HHania El Hammamy comes from a game down to beat Nele Gilis, Nouran Gohar breezes past Nada Abbas
[6] Hania El Hammamy (Egy) 3-1 [9/16] Nele Gilis (Bel) 11-13, 11-2, 11-7, 11-4 (54m)
[2] Nouran Gohar (Egy) 3-0 Nada Abbas (Egy) 11-3, 11-2, 11-5 (22m)
Hania impressive after tough opening
Hania didn’t have a good start for sure. She seemed very nervous, struggling with her length, shots a bit inaccurate, while Nele was on fire…
But after the first game, Nele seemed to run out of energy – I wrote in my book at 2/2 “coup de mou” as in drop of energy. No wonder! The poor girl has been sick and was truly poorly.
She still fought tooth and nails with Superman watching over her, but she just didn’t have enough fuel in her body today. Meanwhile, Hania played perfectly from the second onwards and will maybe now start to relax and don’t expect too much of herself..
Hania : The first game was crucial, it took both of us a while to adapt to the court conditions,
I think it’s really different playing on an outdoor court, it felt like the court was a bit tricky. I think the first game it took a little bit of time to get into the game and the last three games, I managed to find my length and corners.
At the end of the day I’m playing against an Egyptian in the next round. There isn’t one I’d prefer to play, especially when we’re playing in Egypt, it’s better to play against someone who is non-Egyptian, so that we can have the crowd on our side. I’ll have a rest day tomorrow and be ready for the quarters.
Nele : I had some food I stored in the fridge yesterday at lunch, and it was bad I think. I have been terribly sick… I’m so furious with myself because I should have known better… it’s not every day you get a chance like that… I tried my best… My head wanted to but my body couldn’t…
Nouran ruthless against Nada
In 2017, the only time they met in a PSA tournament, Nada beat Nouran in the British Open, first round, in 4. Nouran has probably never really forgotten the sting, which explains the Fret Train that come on court today bless her.
Nada did her best but Nouran was all over her, and Nada struggled a bit with the court conditions – Pyramids, crowd, light… No wonder, it’s really a very impressive set up you know… Still she kept fighting, even match ball down, and forced a few errors out of the Terminator in that last game in particular, putting some nice pressure on…
Omar Abdel Aziz (Nouran’s Coach) : I’m very happy with Nouran’s performance today, she is solid. Nada didn’t get any chances to adapt to the atmosphere, it’s still big for her, Nouran has the experience, 5 or 6 years, and it’s an outdoor court…
Nouran used the heights and finds her targets on that court simply. We are looking forward to the next match…
Nouran : It’s never an easy match, the women’s game is at the highest level it’s ever reached.
Matches are really hard from the very first round, even if the score wasn’t really tight, it was hard on there to be able to close it out in three.
Next match against Hania, we have played a lot in the last couple of months and the last encounter was at the British Open. I really enjoyed the match and I’m looking forward to that one.
It has been incredible what CIB has done for our sport, it has never been done before. I’ve never seen someone as passionate about squash as Hussein Abaza. It’s incredible to have the support of a great man, even during COVID, we didn’t have to worry a lot because he was putting events on all over Egypt and the prize money was the same or more. It’s nice to play at home and especially when your sponsor is sponsoring the event.
