Weymuller 1st Round Top Half Report
by Linda Elriani

photo Reynold Chan

October 19, 2017

Tonight was the 1st round of the 2017 Carol Weymuller Main draw. The top half of the draw played their matches this evening and the bottom half plays tomorrow.  Three of the four qualifiers randomly ended up in the top half of the draw. There certainly were some amazing and closely contested matches tonight, with the first two going down to the wire in the fifth.


First match on the championship court was between the world #8 and 2014 Weymuller Champion, Alison Waters from England, qualifier and world #23 Mariam Metwally. Alison and Mariam have not played a full match before today, as Mariam had to retire in their match earlier this year at the British Open, so it was going to be interesting to see them play their first match against one another. Like some of the other matches, Alison, who is now 33 years old, has many years of experience over the young 20 year old Mariam, but maybe Mariam will have some tricks up her sleeve for the tour veteran.

 The match started fast and furious and both players putting in their fair share of great shots and tight drives. The points went evenly back and forth through the game until Mariam squeezed the first 12/10. There started to be some problems with Mariam clearing the ball and not letting Ali through to play her shots and the referee didn’t seem to be helping to fix this problem.

In the second Ali came out on fire and she was pouncing on Mariam’s premature short shots and counter attacking wonderfully. Ali went through to win the second 11/4.

The third and fourth games were almost the mirror of the first and second, with Mariam clinching the third 12/10 and then Ali coming out strongly in the fourth and winning 11/6. The only difference in these last two games was that Mariam looked to be getting more tired and consequently wasn’t clearing well and was also bumping into Ali constantly. It made for a very scrappy and physical match and also made it very difficult for Ali to play the straight shots that she wanted to play to keep Mariam in the corners, as it seemed to create more collisions and problems.

In the fifth Ali started well and it looked like she was going to repeat her previous quality play from the second and fourth games and got a 6-3 lead. Mariam was going short too soon and didn’t seem to want to put the work into getting Ali into the back. Mariam then hit the most amazing forehand cross court nick that rolled along the floor. It was almost as if this gave her a new lease of life and she started coming back strong. There were lots of lets and no lets and at 8-7 Mariam literally shoved Ali off her feet. Ali tried to keep her focus but Mariam was getting more confident by each point and she came through to take the fifth game 11/8 in a very long 55 min match 12/10, 4/11, 12/10, 6/11, 11/8.


Second match on the championship court India’s #1 player and world #13 Joshna Chinappa  against Salma Hany Ibrahim from Egypt, who had a big win last week at the US Open beating world # 7 Sarah-Jane Perry. Salma’s ranking is world #19 and Joshna and Salma have played six times before in PSA events with Joshna is 6-0 up in the head to head, so I’m sure that Salma wanted to change this statistic!

This match was epic and exciting and was the longest match of the evening. It started out with both players hitting lengths with great pace as they settled into the match. The points stayed pretty even but Joshna seemed to have the edge on the control of the rallies and a little more precision and purpose. Joshna came through 11/9 in the first.

In the second, third and fourth games both players were moving each other all over the court and the rallies were long with some wonderfully creative shot choices. It was closely contested that neither player could afford to lose their focus even for a second. Salma just won the second 13/11 and then Joshna squeezed the third in an amazingly long game that went to 16/14!

We were left thinking that Joshna may now have upper hand and be very confident having just clinched the third, but instead Salma came out on fire and took a 6-0 lead before Joshna could settle into the game again. Salma took the fourth 11/5.

In the fifth it was Joshna that came out with the focus and hit a series of delightful winners to get a 9-5 and 10-8 lead! Salma seemed to suddenly relax and start to play better than ever and Joshna got a little tense. With a couple of winners and a stroke to Salma she evened up the score to 10-10. Salma left it all on the court and even though Joshna played some amazing squash Salma retrieved everything with some truly athletic lunges. Salma eventually got her first match ball at 11/10 which she won on the first try to give her a place in the quarter finals on Saturday.

Salma won 3-2 in 72 minutes…9/11, 13/11, 14/16, 11/5, 12/10.

An incredibly happy Salma said "I’m so relieved! I finally beat Joshna in the 6th time!!I’ve never beaten her!! First of all when I went on the court I was so relaxed, and I wasn’t sure how my body would carry me and I thought it’s not the end of the world to lose for the sixth time! When I was 9-1 down in the first game I thought just enjoy and stay a little bit longer in my favorite tournament. When the game started going on, I told myself I’m going to win this time only by fighting! Every time I play well, she plays well but it’s going to happen only this time if I could fight till the end. In the fifth game when I was 9-5 and 10-8 down, I remembered my match with Laura when I was 9-6 down and I kept believing that something might happen. She might hit the tin and I might get lucky and in a few points. That’s what I did when Joshna was 10-8 up. My mind wasn’t thinking and I just played and kept believing I could still make and I did!! I have to play Mariam and she is my childhood compatriot from 9 years old and I’m just glad I’m playing one more day in my second home!”
 

The next match on was between Egyptian and world #14 Nour El Tayeb against qualifier Milou van der Heijden from the Netherlands, who is currently ranked 41 in the world. Nour’s current world ranking definitely doesn’t reflect her recent form as she came away from Philadelphia last week as the US Open Champion beating the world #1, #3 and #4 to win this prestigious title. Not only did she win the title but her husband, Ali Farag, also had the tournament of his life and won too! Milou is also playing way above her ranking this week beating the world #39 and the world #24 to qualify.

Nour played very precise and accurate squash this evening and managed to keep the ball well into the corners and changed the direction effectively which forced some errors from Milou and worked her really hard. Milou tried to use her great lob to change the pace and regain the T, but Nour was just to precise and didn’t let up on her constant pressure. Nour’s movement was so graceful and she looked like she was gliding around the court. Milou put in 100% effort in her bid to stop Nour dominating, but Nour seemed to be flying on confidence from her big win last week and some went through to win 3-0, 11/6, 11/4, 11/3 in 24 minutes.

A smiling Nour said afterwards "I was very nervous before this match with huge expectations after last week. I had to tell myself that it was just another match. Milou had two good wins in the qualification and so I knew she was playing well. I was very excited and nervous to play another match and I’m just trying to enjoy playing and put the results aside. If Nour wins her match tonight and we play tomorrow, she is still #1 and it’s going to another exciting match with a good friend.”


The last match on the championship court was an all Egyptian affair with world #1 and defending Weymuller champion, Nour El Sherbini playing qualifier Mayar Hany who is world #27. They have never played a PSA match before it would be interesting to see how they matched up.

The match started fast and furious with Nour keeping the pace up and moving the Mayar around the court nicely. The first was relatively one sided to Nour 11/4.

In the second game, Mayar managed to find her length and get the T and use her precise short shots more often. Coupled with quite a few uncharacteristic errors from Nour, Mayar went 8-6 and then 9-8 up. Nour then dug in and tightened up her squash and pushed to even up the score to 9-9. It is very often at these times in a match when the more experienced player comes through as they play the big points so well.  This is exactly what Nour did and she went on to win the second 11/9.

The third game was back to Nour’s usual dominating squash and her movement looked the best it had the whole match.  In this game Nour went 7-1 up before her first error popped in. Mayar didn’t manage to get the T back as she had in the second and lost the third 11/5. Nour won 3-0 in 26 minutes…11/4, 11/9, 11/5.

When I asked Nour after her match how she felt, she said “Good, not bad! Mayar is not an easy first round, she’s one of the young Egyptian players who is up and coming fast! I’m feeling good it’s the first round and it’s hard to mentally get back after a week of being here since the US Open. Nour just beat me last week so hopefully its revenge time!”


So here ends another incredibly exciting night of squash at The Heights Casino. The quality of the matches tonight was fantastic. It’s always inspiring to see these amazing athletes grace our Casino courts.
We all look forward to the second half of the first round starting at 5.30pm tomorrow night.

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US Open Squash champ Nour El Tayeb talks about the 2017 Carol Weymuller Memorial Squash Tournament, held at The Heights Casino in Brooklyn, and a potential quarter-final clash against compatriot and world no. 1 Nour El Sherbini – by Casino tennis pro and reporter Nate Chura


Summary of Thursday's 1st round (split first round) results….

5.30pm Mariam Metwally beat Alison Waters 3-2…12/10, 4/11, 12/10, 6/11, 11/8.

6.15pm Salma Hany Ibrahim beat Joshna Chinappa 3-2…9/11, 13/11, 14/16, 11/5, 12/10.

7.00pm Nour El Tayeb beat Milou van der Heijden 3-0…11/6, 11/4, 11/3.

7.45pm Nour El Sherbini beat Mayar Hany 3-0…11/4, 11/9, 11/5.


Friday is the second half of the first round matches...

5.30pm Annie Au VS Nele Gilis

6.15pm Joelle King VS Millie Tomlinson

7.00pm Victoria Lust VS Emilia Soini

7.45pm Raneem El Welily VS Dipika Pallikal Karthik