Cornett Beats Blatchford 12-10 in the 5th in Weymuller Qualifying Finals, El Tayeb, Hany Ibrahim & Teran Advance by Linda Elriani October 1, 2014
- Tonight was the last evening of the qualification at the 2014 Carol
Weymuller Open. It’s always an exciting round as it really is all or
nothing…main draw or out! Wow! What matches we had today!! The matches
were so incredibly exciting and a fantastic display of how athletic and
amazingly skilled the top women squash players are.
Our stands were packed
again with keen and inspired members and our juniors where also busy
collecting autographs from the WSA players.
Also today the Carol
Weymuller Open celebrated the 30th anniversary of the WSA with the
Inaugural Weymuller AT-Lunch. The Governors Room at the Heights
Casino was packed with members and Corcoran sponsors and everyone
enjoyed a delicious lunch. It was a great chance to thank Corcoran for
their amazing support of the Carol Weymuller for over 12 years now. I
did an interview with World #2 and Current World Champion Laura Massaro
from England. The group was treated to some great answers by
Laura and the crowd of patrons was given the opportunity to ask some of
their own questions as well.
This was followed by
the first of the qualifying finals matches played at 1.30pm between
Tesni Evans and world # 27 from Wales and world # 39 Samantha Teran
from Mexico. Samantha squeezed a 2-0 lead over Tesni but had to
fight for every point she won. Tesni took a brief injury time out in
the second after tumbling over in the front forehand corner and managed
to push back in the second to take a 9-7 lead, but Samantha kept steady
and came through 11/9.
Tesni started the 3rd
in fine style and started stepping up and using the whole court to move
Samantha around before finishing the rallies with skillful short shots.
Samantha kept pushing and managed to chip off some volleys drops but
Tesni stayed ahead. It took 5 let balls for Tesni to eventually win the
3rd game 11/9!
The fourth game was
back and forth with even points throughout the whole game. There were
lots of hard, long rallies and many lets and body contact while the
players were vying for the control of the T. At 9-9 Samantha was
awarded a stroke to take her to match ball on the first try. The match
was about 1 hour and 20 minutes for a 3-1 match, so it really indicates
how long the rallies were!
Samantha said after
the match “It was hard, a very hard match. Tesni is not a player that
plays one game, she mixes it, the pace, the shots, so you never know
what she is going to do. I tried to win in 3 as I know if it kept going
it would be harder for me, so I pushed in the 3rd, even though I was
9-3 down. Then at 9-9 and I couldn’t quite get to 11! Then the 4th I
thought I would push again and then it was point for point all the way
through. It’s like this sometimes in squash!!! I’m just happy to be
playing here again, especially after my injury. When I played here 2
years ago I didn’t know if I would be back and I’m so pleased I am! I
enjoy being here.”
Samantha Teran plays Raneem El Welily on Friday at 5.30pm.
The first evening
match on court at 5.30pm was a wonderfully tense and colorful match
which brought the crowd on the edge of their seats. It was between
World # 30 Victoria Lust from England and young talented Salma Hany
Ibrahim from Egypt who is world #40. Vicky looked very comfortable,
smooth and concentrated in the first game and managed to keep the ball
so tight and away from Salma so that she couldn’t use her deadly short
game to hurt Vicky. Vicky took the first 11/5.
The next two games
where a real battle for court space and control of the T. Both players
moved so well around the court, retrieving so many great balls with
some splits from Salma and dives from Vicky! Salma clinched the next 2
games 11/9 and 12/10, even though Vicky had had her chances with an 8-5
lead in the 3rd.
In the 4th game Salma
took a 7-4 lead with great deep lengths, followed up by perfect drops
and it looked like she was ready to take the match in 4. Vicky had a
final push and did some amazing gets to Salma’s incredible short shorts
and she forced herself back to take the fourth 11/9 in nail biting
style. The final point of the fourth was won by Vicky retrieving an
almost impossible drop shot in the front backhand and then playing a
perfect cross court drop off of it!!! Vicky did a fist pump as she
walked off the court and we were left wondering what the fifth game
would bring to us.
The fifth, while also
an amazing game, was a little more one sided with Salma’s short game
working wonderfully and Vicky starting to make more unforced and forced
errors, taking Salma through to the main draw, winning the fifth 11/6.
A red faced and happy
Salma very kindly spent her first 10 minutes off the court signing
autographs. After she was done she said “I hope I won’t play tomorrow
and I have a day off! What a long match, long rallies and very tough
opponent! I’m so glad I won the third after being 8-5 down. The only
game I had a lead was the fourth and I lost it! I’m so glad to come
back and win the fifth. The atmosphere was incredible and the audience
was amazing. So happy to be here at the Weymuller and happy to be in
the main draw. The kids did a huge cheer and had big smiles when I came
out of the court. It was great! Thanks so much to my team mates…Omneya,
Nour and Raneem for their support. I don’t know what I would have done
without them!!”
Salma Hany Ibrahim plays Jenny Duncalf tomorrow at 5.45pm.
The next match was
between World # 39 Sam Cornett from Canada and budding young American
Olivia Blatchford who is currently world # 61.This match started off
wonderfully for Sam and she took the first 11/4 pretty quickly playing
steady, tight squash.
Olivia obviously had a
re-think after the first and came out with a new energy and started
taking the ball earlier and keeping it in the four corners so well and
really pulling Samantha off the T where she had happily been in the
first. Olivia was playing the perfect combination of patient and
attacking to take her to a 10/6 lead. Olivia seemed then to start
rushing the points and making unforced errors with several forehand
drops in the tin, which she hadn’t been doing before. Sam kept plugging
away and clawed her way back to 10-10. Olivia had one more chance to
win the game at 11-10 but with an overly ambitious forehand volley drop
into the tin she gave the emphasis back to Sam and she took it with
both hands to take the second 13-11.
When a player is 2-0
down it’s very hard to go back onto the court and still believe you can
win but Olivia certainly did! Olivia was moving beautifully and taking
the ball so early and not giving Sam the chance to control the rallies.
Olivia got the same 10/6 lead that she had had in the second and we
were all left wondering if she would miss her chances like before, but
Sam only won 1 more point before Olivia took the third 11/7.
The fourth game was
perfect for Olivia. She was error free and tactically astute and Sam
started to make some unforced errors and look a little tired,
especially when twisting and turning. Olivia kept the momentum going
and went through to take the fourth game 11/3.
Now it was the fifth
and it certainly looked like Olivia had the tactics worked out to win
the match if she could keep the focus that she had in the fourth. The
fifth started off very evenly with both players digging depth on their
resources. Then with a combination of some tins from Sam and a great
hold and cross court winners by Olivia, she got herself to 10-7 match
ball. This would be the first time that Olivia would have qualified for
the Carol Weymuller Open, played at the club where she started to play
squash many years ago. The support from the local crowd was amazing
too. It was almost as if Olivia suddenly couldn’t think about anything
else but the chance she had to win and she lost her previous focus and
game plan. Sam seemed to recognize this and really stepped up the court
as if she decided that if Olivia was going to walk away triumphant,
that she was going to have to really win that last point, as Sam wasn’t
going to give it to her. Sam’s focus was the best it had been all the
match, right when she needed it most and she went straight through from
8-10 to win the match 12-10 in the fifth!!!
It was an amazing match and almost heartbreaking to see either of them loose after such an amazing effort and wonderful squash.
Olivia was obviously
incredibly disappointed to have had three match balls and not been able
to capitalize on them, but from my point of view it was the best I’d
ever seen her play and her improvements since last year are immense.
She was fit, fast, accurate and as always, a good sport. I think we
will see much more great squash coming from Olivia in the very near
future…watch this space!
A very happy and
relieved looking Sam said after the match “I hope that I play in 2 days
time!!!! I’m really happy with how I started the match and really
impressed with how I finished it!!! I went into the fifth game with
high energy after a couple of sloppy games and quality shots from Liv
and it paid off”.
Sam Cornett plays Omneya Abel Kawy tomorrow at 5.00pm.
Our last match of the
evening, but certainly not least was world # 8 Nour El Tayeb and
American and world # 38 Latasha Khan. Latasha played a creative and
tactically astute game, especially in the first where Nour only scraped
through 12/10. Latasha has such great skills and her years of
experience show when she plays, but she couldn’t stop an on-form Nour
from controlling the middle and moving her around the court so well.
Nour won the second and third games 11/5 and 11/7 respectively and goes
through to play Madeline Perry tomorrow at 5.00pm.
Nour said after her
match “I’m very happy to have made the main draw and to be back here in
Brooklyn with my second family (the Mendez’s).I look forward to
tomorrow’s match”.
Congratulations to all
the players that qualified. All the matches were such great quality
squash and everyone thoroughly enjoyed them. The first round matches
start tomorrow night at 5.00pm and we are all very much looking forward
to watching some more of the amazing squash.
Tonight’s results of the finals of the qualifying are as follows….
