Torky (Egy) 3-1 Nadine Shahin (Egy)
         6/11, 11/7, 11/9, 11/7 (50m)
Delia Arnold (Mas) 3-1 Coline Aumard (Fra)  
         10/12, 11/6, 11/9, 13/11 (71m)
Yathreb Adel (Egy) 3-1 Siyoli Waters (Rsa)
         11/6, 11/2, 6/11, 11/7 (38m)
Emily Whitlock (Eng) 3-1 Deon Saffery (Wal)  
         11/6, 12/10, 9/11, 11/4 (53m)
Nouran El Torky (Egy) 3-0 Hania El Hammamy (Egy)
        11/4, 12/10, 11/9 (41m)
Tesni Evans (Wal) 3-1 Aisling Blake (Irl)
         11/7, 11/9, 5/11, 11-2 (38m)

THE DRAW                                 view the full draw 
David v Adel, Duncalf v Whitlock, Beddoes v Arnold, Serme v Nouran, Pallikal v Teran, Grinham v Evans, Waters v Heba, Massaro v Metwaly

View the full draw

follow on
TWITTER

EN BREFS

Photo Galleries

Mariam Metwally (Egy) 3-0 Salma Hany Ibrahim (Egy)
        11/9, 11/6, 11/3 (37m)

All Egyptian battle, Take 1…

Salma will kick herself from here to Giza for losing that first game. She was up 6/1, 8/5 and somehow manage to let Mariam back in the game, 9/8. She took one back 9/9, but Mariam had the momentum, and closed it 11/9. Mariam dominated the next two, Salma not fighting as hard in the 3rd, the mountain Mariam seemed very high….

I didn’t play well at all in the 1st and I was down 6/1, because I was a bit stressed, I wanted to win soo much, and I didn’t play my best. But I love playing under pressure, somehow, that’s when I play my best squash and it’s not the first time that happens to me.

After the first game, I relaxed a lot, and I was soo focused on the win, and I volleyed a lot of drop shots. The third, I was soooooooo relaxed, so of course, I managed to get a lot of nicks, easy when you are not stressed.

Today I was focusing on not only winning, but winning quickly as well, not 3/1 or 3/2. Happy I managed to do that…

In the first game, I was so sleepy, I didn’t warm up well enough because I was expecting the previous match Mariam/Salma to be much longer.

And it’s my fault, I know that Nadine is one of the coming up Egyptian Juniors, I should not have been not ready for her. So I was tinning and tinning so much in the first game.

Then in the first game, she asked for a blood injury at 7/5, and I don’t know how it happened!

The third, I was down 9/2, but the ref made me soooo mad, there was a few calls I was not happy with then her ball was out, and she didn’t call it out, and the ref didn’t call it either. I screamed “whaaaaaaat?” and after that, you know, when you are throwing the game away, and you think might as well enjoy it then. And then I found myself 7/9, and I thought, I can win this. And I did, 11/9….

I was playing really well in the first two games, moving her well, and all my shots were working fine. Then in the third, I changed my game, started to hit harder, running around, and made a few unforced errors. And she took confidence in her game, in her shots, and led the whole way.

In the 4th, I got back slowly in my game, I concentrated more, and kept pushing and pushing, and it’s worked in the end…

Yathreb Adel

In the beginning, she was playing so well, her pace was really fast, and she was boasting beautifully, controlling the T and doing everything so well. I tried and matched her pace, but my shots weren’t working.

After the first game, Liz just told me, think better. No magic wand, no magic solutions, just take the right decision, and it was what I needed, it worked.

In the second game, I lost it from 10/8, but it didn’t matter, because I had then found the way to win. I had found the solutions. And in the third, from 4/1, I started to play better and better, and when I got that one, I thought, I can get the next one.

I have no idea what happened in the 4th but in my opinion, the 5th was the nicest game. She layed so well, and so did I. And it was point for point, and suddenly, I found myself 10/6 up I thought for the first time about wining…

She played really well, that’s such a typical game where we both deserve to win. And I’m so grateful I am able to play again, that I am back from my injury, that I find my game again. So grateful to the people that support me and help me to come back.

I’m so happy to qualify not only for the worlds, but just happy to be in this tournament, where everybody is so nice, so helpful, so friendly, I’m grateful that Liz is here to support us, and I’m so happy to have my “squash family” around me, all the people I spend so much time with, so much that they have now become a family to me…

Samantha Teran (Mex) 3-2 Misaki Kobayashi (Jpn)
         4/11, 11/13, 11/6, 11/7, 11/6 (71m)

Seesaw Encounter

Typically the kind of game you think is going to be sorted in no time – Misaki was in control so beautifully, playing extremely well – but not exactly relaxed, tense as a violin string – even coming down from 8/10 to win the second 13/11, leading 2/0 and 4/1.

And then…. Sam started to find solutions. She hit harder, she stepped up the court, and boasted much more.

And Misaki lost her way a bit. Too many errors, an average of 4, 5 a game, against the 1, 2 for the whole game to Sam.

Today, it seemed to me that Misaki never relaxed really. Maybe a bit of loss of focus at 4/1 in the third, but I never felt she was totally free on there.

I guess she wanted to much to do well, so much to win in her new environment that is Egypt – she’ll be training with Abbas for the coming months – that maybe she put too much pressure on herself.

And in front, Sam somehow had nothing to lose. Back from injury, she is just grateful to be able to play and join the Tour again. And today, the mental was probably – as so often – the key…

Delia Arnold (Mas) 3-1 Coline Aumard (Fra)
         10/12, 11/6, 11/9, 13/11 (71m)

I didn’t manage to see much of the game, only the last two games. A lot of contacts, quite physical actually, traffic problem again and again, but a good start from Coline in the third – girls were 1/1 – 6/1 for Coline, sharp and fast. Then Delia that starts getting in front and controlling better, 7/7, 8/8, 9/9. A nice backhand drop shot and a perfect crosscourt that dies I the back right corner, 11/9 for Delia.

Unfortunately for the French girl, it will be more or less the same in the 4th, she is up 9/3, overplaying Delia nicely, but again, Delia, not doing anything flashy, but just being extremely accurate, claws back 7 points to get to 10/9, match ball. Coline hits as hard as she can, it works, 10/10. She’ll manage a game ball of her own, but not to be. And Delia transforms her second match ball with a nice deception at the front, 13/11…
 

I am in the main draw of the world Champs!!!!!

There is so much pressure when you play somebody as gifted as she is, like I said yesterday, she is one of the up and coming players, she had some excellent results lately, some really good wins. She is that good, if you relax just a bit, she will string points after points…

I never saw her play before, but I have somebody in my club that is in the same age group than she is, and my coaches were able to tell me how to play (Ahmed and Karim Shohayeb, Amr Mansi).

Since yesterday, before going to bed, this morning, and when I was warming up, I kept repeating to myself again and again “you have to play like you did yesterday, just play like you did yesterday”.

There are two El Torky Sisters in the main draw!!!!

Nouran El Torky (Egy) 3-0 Hania El Hammamy (Egy)
            11/4, 12/10, 11/9 (41m)

This is the kind of match you would have had to see from the start and completely to be able to comment. What I was a lot of traffic problems, and some very harsh strokes against young Hania – she apparently was warned that her movement was not good enough and that she had to clear, and didn’t comply.

yesterday against Sam Cornett, where there were 2 lets per game. And yes, she was tired too at the end; so it couldn’t be that she didn’t move well today admitting that she was tired… Like I said, I don’t understand the line, but I didn’t see it all, I can only conjecture…

One thing is sure, it ended in a bit of a drama, as at 9/9 (after getting yet again an extremely harsh stroke), Hania thought that Nouran called “Please”, and stopped playing, whereas Nouran said she didn’t, and just kept on playing. “You could have said you did call please”, said a very upset 14 years old. I didn’t hear it, but I was all the way up there, so again, I cannot comment!

Still, very focused and moving extremely well, very business like and confident, Nouran got the game 11/9 to make “two El Torky sisters in the main draw”!

Emily Whitlock (Eng) 3-1 Deon Saffery (Wal)
         11/6, 12/10, 9/11, 11/4 (53m)

So frustrating when you just see bits of matches, and have to report about them! It was quite funny actually, as I arrived at 9/4 in the second and didn’t sitting down as I thought it would be over pretty quickly.

About 10m later, I decided that I’d better sit down, as Deon clawed it back to 9/9, basically slowing down the pace and lobbing beautifully! Emily finally stopped the haemorrhagic bleeding of points to finally forced her way, hitting very hard to push Deon at the back and then finding some exquisite drives to get that precious second game on her second attempt 12/10.

And off I go to look at Hania/Nouran on the other court, see all the drama at the end, come back, and again, Emily is cruising in the 3rd, 9/6. This time, I just sat down. And I was right. A very hard breathing Emily just couldn’t stop The Come Back Welsh Lady, this time takes 5 points in a row to take the 3rd, 11/9.

Emily just found her game/second wind in the 4th, 11/4….
 

Yes, I have still some breathe back to talk to you, breathing is not the problem, the legs are!

I have the same problem for a few months now, I am trying to play a certain way, taking the ball early, playing at a fast pace, and I knock myself down!

“You need to learn to save your energy” says Dad…

Well, trouble is, one minute I’m lobbing, the next I’m crashing it!