R2 : Women’s last matches

The last 16 lineup was confirmed as Egyptian trio Hania El Hammamy, Nouran Gohar, Salam Hany were joined in Round Three by Amanda Sobhy …

[6] Hania El Hammamy (Egy) 3-0 [9/16] Sabrina Sobhy (Usa)    11-8, 11-2, 11-6 (27m)
[7] Salma Hany (Egy) 3-1 Coline Aumard (Fra)    8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-6 (41m)
[2] Nouran Gohar (Egy) 3-0 [9/16] Hollie Naughton (Can)    11-7, 11-3, 11-5 (29m)
[4] Amanda Sobhy (Usa) 3-0 Milou van der Heijden (Ned)    11-4, 11-6, 11-3 (25m)

 

Hania : Playing against Sabrina, you have to be focused from the start. You can’t give her any room for easy shots or anything. I knew how dangerous she is and she played really well last month at the British Open, she was absolutely on fire. It’s tough to play someone you know is coming really strong, who is improving a lot.

And that’s I think I performed really well, because I knew how dangerous she is. I had to raise my game today to beat her.

I played my game, I had to be accurate enough in order to execute my game plan well. I worked on some stuff with my coach Haitham Effat after the British Open, and I focused today on trying to implement those things. Today, it was working really well, and hopefully the next round as well.

I’m playing Nele, again. I think I’m having a tough draw anyway, first Sabrina, now Nele, obviously I’m getting all the in form and dangerous players. But I’m ready for it and if I want to win the tournament, I have to be ready to beat all the tough opponents.

Nouran : It’s not easy to play on the backcourt, last year I had the same feeling I’m happy we are back on the glasscourt from now on.

I’m playing Nada Abbas. We played at the Finals of the Nationals after Black Ball, and in the British Open a few years back 2017 I think, she beat me on the traditional court, and it was the big upset of the British first round.

Salma : Coline is such a great player, we had some tough battles before, and I have all the respect for her. I feel I’m coming to this tournament ready, I trained really well before the event, I’m really confident in my game. I was really excited to start today, and the first match always comes with a little bit of nerves, and I started first game a bit flat.

She was well into the game and she was really up for it from the word go. So I dropped the first game, and I told myself you know what let’s do it, I’m not going home. Let’s start from here, and grind, run to every shot and get everything back and slowly I found my game.
I didn’t play my best, I was not as accurate I would like to be, but I’m very happy with the way I contained the match, a bit too much stuff going on but I’m proud of myself to win in 4 after losing the first game.

Playing Jana Shiha, it’s a big win for her, she is obviously in a good shape, playing here again, I’ve got to earn one more day my place on the Pyramids…

Amanda : You know my record here in the west side of Cairo is really bad. I was telling Salma this is my first win in God knows how long. At least in this tournament, it’s my first win in I don’t know how long.

But I have just been cooped up in my room for a while, just sitting there, being very sedentary, and like with the match delay I was the last one on court, oh my God a lot of cooped up energy. So I had a lot of energy to prove not only to myself that I can win here, but also like I JUST WANT TO PLAY like, LET ME OUT PLEASE OUT OF MY CAGE!!

Milou and I go a long way back so it was good round to get into it, so I’m excited, well not THAT excited to have a rest to be honest, because I just want to keep playing.

My next round is my compatriot Olivia, again. We played at the British, we play a few times, which is like WHY?? We play enough in Philly, honestly. We’ve been playing since we are 13.

The good thing is, you KNOW what you are going to get, it will be a fair match, we respect each other, we are really good friends. But when you are on court, you want to win. Off court, best friends. Here again, I’ve got to earn my spot on the glass. Listen last time I was on the glass was Al-Ahram 2016…