[15] Hannah Craig (IRL) bt [6] Saran Nghiem (ENG) 4-11, 11-6, 7-11, 11-9, 12-10 (66m)
Probably the match of the tournament so far.
Incredible performance from both players. My money was on the English player, I have to say I love her deception shots, the way she takes the ball very early, and her composure on court. It took a heck of a performance from the Irish to overcome a Saran on fire.
The fourth was so close throughout, 3/3, 5/6, 7/7, 8/8, 9/9, a few lets around the end of the game, and a feisty Hannah clinches the 4th to force a decider, 11/9.
The fifth is also nailbiting, but Hannah sets up two match balls. On 10/8, she thinks she won, stroke for Saran, says the ref. “I was devastated,” admits Hannah. But she regrouped and, at 10/10, found the resources to set up a third match ball, which this time she’ll close down, maybe a bit of experience from the Irish who have gone through the American College scene – that forges a character it does…
Hannah :
I thought I won at 10/8, and I was devastated. A loose shot, just in the middle, and I celebrated too early. I’ve been kind of thinking about that in my head, when I’m up, trying to stay calm, and she came back. I tried to implement what I was practicing, learning and reading, and keep it together.
She is such a consistent player, so today, was not necessarily thinking about winning but more about not losing: keeping it long, I’ve been training a lot my fitness, so I feel the longer I can keep it going, the better. In my head I was like “don’t try and win every shot, but just try and extend it, and not lose.” Today, I was in the “extend” mindset.
At the end of the 4th, I had to admit I went into automatic pilot. I was like “think about targets, don’t think about the score”. I was thinking too much about the scores recently, I was trying to keep that right out of my mind “every rally is 0/0” and go from there. So in that moment, I thought play smart, and hit the targets.
I love competing, this is by far the most exciting battle I had for a long time, any chance like that, it makes all the training a MILLION TIMES WORTH IT!
