El Sherbini, Serme Advance to $50K Weymuller Semis, Report by Linda Elriani
photo Reynold Chan
October 22, 2016
Hi Everyone,
Tonight is quarter finals night of the 2016 Carol Weymuller Open. The
quarter finals night is always my favorite night at tournaments because
it's four extremely high quality matches all in one afternoon. 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 12.00pm-1.00pm
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 Jenny Duncalf, Donna
Urquhart, Samantha Teran, Christine Nunn and Nicolette Fernandes for
taking the time to play with them. They all gave up part of their
afternoon to play with our juniors and the kids all had such an amazing
time (including my son Jack!). The PSA women are so great at giving
back and spreading the joy and love of squash to others.
Today’s quarter finals had 7 different countries being represented
which shows the diversity in this great sport. Egypt, USA, India,
England, France, New Zealand, Hong Kong are all strong squash nations
and we are very lucky to have all these wonderful players travel from
around the globe to play in our event.
First up on the championship court was giant killer Olivia Blatchford,
who is the world #32 and the only qualifier to make it through to the
quarter finals. Her opponent needs no introduction, the world #1 and
the youngest ever world champion, Nour El Sherbini! Olivia and Nour
have played four times before but not in the last year and it’s clear
that Olivia has made huge improvements recently and she could obviously
go out there to play with no pressure.
First game started well for Nour with her controlling the T and finding
the perfect spaces on the court to put her opponent under maximum
pressure. If Olivia left any shots loose then Nour would just slot them
away. Soon Nour was 6-2 up. Olivia didn’t stop fighting and trying to
impose her game and it started playing dividends and she clawed her way
back from 3-6 down to take the lead at 7-6. Nour made a few errors and
it was almost as if she has so much fun going for her shots that she
tries them out when she has a few points lead. This can however
sometimes back fire and your opponent can capitalize on the error or
tactical weaknesses. Olivia was moving great and really making the
effort to take the ball really early, pushing up the court and putting
Nour under some considerable pressure. Olivia certainly hit her own
share of incredible winners too. But with all Olivia’s great efforts,
at 8-9 Nour put her foot on the gas and went through in one hand to
take the first game 11/9.
The second game was all Nour. Whist Olivia tried her hardest to reapply
some of the pressure she had found in the first, Nour just never looked
rushed and she absorbed any pressure and stayed relaxed and smooth in
her play. Nour played an amazing game with no errors, tight lengths and
wonderful tactical choices. It was tough for Olivia to stop the rampage
of great squash coming her way. Nour won the second 11/4.
The third game followed the same route as the second. Olivia managed to
hang in and stay even at 3-3 but Nour’s control and error free squash
was hard to stop. Nour went through to take the third and final game
11/4, but Olivia really did herself proud and kept pushing hard and
staying positive the whole time. Nour won 11/9, 11/4, 11/4 in 25
minutes.
After her match when I asked how she felt, Nour said, “Better. Playing
better and getting used to the court more and found my shots more. I
felt like the 1st was quite close and it was very important to win that
game, as I don’t know how it would go it I had lost it. Last time I
played Olivia I lost game and I didn’t want to lose it this time. I
found my length more and my shots and I was trying to attack more”.
Second match on court was the between England’s world #11 Sarah-Jane
Perry, who is very in form at the moment, getting her career best PSA
win over legend Nicol David last month and Joshna Chinappa from India
who is world #13.They have not played for a couple of years and have
only ever played twice before. Their head to head is 1-1 so it was
going to be interesting to see who could move forward in the tally.
The matches took a little time for the players to settle in but once it
did it was SJ that took control. She kept the rallies short and
controlled the speed completely, keeping the rallies slower than the
pace that Joshna likes to play at. SJ went through to win the first
11-6.
SJ came out in the second and really managed to keep her game plan
going. Joshna tried very hard to impose her game but to no avail. SJ’s
lengths were just that bit deeper and tighter and therefore giving
herself some great opening to use her accurate drops. SJ was telling
herself to drop in between points and this tactic certainly worked
today as she played a few winning drops from the back corner as well as
from the T.
We were left wondering if Joshna could change this game around and
start to use some of her amazing pace and kills or would SJ manage to
keep up this amazing controlled squash?
SJ did an even better job of following her game plan in the third. She
was so steady, controlled and accurate. She never seemed rushed or off
balance. Joshna ran out of ideas as every time she tried something SJ
came back with interest. SJ went through to take the third 11/3 and the
match 11/6,11/6,11/3 in 22 minutes.
A happy SJ said after her match “I’m really pleased with that, to get
off in 3 against such a skillful player. We’ve only played twice before
and it is 1-1 in wins. Twice in 5 years isn’t very often!! It was nice
to stick to my game plan so well. I need to follow my game plan extra,
extra well for tomorrow. More than I did at the US Open when I played
Nour, but I’m looking forward to it.”
The third match of the evening was between the 2014 Weymuller champion
Alison Waters from England against Kiwi Joelle King who is currently
world #9. These players have been competing against each other since
2010 and have played an impressive 9 times with Alison just up on the
head to head by 5 to 4. They are both very strong and hard hitting
players that like to take the ball early so we knew we were in for an
exciting match. This was by far the closest contested match of the
night lasting well over an hour.
The first game started really well for Ali and she managed to control
the T and volley well and play just the way she likes to. Joelle looked
like she wasn’t moving fast and efficiently like her normal self and
Ali managed to dominate more because of this. Ali took the first quite
comfortably 11-4.
In the second Joelle came out with much more purpose and poise. She
managed to hold the T more and keep in front of Ali to get a nice 4-1
lead. Alison got her length a little deeper again which forced Joelle
back and pulled back to 5-5. Joelle took control again, she stepped up,
volleyed more and looked to attack in the front whenever she could. Ali
seemed to lose her focus and purpose on her shots and couldn’t get the
T back. Joelle went on to win the second 11/6.
The third game was closely contested all the way through with no one
managing to pull away and control the game like in the previous two.
Both players played some wonderful winning short shorts when they were
on, but also played some unforced errors at other times. It was
interesting to see who could bring out their best at the right times.
It was Ali this time and she squeezed the third game 11/9.
The fourth game flipped back to Joelle taking more control of the T
than Ali and she managed to hit some fantastic shots including a
disguised backhand boast to give herself a 7-3 lead. Ali pushed on and
made some leverage but Joelle was placing the ball so nicely and moving
Ali all around the court. Joelle went on to win the fourth 11/7 to
equalize the match.
We were left wondering who would bring their A game into the fifth, as
clearly whoever did could win! Ali started solidly and even though she
got a small 3-0 lead, soon Joelle was back into the swing of it and
evened things up at 3-3. From then on it was so close back and forth,
with both players vying for the control of the T and trying to force
openings or errors from each other. It was even until 6-6 and then
there were some quick points lost by Joelle due to a stoke against her,
a serve that hit her and a no let!! This could not have come at a
better time for Ali as it had been such a closely fought fifth game up
until then. This time Joelle didn’t manage to turn it around and Ali,
who really managed to play the big points so well, came through to win
the fifth 11/7 and the match 11/4, 6/11, 11/9, 7/11, 11/7.
Ali said afterward her match “We tend to have big battles and so I’m
pleased to win this one. I was just trying to keep active in my
footwork and keep my body language positive. Really pleased to have won
and onto the semi’s tomorrow!”
Last up on the championship court, but certainly not least was Hong
Kong’s world # 12 Annie Au against Camille Serme world #7 from France.
Camille is fresh out of her amazing US Open win so everyone was
particularly excited to see her play. Annie and Camille played their
first competitive match against each other back in 2005 as juniors at
the British Junior Open in the GU17! They are 5-5 in overall head to
head (including when they were juniors) and here they are still
competing 11 years later. They played last week at the US Open were
Camille won 3-0 but I’m sure that Annie will want to her own back!
It was fantastic first game for Camille. She was sharp, alert and much
more relaxed than yesterday. Camille had mentioned in her interview
yesterday that it was tough to get used to different court conditions
after playing in the cooler glass court with a lower tin at the US Open
last week, but today she looked like she had adjusted completely! Annie
showed glimpses of brilliance with a couple of incredible forehand
flick winners that no could read let alone Camille, but this wasn’t
enough to stop the charging force that Camille brought on the court
today. Camille won the first 11/3.
Camille started the second with the same wonderful squash and went 5-0
and then 8-3 up in no time. Annie then gave a big push and there were
three points of consecutive great squash with nice changes of
direction, whipping the ball cross courts out of Camille’s reach. Annie
clawed back some points but Camille’s dying drives into the corners
caused Annie to stay back on the court and Camille, with the help of a
back wall nick, managed to take the second game 11/7.
The third game was a repeat of the second with Camille starting the
game by executing her game plan to the T and finding her targets in the
back so perfectly. At 5-1 up it looked like Annie was out of the game
but suddenly she had a spell where she showed us exactly why she is
world #12. Her lengths got deeper and tighter and Camille started to
look just a little bit shaky and rushed a few shots. After managing to
tie at 6-6 Annie got a no let and this gave Camille chance to change up
the rhythm and regain the control. There were some lovely long rallies
but in the end Camille superior squash over ruled and she went through
to win the match 11/3, 11/7, 11/8 in 29 minutes.
Camille said afterwards “It felt the same last week at the US Open,
when I would be ahead in the games and then Annie would push back, so
it felt good to have a gap between our points. I’m happy with the
conditions, its cooler today so I could find my length better. It’s
going to be a good battle tomorrow. Ali had a tough one today so we’ll
see how she can handle it physically. I’m just trying to find the extra
mentally. As I said with the 5 matches last week and now more, it’s
going to be all about the mental side.”
Here ends yet another amazing evening of squash. We really have been
treated to some wonderful matches and the players are such incredible
athletes. We can't wait for the semi finals tomorrow at 2.30pm and
3.15pm to see who will make it through to the Weymuller Open final on
Monday night.
After the completion of the quarterfinals we had our new
Weymuller@Dinner event, which a wonderful success with delicious food
and great company. It was a very special and fun way to celebrate the
Weymuller week.
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 Saturday's results.
2.00pm Nour El Sherbini beat Olivia Blatchford 11/9, 11/4, 11/4.
2.45pm Sarah-Jane Perry beat Joshna Chinappa 11/6, 11/6, 11/3.
