[5] Mazen Hesham (Egy) 3-1 [9/16] Aly Abou Eleinen (Egy) 3-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 (48m)
I’m missed the first game dominated by Aly, but what I saw was a Mazen on fire, and when he is in that killer mode, he just plays winners from all positions in the court, nothing is safe. Add to that he is as fit as it comes, moves like a devil on wheels, so whatever Aly was throwing at him would come back usually in the nick.
Aly didn’t do much wrong today. He didn’t make many mistakes, played long, was both aggressive, proactive and patient, but he was at the wrong end of very long tiring rallies.
Down 8/2 and 9/3 in the 4th, Aly gave it a big push while Mazen made the error of relaxing for a second. Aly was all over him, and saved 3 match balls from 6/10, but finally bows with a splendid return of serve in the nick from Mazen, 11/9.
Mazen : In the first game, I was overthinking, I was a bit nervous, didn’t feel right, a bit heavy… just nerves. I was expecting it, so I had to bottle them in the second. Told myself ‘you know what, if you play like this, you are going to lose FOR SURE’.
Last time, he beat me in El Gouna, it was the end of the season, I was really tired but NO EXCUSE. I know how good he is, that’s why you can see me pumping myself now and then, how a fighter he is, he has a great fighting spirit as well, so you cannot leave anything to him, you have to do it yourself.
You can see your engine going, getting more balls, finding better shots, getting more accurate, things like that, which started to hurt him.
In the last game, I started overthinking again, just wanted to finish too quickly, while he went for shots. I did a few errors in the latter part of the game.
Overall, I should be proud of myself. Nothing is never perfect. I’m always looking for perfection. I want to change the way I play, I want to be more aggressive, more solid, more patient, more fit.. I would like to be someone else, like 50% Mazen, 50% someone else, it would help.
I get angry when I make a single mistake, I don’t want to make any, that’s the way I play the game. You see the last shot I played, that’s the way I want to play the game, sometimes I get overboard, sometimes I get underboard.
I’m very glad to manage to beat him today, trying to get one back from him. He is going to beat me at some point A LOT, so I’m trying to get as many wins as I can get now, and see how it goes from here.
