[1] Hania El Hammamy (Egy) 3-2 [5] Satomi Watanabe (Jpn) 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-5 (85m)
I think the El Hammamy camp must have sighed with huge relief as the 5th game unfold. Satomi was running out of gas and Hania was finally relaxing. But what a tense/intense squash today again from Hania.
It was the first time I saw Hania hitting on the court solo minutes before a match. That was a surprise for me, to be honest. I guess none of the players really played on it at night yet…
Hania had a great start, a dream start really, 6/0, 7/3. But slowly, surely, Satome started to take her marks on the court, and strung the points to 7/7, 9/9 and 11/9, on an uncharacteristic error from the Egyptian. 15m game.
The second game ended the opposite way, 11/9 to Hania, 12m, with errors from Satomi rising to 4 each.
The third, from Satomi’s perspective, is quite surreal, as she made 7 unforced errors, while Hania had none, but still nearly took the game; at 9/9, it was anybody’s game. Still, Hania clinches it, 16m.
The 4th was identic to the third, close throughout, but the number of error diminished dramatically to 3, 5/5, 7/7, 9/9. Two crispy winners from Satomi this time and we are all level, 20m 4th game.
The decider was very close up to 3/3, 4/4, where the hard work Hania put in Satomi’s legs showed, and finally, the former World number 1 smoothly closed the match, 11/5, in 11m, the shortest game of the match…
I couldn’t quite enjoy my squash, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do on court. My confidence level was really low.
But today I told myself, right, okay, I’ve done the summer training, I’m there physically, and I think I’m fit enough to play those 90-minute matches. So there was no pressure on me. She’s a high seed and obviously she’s there for a reason, so I was just trying to enjoy myself out there.
Yes, I did enjoy it. It’s not the result I wanted, but I can see the progression, and I think I just have to build up from there. The season has only just started for me.
Hania : “I used to be too stressed out about my performances at the beginning of the tournament, but then as tournaments go on after another, I found myself playing the best squash I ever played towards the end of tournaments.
“Obviously, it’s very risky to be playing with this mindset, but I have learnt that I shouldn’t be stressing at all. It gets me really in the right mindset for the big moments.
“There’s nothing to panic about today. I’m confident, I know the patches I played well today, and it’s a matter of just trying to improve the focus.
I am trying to figure out with my psychologist why I play my best squash when I’m down and when I’m behind, I am just trying to replicate these feelings those moments in the beginning of the match. We haven’t quite figured it out yet, but we’re trying. I’m sure we’re on the way up.”
