El Welily, El Sherbini Advance as Weymuller First Round Concludes by Linda Elriani
photos Jean Ervasti
October 2, 2015
- Tonight was the second half of the 1st round of the 2015 Carol
Weymuller Main draw. It has been so great having all the main draw
matches on the championship court again this year. This means all the
matches are streamed live and also the viewing for our spectators here
at the Casino is great too! It’s so nice for all the PSA players to
know that their family and friends can watch their matches from afar.
First on the Championship court was world # 6 and last year’s Weymuller
finalist Omneya Abdel Kawy against PSA president Jenny Duncalf who won
the Weymuller back in 2009 and 2010. Both players have been playing the
PSA professional circuit for many years so there was a lot of serious
experience out there on court in this match. In the head to head Omneya
is up 9-2 over Jenny.
The match started well for Jenny and while both players moved the ball
around the court a lot using court courts and angles, Jenny managed to
control each of the rallies just that little better than Omneya up
until she got to 10-6 game ball at least. Omneya suddenly pounced into
gear and Jenny squandered her lead with a few loose shots and errors
that had not be there at the beginning. Omneya went through to win the
next 6 points in a row taking the first game 12/10.
Jenny started off well again with a 5-1 lead but once again Omneya won
the next 6 points in a row to then take the lead at 7-5. This time
Jenny took the bull by the horns and stepped it up and went through to
take the second in a very close 11/9.
In the third game Omneya was completely in control. Jenny’s lengths
were too short and gave Omneya a free range of the middle which is
where she plays her best. Omneya won the third in a convincing 11/3.
Jenny came back in the fourth looking determined and she soon regained
her composure and found her length, forced Omneya back on the court and
errors started to creep in. Jenny got an impressive 10-4 lead hitting
much tighter, deeper lengths but just like déjà vu Omneya got onto a
roll again winning 5 points in a row but at 10-9 Jenny finally decided
this was her game and went through to win 11-9.
Now the match was in the fifth and final game and we were left
wondering who was going to find their momentum first out of the 2
players. The match had been very up and down and patchy for them both
players and whoever got their rhythm first was managing to dominate and
win many points pretty quickly. Unfortunately for Jenny it was Omneya
that very quickly got ahead first. Omneya’s short shots were amazing
and soon she had a 7-1 lead! Jenny couldn’t regain her previous weight
on her lengths to force Omneya back, so Omneya went through to win 11/3
in the final game.
A happy Omneya said after her five setter “I’m feeling good for the 1st
match of the season. Since June I haven’t played any tournaments so in
the 1st game I didn’t see the ball well. I was struggling in the
beginning and Jenny was moving well. I just relaxed and started to go
for my winners and Jenny made some errors and then started to tense up.
It was a crucial game. My head wasn’t tough enough. I played in phases
and so did she, I’m glad that I played my game in the fifth. I ‘m
happy for my win and I look forward to my match tomorrow.”
Second match on the championship court was between World # 7 Nour El
Sherbini from Egypt and Hong Kong’s Delia Arnold who is world # 12.
Nour and Delia hadn’t played each other before this evening so it was
going to be interesting to see who would win their first bout.
Nour played very steadily and kept the T and used her height advantage
to cut off shots so well and force Delia to move around the court.
Whilst Delia did a great job retrieving and trying to find her position
on the T it didn’t stop Nour imposing her game and she went through to
win the first 11/6.
In the second game the points went back and forth evenly and Delia was
really moving well and managed to win one particularly long and
exciting rally with a perfect backhand volley drop whilst running back
almost off balance. This was followed up by a perfect forehand boast
from Delia which took her to 7-7. Nour had been looking like she had
another gear in her and suddenly she used it to take the next 4 points
in the row and also the game 11/7.
The third game Delia kept trying to win back the T and stop Nour from
using her wonderful volley drops and short shots. Delia put in her own
fair share of great winners and she eventually got a 9-7 lead. Nour
gave a final push to control the middle and with a variety of holds,
perfect boast winners and a crosscourt kill, Nour took the match 11/9
on the third.
Nour said after her win “It was my 1st match of the season and I was a
bit nervous. I was thinking about how my game was good or bad and not
thinking about the game plan. Delia has created a lot of upsets
recently and it was my first time to play her so I was expecting what
was coming. It was a hard match, each game could have gone either way.
I’m glad to be through and keen to play Omneya tomorrow.”
Third match of the night was between qualifier Joey Chan who is world #
29 and Australia’s Rachael Grinham who has had a very long and success
career so far starting out by winning the world juniors championships
when she was only 16 years old. Rachael and Joey have played 8 times
before this evening with Rachel 7-1 up in the head to head rally.
Rachael had a wonderful start to the match and couldn’t miss whenever
she took the ball in short. Before we knew it Rachael was 7-1 up! Joey
slowed up the pace a little more and finally found her rhythm and
started to plug her way back into the first game. The court started to
open up for Joey and Rachael started to make some forced and unforced
errors. Joey’s climb took her all the way up to 10-9 and with an
unexpected cross court drop winner from the back of the court she took
the first 11/9. It was a very impressive comeback!
Joey started the second very well and Rachael was going short way too
soon and not managing to push Joey back in the court with her length.
Both players were using the lob beautifully and the variation in pace
was lovely to see as very often squash is played at a very fast pace.
With one too many counter drops from Rachael, Joey was able to attack
the deep from the very front of the court, leaving her opponent
stranded many times and she took the second 11/5.
In the third it was Rachael that got a 4-1 lead until Joey continued in
a similar vein as the last game, making the pace of the game as slow
and controlled as possible. She was using the lob as much as she could
and then doing some deceptive holds in the front off of Rachael’s
forced back wall boasts. Joey managed to surge forward from 3-5 down to
9-5 up in one hand. Just as we thought that Joey was heading for a 3-0
win Rachael’s creative squash started to flow and she cut off the ball
and moved Joey around in many unexpected ways. Rachael went on to win
the next 6 points in a row with only one hand out for Joey and took the
fourth 12-10.
The fourth went back into Joey’s favor and she very quickly got an 8-2
and 9-5 lead but yet again Rachael’s unorthodox play helped her to claw
her way back to 10-10. Joey gave one last push and came through 12-10
to just scrap a 3-1 win.
Before tonight, Joey has only beaten Rachael once 3 years ago so in her
interview straight after the match Joey mentioned how happy she was to
win and that Rachael is a great competitor and mover and that she has
magic hands!! Well, Joey’s touch on the court tonight was pretty
awesome too and we look forward to seeing if Joey can put her slower,
more controlled game over her opponents tomorrow.
The last match on the championship court was between India’s #1 Dipika
Pallikal and newly crowned world #1 Raneem El Welily from Egypt. Raneem
just recently knocked the legendary Nicol David off her 9 year world #
1 spot, so she is clearly arriving here in Brooklyn on form and in good
spirits!
Raneem is 9-0 up in the head to head with Dipika.
Raneem started well in the first game and it was helped along by
Dipika’s errors and soon she went through to win the first 11/6.
The second game was still leaning in Raneem’s favor but some mistakes
crept in and Dipika was playing some great attacking volleys and was
moving really well around the court. The score stayed pretty even until
6-5 to Dipika and then with a couple of awesome drops from Raneem and
some errors from Dipika, Raneem when almost straight through to win the
second 11/7. Raneem’s movement off the spot is so dynamic, she got onto
some great short shots from Dipika and managed to get herself out of
trouble and reapply the pressure.
The third game was all Dipika! She came out on fire! She played
attacking low deep drives, she was forward on the T and taking in
precise volley drops and kills in the front. Raneem didn’t react
quickly or well enough to this huge push from Dipika and she went
through to win the third 11/5.
The fourth started in the same way with Dipika looking extremely
confident and making barely any errors whilst she was on this rampage.
Raneem started to look unsure and she couldn’t seem to stop herself
from going short as if to see if this next drop shot would be the
winner. There were definitely moments of brilliance from Raneem but she
was struggling to find her consistency and wasn’t putting the basic
tactical work in to change Dipika winners to errors. At 10- 7 Dipika’s
watch caught Raneem’s knuckle on her playing hand and caused it to
bleed so Raneem has a time out to stop the bleeding. Once Raneem
returned to the court there was only one more rally for Dipika to take
the fourth 11/7 and take the new world #1 to a fifth game!
In the fifth Raneem started out looking much more confident than she
had been in the last two games. Her short game was more accurate again
and she was controlling the T. Raneem took a 3-0 lead, but with two
perfectly disguised forehand boasts from Dipika and an error from
Raneem, it made us realize the fight was not yet over.
Just an Dipika pulled back in to the game again she seemed to get a
little excited and made a couple of unforced errors and this gave the
green light for Raneem’s confidence. Her immense experience guided her
through the last few points of the fifth game to win it 11/5. It was a
really amazing match and effort from Dipika and Raneem must have
definitely felt that she dodged a bullet tonight getting out of this
one!
When I asked Raneem how she felt after her match she said “Pressure,
lots and lots of pressure!! You asked me what it’s like to be world #1
and being so hungry and it being so close in ranking points makes me
feel the importance of every point. So 2 or 3 rallies are enough for me
to start feeling badly, especially with the results yesterday- everyone
is beating everyone!! I lose my game and my nerve when I play with
pressure but I am learning to play with it!”
It was another fantastic night of squash and we all look forward to the
quarterfinals starting at 3.30pm tomorrow afternoon. After the quarter
finals we have a Weymuller function with food, drinks and our very own
DJ Nudie (Annelize Naude) playing her fantastic tunes.
Please also follow PSA (and also the Carol Weymuller) on instagram, facebook and tweeter #CW2015
To follow the streaming live please go to the Heights Casino website, www.squashsite.co.uk or http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-heights-casino-live
Summary of Friday night's 1st round (split first round) results….
