Sobhy, El Welily, El Sherbini, David, Kawy, Massaro, Serme & Gohar Advance to Women's Worlds Quarters by Sean Reuthe photos mroslanhisam.com
April 27, 2016
- Egyptian World No.2 Nour El Sherbini and current World Champion Nicol
David will go head-to-head in a highly-anticipated quarter-final battle
in the Naza PSA Women’s World Championship after they claimed
respective second round victories over Annie Au and Alison Waters in
Bukit Jalil’s National Squash Centre, Malaysia.
The in-form
El Sherbini, who defeated David en route to winning last month’s
prestigious Allam British Open, dropped her first game of the
tournament against Au but still managed to dispatch the World No.10
with an 11-5, 11-6, 6-11, 11-3 scoreline.
"Every match is
different than the others and it depends on the day, how everyone’s
feeling and the mood," said El Sherbini, as she prepares to maintain
her four-match unbeaten streak over David.
"Nicol is playing
here in Malaysia in her home town and everyone is going to come and
support her. I’m just going to play and try to do my best and I’m sure
it’s going to be a tough one.
"I’m going to give it
everything I have, it’s the biggest tournament and everyone wants to do
their best so I’m just going to give it 100 per cent and hopefully it
will be a good match."
David, meanwhile, rode a wave of fervent home support to dispatch England’s Alison Waters in straight games.
Set
in the aptly named Nicol David Arena, the match began in an attritional
style with both players trading cautious blows in a bid to find a chink
in each other’s armour. David, who beat 2007 winner Rachael Grinham in
the opening round, increased the tempo mid-game and Waters struggled to
respond as the Penangite took the first game, before she controlled
proceedings in the second to double her lead, with a tinned shot from
Waters handing her a two-game advantage.
Waters came out
fighting at the beginning of the third and final game and marched into
a 5-1 lead as she looked to be on the verge of launching a strong
comeback, with a particularly gruelling 50 shot plus rally going in the
World No.11’s favour. However, David picked up the pace again and
roared back to take the next 10 points in a sensational ending to a
38-minute encounter, courtesy of a 11-9, 11-3, 11-5 margin of victory.
“You need to be on it, every point, and that’s how I felt today so I was very pleased with my performance,” said David.
“Every
player wants to start well and get in there first because it always
gives you that extra bit of confidence. Playing Alison as well, you
have to be on it and you can’t give her any confidence to play her
game. I really dug deep and I played the right shots and had the right
tactics at the right time so I’m really pleased to come through 3-0.
“I’m
really pleased to play the way I did today. If I can bring this forward
to tomorrow then I will be pushing the quarter-finals as best I can.”
World
No.1 Laura Massaro is the sole Englishwoman to progress to the last
eight after a virtuoso display against India’s Joshna Chinappa.
The
tournament top seed was in sharp form and put Chinappa under a barrage
of pressure throughout a whirlwind three-game salvo that saw Massaro
take it 11-3, 11-6, 11-3.
“I wanted to go out there and make a really fast start and try and be positive from the beginning,” said Massaro.
“I
wanted to get in front and I felt like, in the first round, I was a
little bit passive to start with. It was just about trying to get out
and start strong, keep my intensity quite high and I think I probably
set a record for the amount of fist pumps considering the length of
time that I was on court for. I was making sure that I was there for
the entire match and that I didn’t let her get up at any point.”
There
will be four Egyptian representatives in the quarter-final of a World
Championship for the first time in the tournament’s history after
Raneem El Welily, Omneya Abdel Kawy and Nouran Gohar all won. El Welily
will take on Amanda Sobhy, who dispatched Nour El Tayeb, while Kawy
will face Massaro. French No.1 Camille Serme is the other
quarter-finalist thanks to her win against Sarah-Jane Perry and she
will take on Gohar in a repeat of their British Open semi-final fixture.
Results - Second Round: Naza PSA Women’s World Championship
