Weymuller Quarters Report by Linda Elriani October 4, 2014
- Tonight is quarter finals night of the 2014 Carol Weymuller Open. The
quarter finals night is always my favorite night at tournaments because
it’s four extremely high quality matches all on one court. The weather
for most of today was so rainy and grey, but the atmosphere here in the
Heights Casino squash courts was vibrant, exciting and fun! Today we had the
junior ‘Play a Pro’ which ran from 2.00pm-3.00pm before the
quarterfinals. It’s our juniors chance to get on court with some of the
best women’s squash players in the world. That doesn’t happen every
day! A huge thank you goes to Tesni Evans (world #27), Vicky Lust
(world # 30), Sam Cornett (world # 32), Samantha Teran (world # 39),
Siyoli Waters (world # 37), Sarah Kippax (world # 19), Madeline Perry
(world # 13), Jenny Duncalf (world # 16), Latasha Khan (world # 38),
and Rachael Grinham (world # 15). They all gave up part of their
afternoon to play with our juniors and the kids all had such an amazing
time. The WSA players are so great at giving back and spreading the joy
and love and squash.
The only players that
have played before tonight out of all the quarterfinal matches are
Omneya Abdel Kawy and Nour El Tayeb! All the other matches was the
first time in a WSA event!
First up on the
championship court was the world # 3 and a previous Carol Weymuller
Open champion in 2011 from Egypt, Raneem El Welily against Emma Beddoes
the world # 20.
The match started out
very evenly going back and forth in points and control. Emma was moving
beautifully into the front and was ready to get onto all of Raneem’s
attacking short shots. The first game went down to the wire with the
Emma playing a perfect backhand volley drop to take her to 14-13 game
ball and then followed up by stroke against Raneem to gave Emma the
first game 15/13.
Raneem came out on
fire in the second and she was retrieving so many of Emma’s shots, with
one particular rally where Emma should have won the point about 3 times
but Raneem just kept getting all the shots back and won the point in
the end too! Raneem controlled the second and went through to win it
11/6.
In the third Emma
quickly went 4-1 up and some errors started to creep back into Raneem’s
game again. Emma made it hard for Raneem by keeping her deep on the
courts and playing an array of wonderful winners herself including a
backhand crosscourt nick to take Emma 9-7 up. One more great rally that
ended with Emma hitting a perfect dying forehand cross court, took Emma
through to win the third 11/7 and lead the match 2-1.
The fourth and fifth
games Raneem found her rhythm again and whilst Emma battled hard,
Raneem managed to cut out the errors and we saw a huge amount of
wonderful drop short winners from her which helped her to go through
and take the fourth and fifth games both 11/4.
One of the really
great parts of this match was that even though it was a long, hard
fought five setter, both players were incredibly honest and fair and
even told the referee when their shots were down. It’s so nice to see
this and is such a great example for our juniors watching the match.
When I went over to the Raneem straight after, the only thing she said about her match was “Thank god!!!”
Second on court were the Alison Waters the world #6 from England against Nicolette Fernandes world #22 from Guyana.
In the first game Ali
started off brilliantly, playing very precise, clean and concentrated
squash, taking her to a 7-3 lead. Suddenly Nicolette seemed to find her
game and rhythm and won 6 straight points. Nicolette didn’t even look
tired from yesterday’s incredible match and she was getting everything
back that was humanly possible. Ali started to make a few unforced
errors and lose the quality of her length a little and Nicolette pushed
through to get her first game ball at 10-8. Ali hit a forehand volley
drop to get back to 10-10 but Nicolette got another game ball
opportunity at 11-10 brought on by a great tight length deep in the
back. Ali counteracted with a tight length of her own to equalize again
at 11-11 and then a backhand volley drop error from Nicolette took Ali
to 12-11 game ball. Error from Ali brought the point even again.
Finally a backhand kill winner and a forehand boast that wrong footed
Nicolette took Ali through to win the mammoth first game 14-12.
Ali started the second
in fine style, with some lovely drops and great dying lengths in the
back, before we knew it Ali had won the second game 11-2. It was only
then apparent that Nicolette was getting very jaded and that the hard
first game on top of the long match last night, had finally taken its
toll. The third game was very much the same with Ali’s precise play and
error free short game, exposing Nicolette’s tiredness. Ali went through
to win the third game 11/4 and earned herself a place in the Weymuller
semi-finals where she will play Raneem tomorrow.
Ali said after her
match “I knew Nicolette had had a monster match last night so I knew a
tough first game would take it out of her, which it did. But she still
sticks in the keeps going, which I knew she would. I was quite pleased
to play well and close out the match. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Raneem is obviously a great player. We haven’t played in a while so I’m
looking forward to getting stuck in there!
The third match of the
evening was an all Egyptian final with team mates Omneya Abdel Kawy and
Nour El Tayeb who are world 14 and 8 respectively.
The control of the
third match kept switching back and forth between the players with
Omneya playing a great first game, with some very powerful lengths and
lovely holds which worked Nour out of position. There was some lovely
squash from both players but Omneya was more in control and won the
first game 11/8.
In the second it was
Nour’s turn to take control and Omneya made a whole bunch of unforced
errors to give Nour a 7-1 lead. Omneya found her game a little at the
end but Nour finished the game with a great deceptive cross court that
sent Omneya the wrong way, winning 11/4.
In the third it was
Omneya’s turn again to take control and she was quickly 7-1 up, using
some wonderful holds and flicks to out position Nour. Nour then settled
in and there were some great rallies with some tricky angles and fast
retrieving and she managed to win four points on the trot. Omneya
managed to hang in there with a little more consistency and came
through 11/8. Nour had ended the third game pretty well but had to come
back from such a deficit that it she couldn’t quite manage it.
The fourth game was
even right through and both players were going for short shots at their
earliest opportunity and many where coming off and hitting the nick.
Nour really pushed to keep up with Omneya and even almost did the
splits for one drop shot in a huge effort to get it back. It was
Omneya’s hold and flick and got her through the last part of the match
and it really took Nour’s speed away from her. Omneya came through to
take the fourth and final game 11/9 to secure herself a place in the
semi finals.
A happy Omneya said
“It’s lack of pressure – this week I’ve told myself ‘Omneya just relax
and enjoy’ and it’s worked! I feel good inside the court and I’m
enjoying every shot in the rally. Even if it’s a long rally, I’m not
pressurizing myself to win on the next shot. I just played Salma
recently and won 11/9 in the fifth and I haven’t played Laura for a
while since the British Open last year. So let’s see who wins and enjoy
it tomorrow! Last up on the
championship court, but certainly not least was World # 2 and current
World Champion from England, Laura Massaro against the only qualifier
that made the quarter finals Salma Hany Ibrahim from Egypt.
Laura started the
match which such a purpose and was hitting such quality lengths and
moving so fast into the front of the court that Salma’s amazing short
game wasn’t able to hurt her. Even though the rallies were long and
both players were retrieving balls from all over the court, Laura was
varying the shots and pace and lifting balls up high and taking the
middle away from Salma. Laura won the first two games 11/6, 11/8.
In the 3rd and 4th
games there were a lot of lets and both players struggled to clear out
from the ball. Laura didn’t manage to stick to her game plan with the
same conviction and soon Salma was coming into her own and with many
more opportunities to go for her amazing her short shots. It was 9-9 in
the third and with a forehand drop into the tin from Laura and then a
serve that hit the back wall nick, Salma took third 11/9.
Salma also won an
incredible closely contested fourth game which again was even at 9-9
and with a no let decision to Laura in the front backhand and an
amazing hard, low crosscourt drive from Salma the game went 11/9 to the
young Egyptian.
In the fifth game
Laura came on the court with a new focus and seemed to have her purpose
and game plan back. Laura’s length was deeper and wider again and she
stepped up and volleyed more and her opportunities to go short came up
more often, which Laura took advantage of perfectly with some
unretreivable drops shots. Salma kept pushing to take back the control
but Laura was back in her groove and for this time, it was not going to
be Salma’s day. Laura went through to win the fifth in a convincing
11/4, taking her through to the semi-finals tomorrow against Salma’s
team mate Omneya.
Laura said after her
match “I’m really pleased to come through in the end. I felt like I was
dominating in the first 2 games and I just lost a little bit of my
focus. I just tried to get my body language up and find a bit of
composure towards the end. I’m really happy to be in the semis. It’s
all a bonus form here!’
After the completion
of the quarterfinals we had drinks, dim sums and great music, as
always, from our DJ Nudie in the Governors Room. I had heard that
Siyoli Waters (South African # 1) could not only play wonderful squash
but also sing and play the piano brilliantly too. In the Governors Room
there is a piano in the corner, so we persuaded her to do some songs
for us. WOW!!! Siyoli has the most beautiful voice and can play the
piano equally amazingly. What an unbelievable talent!! I even got goose
bumps on my arms listening to her!!! Alicia Keys, if you want to have
someone to do duets with you at your concerts we have just the girl for
you!! Thanks so much Siyoli for performing for us, it made our night!
We look forward to the
semi finals tomorrow at 2.30pm and 3.15pm. There is a Sunday Weymuller
Brunch from 12pm-2pm before the matches. Please call the front desk if
you would like to come.
Summary of tonight’s results…
Raneem El Welily beat Emma Beddoes 13/15, 11/6, 7/11, 11/4, 11/4.
