$50K Carol Weymuller 1st Round Qualifying Report by Linda Elriani
October 18, 2016
photos Jean Ervasti
HI Everyone,
The 2016 Carol Weymuller Squash Tournament is now underway with the
first 8 qualification matches starting at 5.30pm on our Heights Casino
squash courts. We have an amazing 14 countries being represented in our
tournament with players from literally all over the globe from every
continent.
We are streaming the whole event live onto the internet so it’s
exciting for everyone to be able to see matches even if they are in
different countries or can’t make to the matches.
The link to the live streaming is….. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-heights-casino-live
Even though we are holding our tournament later this year than usual,
after the US Open rather than before, we have yet again got some
unseasonably hot weather in NY and consequently the courts are very hot
and bouncy making it difficult to finish the rallies.
The 5.30pm match is between world # 34 Samantha Teran from Mexico
against Emilia Soini world #147 from Finland. Samantha is a veteran on
the PSA circuit and has many years of experience under her belt and
this showed tonight in her performance. Sam came through in three,
11/3, 11/8, 11/5.
A happy Sam said after her match “It was hot! It was a good game and
even though it was 3-0 it was hard as she held the ball and lobbed
well. We have completely different games and I had to change my game
between each game, especially as I hadn’t played her before. For the
next round, I think that nowadays whoever you have to play you have to
play well to qualify. Last time I played Mariam I lost 3-1 in the
British, but it’s good to play someone that you played recently. Now I
am focusing on how I’m playing rather than who I’m playing.”
The second 5.30pm match was English Jessica Davis, who is currently
studying at Columbia in NYC, against Egypt’s Mariam Metwally who is
world #31.Jessica is a freshman at UPenn and wanted to gain some more
experience from playing a PSA event not far away from her college.
Mariam was mostly in control of the match, and once she settled into
her game she was using the four corners well and putting her opponent
under consistent pressure.
Mariam won her match 11/7, 11/4, 11/3. Mariam said afterwards “I think
I’m feeling fresh today. The 1st game I making some unforced errors,
but in the 2nd game I felt comfortable and was moving well. Everything
was going good and today I felt my ball was deep. Jess played well. I
have never played her before and in the 1st game I didn’t have a plan
and then I figured it out. I felt fresh.”
The 6.15pm match on the east court was between Nicolette Fernandes,
world # 26 from Guyana against Kiwi Christine Nunn, who is the world #
42 and her first time to compete in the Carol Weymuller tournament.
Nicolette matches are always entertaining to watch. There is a great
energy and enthusiasm in her play and this evening Nicolette’s efforts
to control the T paid off.
Nicolette came through 11/8,11/4,11/6. A happy Nicolette said to me “I
feel good. It’s nice to get a win. These days the wins aren’t coming as
regularly as I’d hoped so I’m thrilled. I like it here and it’s very
hot so that helps! I played Kanzy at the US Open last week and I lost,
so I’m really happy to play her again and who knows, I might get
another win!!”
The second 6.15pm match on the west court was between Egyptian Kanzy
Emad El Defrawy who is world # 37 and Pakistan’s Maria Toorpakai Wazir
who is world #70. Maria has just recently released her own book and
movie about her amazing life story and struggles to play squash in
Pakistan as a girl.
When Kanzy didn’t keep the ball tight, Maria was able to put the ball
away as she has great touch, but Maria’s movement and fitness seemed to
let her down near the end of the match. Kanzy came through in three in
21 minutes, 11/8, 11/5, 11/6.
Kanzy said “I feel ok. I’m really happy that I finally get to play on
the pro circuit as I just graduated from Trinity 3 months ago. It’s
great as I feel more organized and everything is now structured and I
have Chris Walker as my coach. I normally go into my matches with no
expectations, but now it’s my career so I’m shooting high and aiming
far. It was great to get a good start and win 3. I needed to get the
ball away from me and her as she has good hands. I played Nicolette
last week in the US Open so I looking forward to a good match tomorrow.
I also want to thank the MacTaggart family as they are my biggest
supporters.”
The first 7.00pm match had Colette Sultana world #118 from Malta
playing. Colette informed me that there are only 10 squash courts in
the whole country! Colette moved to England when she was16 years old to
study and play squash at Millfield and get coaching with legend Jonah
Barrington. Then she moved to the US and is currently a senior at
Columbia in NYC. Her opponent was Millie Tomlinson from England who is
ranked 39 in the world. Millie graduated from Yale in 2014 and has
since moved back to the UK and lives in Manchester and trains at the
National Squash Center with her coaches David Campion and Chris
Robertson. Millie was just too accurate for her opponent today and she
came through with a strong win of 11/2, 11/3, 11/5 in 20 minutes.
Millie said “I’m happy with how I played, it was a fun match. I felt I
got a good length and stayed in front of her. Both of potential next
opponents are good players and I have never beaten either of them
before so there is no pressure going in.”
There was a very enthusiastic crowd at 7.00pm on the championship court
when home grown Olivia Blatchford, world # 32, played Canada’s Samantha
Cornett who is ranked world #147. Sam has been out with injury for the
last year and this was only her 4th tournament back in action. Olivia
started squash at the Heights Casino and so when she plays here she
seems very comfortable and certainly gets the support. Olivia has been
incredibly close to qualifying the last 2 years so we will see what the
2016 Weymuller brings for her.
This match was by far the closest contested match of the evening. The
match was up and down for both players with the match and control flip
flopping backwards and forwards between both players with only the 3rd
and 5th games being incredibly close. Samantha took a 2-1 lead but
Olivia came into the fourth with huge determination and equalized
taking the fourth 11/5. The fifth game intense with both players vying
for the T and both making some errors to give their opponent chance to
take back the control. It was Olivia that got to 10-8 match ball first,
but Samantha was not giving in and grinded her way back to 10-10.
Olivia gave one last push to get her 3rd match ball and managed to grab
it this time with both hands to take the match 12/10 in the fifth!
11/5, 7/11, 8/11, 11/5, 12/10.
A red faced and very happy Olivia said afterwards “That was brutal. It
was Sam, so it had to be brutal. 1st game I carried out my game plan to
the T then I got lost, and Sam got quite a bit found! I’ve been in the
5th in a tie breaker every single year here without anything in the win
column, so I’m happy to put a tick in there this year! Millie and I
have played tons of times since juniors so it’s going to be another
hard one. I’m happy to fight another day!”
The 7.45pm match on the west court was between France’s Chloe Mesic who
is world # 58 against Welsh Tesni Evan, world #27, who celebrated her
birthday here in Brooklyn this week. Maybe Tesni can give herself the
best birthday gift by qualifying for the main draw of the Carol
Weymuller this week! She certainly started her quest in the correct way
this evening with a decisive win over her opponent in 23 minutes 11/4,
11/3, 11/7.
When I asked Tesni how she felt the match went, she said “It was good
actually. I was hitting good length and it was giving me quite a lot up
the front. Chloe has improved a lot since last time I played her. She
was trying to take it early and be high up the court. It’s going to be
a tough match either way tomorrow. I haven’t played Nouran in years and
I played Salma about a month ago and I won, but it was close.”
The 7.45pm match on the east court was between two budding young
Egyptian players Nouran El Torky and Salma Hany Ibrahim ranked #54 and
#35 in the world respectively. They both played attacking squash with
great variation in their shots, moving each other all over the court.
The first game was incredibly long but Nouran squeezed through 14/12.
Salma managed to control the next 2 games 11/6, 11/5 but the fourth
game was a battle like the first. There was many lets and both players
were getting a little argumentative with the ref as they felt the
pressure of this close competition. Salma eventually came through to
take the match 15/13 in the fourth to make her way to the final of the
qualifying rounds.
When I asked Salma how she felt, she said straight away…”Not good! I
had a terrible start. Nouran has so many good shots if you her any
openings. I’m not happy with how I played but sometimes you just have
to win ugly, as it’s better than losing! Nouran played well and I’m so
glad I managed to take the 4th game after being 10-7 down! I played
Tesni recently in Al Ahram 2 weeks ago and she won in 3 so I’m looking
forward to tomorrow and hoping it’s going to be my turn.”
It was a truly fantastic evening of squash to start off the 2016
Weymuller. Congratulations to all the winners and we look forward to
the final round of the qualifying tomorrow.
We have our Weymuller@Lunch luncheon at noon followed by the first
qualifying match at 1.30pm. The rest of the qualifying matches run from
4.00pm in the evening. We are looking forward to hearing Maria
Toorpakai Wazir talk at our luncheon tomorrow so our members can hear
about her inspiring story. Our members will also have a chance to get
Maria sign their own copy of her book ‘A Different kind of Daughter’.
Good luck to all the players.
