[4] Siva Subramaniam (Mas) 3-0 [11] Nele Gilis (Bel) 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 (33m)
Siva was literally on fire today. Her first two games were clinical damaging. Nele never was able to find her length due to the quality and the mix of the attacks. It was impressive as Siva was having so much time on the ball, hence forcing Nele to defend so many options.
But then a little hiccup from the ref in the third, Nele down 0/3, a shot that seems an obvious stroke to Siva (from my position anyway) is called no let. Greg Gaultier, coach to Siva, not impressed, goes “are you serious? You are being serious…” Which doesn’t happen that often, Greg chatting with the ref during a match. Interesting to note only 5 decisions were given throughout the match…
That seemed to make have Siva disconnect for just a minute, and that was enough for Nele to find her squash finally. Perfect length and width, making the rallies much longer, and allowing her finally to show her squash. It forced Siva to force it a bit, attacking from less favourable positions, hence a few too many and uncharacteristic errors (4 in the middle of the game).
But the Malaysian seemed to reset from 5/7 down, and she then got a first match ball 10/7, and match on a beautiful winner backhand, 11/8…
Siva : I think my quality dropped off a bit in length and accuracy.
She’s a fighter. She’s always hanging in there. She’s always fighting and coming back, and staying consistent with the game plan. I knew she’d keep fighting even when she was down, so I had to reset and refocus on every point. As I said, I think I was losing a bit of my accuracy, and then she started being more accurate than me.
I’m happy I managed to find a way, even though I was down in the third, I think that’s what matters. There will always be ups and downs in a match, and you can’t be perfect throughout. So I’m happy I found a way and won 3-0.
Obviously, we always debrief before a match, so Greg and I chatted on the bus today. He’s always there for his players’ warm-ups, and he was for me today too. It was just a debrief of the match and a reminder of the game plan, of what I need to do on court, and even of the mindset, to stay strong throughout. We spoke about it last night, so it was just to refresh a few points, not the whole plan, just three or four to really get stuck in and go.
