David And El Welily To Meet In Wadi Degla Open Semi-finals by Nathan Clarke
photos PSA
November 1, 2016 -
The semi-finals of the Women's Wadi Degla Open, the PSA W50 tournament
taking place in Cairo, Egypt, will see former World No.1s Nicol David
and Raneem El Welily go head-to-head on Egyptian soil for the first
time since the 2014 Women's World Championship - when David saved four
match balls to win her eighth world crown and deny El Welily an
historic win.
Since that win David has won just one from four encounters with El
Welily and, with the duo currently sitting at No.4 and No.5 on the
World Rankings, they came through their respective encounters with Nour
El Tayeb and Donna Urquhart to set up what promises to be a highly
competitive last four battle.
David has failed to reach a final on her last nine PSA World Tour
outings but put in an impressive performance to come from behind,
edging a decisive second game 12-10, to see off El Tayeb in a victory
that will bolster her confidence as she seeks to rediscover her
title-winning form in Egypt.
"I had to really step up and stay composed with that I needed to do today," said David.
"She has flair when she has time and is really hard to read. I needed
to enforce my game, I needed that second game to push me through to the
end.
"My consistency paid of today and I needed to stay in there and work as
hard as I could, because you don't want to be staying in there too
long. I'm just pleased to win 3-1."
El Welily also secured her semi-final place courtesy of a 3-1 win,
recovering from dropping the second game against Urquhart to come
through.
"I had a mental crack, a storm of a bad attitude that I was trying to control," said El Welily.
"Luckily I managed to get over my demons inside and get the win. Next
match I'm hoping I can play as well as I played the last time against
Nicol.
"It's all about containing myself and my attitude. I'm going to try to
get the best out of the rest day tomorrow and get ready for the match. "
Draw - Quarter-finals: (Bottom Half) To Be Played November 2
[Q] Salma Hany Ibrahim (EGY) v [Q] Tesni Evans (WAL)
[Q] Mariam Metwally (EGY) v [2] Nouran Gohar (EGY)
