Nour Khafagy (EGY) 3-1 [3] Cindy Merlo (SUI) 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-9 (36m)
This was always going to be a difficult one for Cindy, as she got a foot injury yesterday during her previous match. She was with the physio right before her match, and that is never easy neither for herself, nor for her opponent – who by the way, is also coming back from a knee injury!
Nour :
First game, I was still nervous, like I was yesterday. I never played her before, didn’t have much chances to see her play either. I realised a bit late that she was going for her shots to not have to move too much. And I didn’t react to it quickly enough, I wasn’t alert at all.
In the second and third, I managed to keep my shots as accurate as possible, so she didn’t have the chance to put too much pressure on me on the front court.
My knee was hurting a bit today as well, so I think we were both trying to play the same style of squash, keep the rallies as short and as sharp as possible! It was pretty close to be honest, I’m glad I could keep the accuracy of my shots.
Tomorrow, I’m playing Rana Ismail, we never played but I know of her of course, she is a very skillful player, she takes a lot of space on court, she is tall Mash’Allah, so I’m going to go home, rest, and watch her matches to study her well.
