[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-2 [13] Salma Hany (EGY) 9-11, 10-12, 11-3, 11-1, 11-4 (71m)
Well, never the expression “a game of of two halves” was better illustrated by the match tonight.
Hania had won their last encounters, but still, as she didn’t play a competitive match from the Worlds in Chicago – she got injured – she looked a bit nervous at the start of the match.
On the other side of the court, the confident, on fire, in the zone Salma Hany, coached by Andrew Shoukry, dazzled us. There is no other way to describe it. She could do nothing wrong, her basic game was spot on, she was moving like on a board, fluidly and with ease, finding shots that looked like bullets to the front corners, glued to the walls, and impossible to retrieve, even from Hania.
But to be able to sustain such a quality of squash, Salma had to battle at a very high pace, for two very long games: 18m, and 15m. The mental intensity was very high, as the players were racquet to racquet all the duration of those two games.
Hania didn’t get a game ball in the first, and Salma got the opener on her first try, but did Salma started to think she was about to beat Hania? Up 9/3 in the second, she found the tin a few times, got a few no lets, letting Hania back in the game, and closing it on her third attempt, 12/10.
Long rallies, Hania pushing very hard in that second game… Salma seemed to have a big drop of energy from that point on. 11/3 in 6m, 11/1 in 5m and lasting 11/4 in 7m.
And if Hania doesn’t know what happened, how the heck do you expect me to know??
Hania
I want to forget the first two games.
“I’m going to watch the match back because there was a huge difference. I found my range and found my game after the second. Karim and I were talking between games and he was telling me that even if I lost, I would learn from it.
He told me to work hard on finding my balance and my game, and after the second, I calmed down. I’ve had a long break since the World Champs, so today was a test for me. Playing against someone as talented as Salma doesn’t make it easy.
The court conditions were fine. Yesterday night I played and it was very bouncy, but tonight, the wind was cooling the atmosphere and because we played an hour later than planned, the conditions were fine.
“I’m excited to play Nele. She had a great match against Gina, and I’m really to see her back performing well. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a quality match together. She’s been through a lot and she didn’t play her best squash last season.
I’m sure the day after tomorrow is going to be a great match.
