R1 : Women’s Evening under way

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16.00 Matches
Emily Whitlock (Wal) 3-0 Ineta Mackevica (Lat)          11-6, 11-3, 11-9 (27m)
Nada Abbas (Egy) 3-0 Nicole Bunyan (Can)               11-4, 11-7, 11-3 (26m)
Hana Ramadan (Egy) 3-1 Nadine Shahin (Egy)  11-8, 11-4, 5-11, 11-7 (33m)
Zeina Mickawy (Egy) 3-0 Tessa ter Sluis (Ned)           11-3, 11-5, 11-5 (15m)

 

Zeina Mickawy (EGY) 3-0 Tessa ter Sluis (NED)

I love this tournament, very excited to play it. I’m very happy to finish the match as quickly as I can,

I hold on to the T as much as I could, and seized any opportunity that arose, with a good accuracy at the back I thought. I went for it, volleys, shot in the middle. I took my chances and it worked.

Tomorrow, I’m playing Nouran, and I’m really looking forward to that match. Honestly, I enjoy playing against her, I have no pressure, she is world number 2. I’ll just enjoy my game, play my best squash possible. Last times we played went to 4, it was pretty close. So this time, I’ll try and keep going and keep focusing till the end and believing I can do it. If I finish the games the way I start them, maybe I can do it.

Emily Whitlock (WAL) 3-0 Ineta Mackevica (LAT)

Emily : I went 2/0 up, I was playing quite crisp and I thought don’t think that you are 2/0 up, don’t think it’s going to be an easy game, because it’s her last chance. And she was not playing badly at all, I was preventing her from playing, because she kept hovering on my left side. And that court is very cold but still very fast, when you hit the wall in that silver line, it’s goes very fast and ids very hard to get your racquet on it.

And today, she wanted to volley everything. She’s got such a wingspan, and she shown that she wanted to play everything, even if sometimes it would go in the tin or not the right time, but she kept getting better at it, so I’m happy I’m playing her now, and not in two years time when she’s got more control on the ball.

I was hitting the ball pretty clean, I was just clinical. And in that third, it was her last chance, and kept returning one more shot, so I was like “oh God, I’ve got to do something about it”!

The court was not slippery, but you could sort of feel the sand on your shoes, the accumulation of that sand on the floor that would get on your shoes. It just felt a bit unusual to what I’m used to. So the court conditions were fine.

When I heard the ref say “9/9 I told myself COME ON. And I played the last two shots at the right time, getting myself together again…

Nada Abbas (EGY) 3-0 Nicole Bunyan (CAN)

Nada : I haven’t been at my best for the last couple of months, so my goal in this tournament was to enjoy and play my squash, to try to go back to where I’ve been.

Looking forward for my match between the winner of Melissa and Mena, still no pressure on myself. I’m reallhy happy to be here, and to be playing well again. Actually I’m really happy to win this match, because I never did well in El Gouna, and it’s my first win ever here, and that’s a good start!

Hana Ramadan (EGY) 3-1 Nadine Shahin (EGY) 

Last time they played was in March, BlackBall second round, 12/10 in the fifth for Nadine. So today was revenge time…

Hana : We’ve been playing each other for such a long time, we know each other’s game pretty well. It was all about who was going to keep pushing and stay in the rallies till the end, and keep the focus and the game plan.

I was doing well in my second game, then in the third, I completely lost the flow of things, and she changed her game, by reading mine very well.

I’m so happy it didn’t go to 5, I knew that if I let go of that 4th, she would come back and put me under pressure again.

I’m playing Yathreb, we played such a long time ago, I’m going in there with a blank page, will put my game plan down there, and go for my shots as much as I can, and not lose my concentration, as she is a very skilful player. And I have to be very clean… Oh, and stay away from her volley backhand!!!