SF : Gohar 3-0 Sobhy

SF [2] Nouran Gohar (Egy) 3-0 [4] Amanda Sobhy (Usa)      11-6, 11-8, 11-2 (28m)

The Terminator was back tonight. For the three games, relentlessly, she forced Amanda to play in a position completely out of her natural comfort zone: she had to defend, and defend and defend.

Nouran was just on fire. Her accuracy at the back doubled with her powerful – that’s a poor way to describe the bullets coming out of her racquet – hitting kept Amanda, ‘Mandy’ as her father keeps calling her, way at the back, unable to find a good position to attack herself.

The first two games, the American kept in the rallies and matched her opponent only to find herself at the wrong end of so many long rallies.

The second one was shot for shot up to 6/6, 7/7, Nouran dominating from that point on. The last one, errors started to creep in for the Harvard lady and it was all over in 5m.

Nouran sent a very strong message tonight. I’m ready and if you want it, you’ll have to take it away from me, cause I ain’t giving it for free.

Amanda: No excuse, she played extremely well, but to be honest, I found the heat conditions very hard tonight. In the 3rd, I just didn’t know where I was, and even now (15m after), I’m still very woozy….