[9] Lauren Baltayan (FRA) 3-0 Malak Fathy (EGY) 11-6, 11-3, 12-10 (32m)
Lauren Baltayan has a French mum, Danielle, and has the French label on her affiliation. But she is a true product of the Egyptian Factory, make so mistake. I used to see her compete with Fayrouz and Amina in the local events a few years back, and she was already a fierce competitor.
During some tough matches playing for France – she is getting support and grants from the French Federation – she was a bit inconsistent with her results, especially when she was leading scorewise.
Cleverly, she has starting working with a mental coach about a year ago, and it shows. Today, leading 2/0, she found herself in known territory, down 9/3. But if a few months ago, she might have lost the match, today, she didn’t even lose the game!
Slowly she came back to 7/9, and from 10/7 game ball, score 5 consecutive points, forcing two errors from Malak racquet on the last two points, having broken her opponent mentally more than anything else.
Experience at that level makes a huge difference, and I’m sure Malak – who impressed yesterday – will learn from it. Remember the name, Malak Fathy.
Lauren
We’d only ever played each other in training. She’s a dangerous player, especially on the backhand side.
I had to be really accurate and not leave anything in the middle. That’s something I hadn’t prepared with my coach, Ahmed Effat – I just did what I usually do in training, and it worked.
I’ve also been working with a mental coach for a year now, and he’s really helped me prepare. I’ve started to properly take on board his advice, and I’ve also been working on my body language thanks to him.
Tomorrow I’ll be playing Alicia Mead – I’ve never seen her play, but I’ll watch her match and work on it with Ahmed.
