|
|
|
TODAY in
Sheffield ... Thu 5th, Day FOUR
Steve in Sheffield |
|
Abbeydale
Semi-Finals:
G19: Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt Salma Hatem
Youssef (Egy)
11/6, 11/2, 12/10 (24m)
G19: Kanzy El Dafrawy (Egy) bt Emily
Whitlock (Eng) 6/11, 11/9, 12/10, 9/11, 11/7
(61m)
B15: Israr Ahmed (Pak) bt Eain Yow Ng (Mas)
11/8, 7/11, 11/6, 9/11, 11/5 (41m)
B15: Youseff Soliman (Egy) bt Moustafa Taha (Egy)
11/9, 11/4, 11/7 (22m)
G15: Nouran Gohar (Egy) bt Mayar Hany (Egy)
13/11, 11/4, 11/9 (25m)
G15: Hana Ramadan (Egy) bt Nazihah Abdul
Razak (Mas) 10/12,
11/5, 11/9, 11/5 (28m)
B19: Mohamed Abouelgar (Egy) bt Fares Desouky
(Egy) 11/7, 10/12, 11/7,
11/9 (49m)
B19: Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) bt Mazen Hisham
(Egy) 11/9, 4/11, 11/8, 4/11, 11/7
(47m)
Hallamshire Semi-Finals:
G17: Yathreb Adel (Egy) bt Mariam Metwaly (Egy)
9/11, 11/9, 11/3, 11/3 (41m)
G17: Salma Hani (Egy) bt Nele Gilis (Bel)
11/6, 11/5, 11/7 (21m)
B13: Kashif Asif (Pak) bt Abdalah El Masry (Egy)
11/6, 11/4, 11/9 (36m)
B13: Ziad Sakr (Egy) bt Andrew Fahmy (Egy)
11/5, 11/6, 11/7 (27m)
G13: Habiba Mohamed (Egy) bt Satomi Watanabe
(Jpn)
11/6, 11/5, 11/5 (23m)
G13: Amina Yousry (Egy) bt Siv Subramanian (Mas)
11/9, 2/11, 11/6, 11/7 (33m)
B17: Ashley Davies (Eng) bt Karim El Hammamy
(Egy) 11/7,13/15, 11/3, 3/11, 14/12
(109m)
B17: Shehab Essam (Egy) bt Ahmad Alsaraj (Jor)
9/11, 11/0, 17/15, 7/11, 11/4 (106m) |
 |
G19:
Sherbini still unbeaten
Well in control for the first two games,
Nour El Sherbini moved to within one
match of taking her 5th BJO title with a
straight game win over compatriot Salma
Hatem Youssef.
Clearly disappointed with a poor showing in
the second, Salma matched Sherbini all the
way in the third, always a point or two
ahead, and taking a 10/7 lead which looked
like extending the match.
But Sherbini, still only sixteen, tightened
up her game and took advantage of a couple
of loose shots from her opponent to take the
next five points to advance to the final.
 "I
hadn't played Salma since we met here in
2007, but I knew it was going to be a tough
match. I was concentrated and playing well
in the first two, not sure what happened in
the third but I'm happy I managed to win in
three and get to the final.
"I love playing here and England seems to be
a lucky place for me, I've never lost here
so I hope that can continue.
"I've never played Emily, but I've played
Kanzy a lot obviously, I'll be watching
their semi-final later on!"
Kanzy stops Emily ...
 What
a thriller the second semi-final was, as
Emily Whitlock and Kanzy El Dafrawy
slugged it out for five games as intense as
they come.
Emily recovered from 4/0 down to take the
first 11/6, and threatened to pull back from
6/3 and 10/7 down in the second too, but
Kanzy held her nerve to ;evel 11/9.
The third went point for point, Emily got
her nose in front 10/8 but Kanzy, as
determined as ever, finished off the next
four rallies with outright winners to take
the lead 12/10.
 In
the fourth Emily started moving her opponent
from front to back with good effect, moving
7/3 ahead. Kanzy didn't give an inch though,
battled back to 8-all and 9-all before Emily
closed it out 11/9 to force a decider.
And the fifth was as tense as you would
expect, but it was the Egyptian who started
edging ahead, 5/2, 7/5, Emily got back as
close as 7/8 but the next three points would
be Kanzy's and boy was she happy.
 "I
enjoyed the whole match, even if it was a
bit tense at times! My drops were good today
and 70% of my winning shots were coming at
the front of the court so I kept trying to
play there.
"I was disappointed to lose the fourth, I
could have won it 3/1 but then I was down in
the third and won that.
"In the fifth I just told myself there was
no way I was going to lose this, no chance,
and I had to stay strong from the beginning.
I was tired but I could tell she was tired
too.
"I'm so happy to make the final, I just hope
I can play well again tomorrow."
|
 |
|
B15:
Ahmed ends Ng run
Pakistan's top seeded Israr Ahmed
ended the hopes of last year's U13 champion
Eain Yow Ng in a well-contested
five-game semi-final.
 They
shared the first four games, Israr's greater
reach and more formidable arsenal of winning
shots countered by the Malaysian's speed and
court coverage. The decider started evenly,
but from 3-all Israr edged ahead 5/3 and
7/5, then two wrongfooting reverse angles
opened up the gap to 9/5.
A tin from Ng with the open court yawning
set up match ball and a final trickle boast
and Pakistan had its first finalist.
"I'm very
pleased that he got through to the final,"
said Pakistan coach Gogi Allaudin,
"our U17 boy lost narrowly last night and
the U13 is playing the semi-final so
hopefully we can get two finalists.
"Pakistan used to dominate squash and we
need to get some players back up to the top
of the rankings, so seeing these juniors
progress is good for squash in Pakistan."
Gogi placed a
call to Jonah Barrington this morning, who
beat him in the British Open final here some
23 years ago - that will be an interesting
conversation, for sure!
Soliman pulls rank
 The
second semi-final was an all-Egyptian
affair, with second seed Youssef Soliman
always looking to have the edge over his
surprise opponent, Moustafa Taha.
The tall, powerful Taha competed well, but
was always playing catchup against his
nimble, accurate opponent who went through
11/9, 11/4, 11/7 to set up an Egypt v
Pakistan final, and those are always fun ...
|
 |
 |
G15:
Gohar gets this one
It was fast and furious, and for all of the
first game the likely winner was far from
obvious to tell. Top seed Nouran Gohar
got to game ball first, 10/9, then had to
save one at 10/11 before taking the lead
13/11.
 She
was more comfortable after that, faster onto
the ball and making her compatriot Mayar
Hany work hard to stay in contention.
The second was over quickly 11/4, and at 6/0
and 9/3 in the third it looked all over.
To her credit though Mayar kept fighting,
closed up from 10/5 to 10/9, only to clip
the tin from the front of the court with
what would have been a winner.
A grateful top seed was relieved that the
referee answered her "was it down?" query in
the affirmative, thus reversing the result
of their 2010 final showdown.
An Egyptian champion was assured when Hana Ramadan
beat Malaysia's Nazihah Abdul
Razak 10/12, 11/5, 11/9, 11/5 in a 28-minute
match which I spent chatting not realising
it was on ! Apologies for that, we'll get
some good photos of the final, Hana, promise
!!
 |
B19: Abouelghar makes another final
 The
first Boys U19 semi was a quality match,
contested between two lightning-fast, very
accurate and very fair Egyptians, Mohamed
Abouelghar and Fares Desouky.
Second seed Abouelghar took the first 11/7,
but Desouky pulled back an early deficit to
level 12/10 after surviving a game ball.
Abouelghar led throughout the third, Desouky
getting as close as 8/7 before three winners
of different varieties saw Abouelghar regain
the lead.
 A
decider looked on the cards as Desouky led
most of the fourth, and Abouelghar was
probably the only one in the almost-full
arena who wanted the match to end
prematurely.
An ambitious service return into the tin
from Desouky, trying to emulate his
opponent's winner on the previous point,
levelled the score at 8-all, then at 9-all
Abouelghar's trickle boast was too tight and
after a frantic rally Desouky's final shot
hit the tin to end the match.
His racket went flying, for which he
received a conduct stroke, but we'll resist
recording it as 12/9 and remember an
excellent match, well played lads.
 "He's
one of the most talented players back in
Egypt and we train a lot together, so we
both knew what to expect.
"Anything loose I knew he would put away for
a winner, and I had to really work hard, it
almost went to a fifth, I didn't want that!
"It feels great to get to the final, now
I'll go and enjoy my lunch and come back to
watch two more Egyptians play tonight ..."
Marwan survives ... somehow
The final match of the day was a repeat of
the World Junior semi-final between
Marwan El Shorbagy and Mazen Hisham,
all-Egyptian of course. Marwan won that one
3/0, but today he was pushed all the way,
and survived by the skin of his teeth.
 There
wasn't too much sign of trouble ahead as the
younger Shorbagy kept ahead during a
nevertheless competitive first game to take
the lead 11/9.
But from 4-all in the second Mazen, whose
play stayed at the same high level for the
whole match, got a few points ahead and from
8/4 the end came quickly as Marwan all but
let the game go.
The next two games were virtual repeats of
the first two - Marwan staying ahead for
most of a well-contested third, then folding
as Mazen forged ahead in the middle of the
fourth.
So we had a decider, and a tense affair it
was too.
Marwan started well enough, 4/2, but found
himself 4/6 down against a determined
opponent. Angry at not getting a let Marwan
smashed an angrier kill into the nick to
make it 6-all, then was possibly fortunate
to get a stroke to get back to 7-all.
 A
short kill put Marwan ahead 8/7 then Mazen
inexplicably stopped for a let while he was
deep in the back corner. No-one knew why,
least of all the referee, so Marwan was 9/7
and Mazen was distressed.
A stroke did little to alleviate that
condition, and when Mazen tinned an
innocuous shot to finish the match the top
seed was as relieved as the challenger was
distraught.
 "I
said yesterday that I enjoyed the pressure -
well I really felt it today and I didn't
enjoy it at all!
"He played one of his best matches, much
better than in Herentals, he was more
patient, very fast and the court seemed to
suit him. I wasn't there, couldn't move,
nothing was working, terrible.
"I really thought I was going home tonight,
I'm so lucky and so relieved to be playing
another final against my best mate
[Abouelghar].
"Lots of time to rest now before the final,
I know I'll have to play better and I'll
give it my all ..."
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
