Nele grinds it out against Hollie…

R3: Nele Gilis (BEL) 3-1 Hollie Naughton (CAN) 5-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-5 (50m)

Those two never played before, with a ranking advantage for Nele, WR14, 22 for Hollie, both those ranking being their best.

And they both wanted the chance to play on that glasscourt at the Pyramids… Not to mention the points …

To be honest, Nele didn’t look that fresh at the start. The very clever Hollie made the court extremely big for her, finding good length and crispy volley drops and zoom rapidly ahead, 4/0, 8/2 and if Nele was starting to get the body/mind going it was far too late, 11/5 for the Canadian

Another good start for Hollie, 2/0 in the second, but suddenly a huge scream at 3/2 after being awarded a stroke to come back to 3/3 and the Belgium was now fully awake. 9/3, 11/5, long rallies, with a few too many out of court errors from Hollie, being just a bit late on the ball..

Third will be very close up to 4/4 and again, long rallies, Hollie playing excellent squash combination, but finding herself at the wrong end again and again, too many errors, 9/4, 11/6. Nele was then in complete control mentally, 2/0, 5/2, 8/4, 11/5 on her first attempt.

Nele

Today is the day I needed the hard work I did for all those months…

This morning I woke up, I was feeling great, I was dancing in my room, but once I got on court, I definitely felt yesterday’s match, both mentally, physically and emotionally.

We never played before, I saw her play, she has been so close to beating the top girls, I was never going to take her lightly. And to be honest, she played better squash than I did. I just grinded it out today. I made the rallies longer and longer from the second game, hoping to force a few errors out of her.

I didn’t have the energy to express my emotions, except at 3/3 in the second, I just let all the emotions out, I screamed… But I didn’t have anything left after that!

I’m glad I fought till the end. Now, THANK GOD for that day of rest tomorrow, I will be at the pool, working on my tan…

I have no idea who I’m playing tomorrow, I’ll have a look at the draw later…