British Open Women's Quarters: Sherbini & Weleily Upsets Guarantee Egyptian Finalist
by Steve Cubbins
King-David, Sherbini-Au, courtesy britishopensquash
May 18, 2012 - It ended up being a late night at the O2 Arena on British Open quarter-finals day, with drama at the beginning and at the end.
The afternoon session saw the first three matches all go the way of Egypt, with Ramy Ashour beating Amr Shabana in an eventful but quick five-setter, and Nour El Sherbini and Raneem El Weleily both springing upsets to guarantee and Egyptian women's finalist.
James Willstrop and Nick Matthew both stayed on course for another British Open showdown, while Laura Massaro made it a hat-trick of English wins to set up a semi-final with Nicol David.
The last match of the day was the longest and the tensest, as Peter Barker came from 2/1 down to beat second seed Gregory Gaultier and ensure an English men's finalist.
Sherbini and El Weleily upsets guarantee Egyptian finalist
Sixteen year old Egyptian Nour El Sherbini continued her winning run with a five game upset victory over Annie Au to reach the semi-finals. It was a game of short rallies, lots of winners and swings of fortune but it was the reigning British Junior Open champion who prevailed, to the delight of her entourage.
"My game is all about dropping from everywhere," she said, "but Annie does that too so she was trying to slow it down every rally while I was trying to speed it up! I lost to her last time we played, I'm so happy to beat her this time and be in the semis of a great tournament like the British Open"
Once Raneem El Weleily had taken four point in a row to win a tight first game 12/10, she romped ahead in the next two games with second seed Jenny Duncalf unable to cope with the barrage of winners coming her way, although the Englishwoman helped her opponent along the way with some crucial unforced errors when seemingly in control of rallies.
"I probably went for too many winners," said a delighted winner, "and I was lucky that she made a few errors too. I'm so proud of Nour El Sherbini and so pleased to be playing her in the semi-final!"
Massaro storms into semis
Having had three game balls to take the first only to lose it 11/13,, Laura Massaro came back out firing to take the second game of her match with Camille Serme 11/3, and then got the better of two tight games winning them both 11/9 to move into the semi-finals.
"That was hard work," she admitted, "I felt I was unlucky to lose the first, so I had to keep pumping myself up for the rest of the match, it's easy to get flat and you just can't afford o do that on this court."
David draws the Kiwi sting
Just as LJ Anjema had in the previous match, Joelle King came out of the blocks with a vengeance to take the first game off the world champion. But, just as Nick Matthew had, Nicol David too weathered the storm, and without any panic or undue fuss, slowly but surely drew the sting from her opponent, and in David's case so clinical was the process that come the fourth game it looked as though King could play all night without getting another point, ad David ran out the 8/11, 11/3, 11/4, 11/0 winner.
"I was expecting her to come out with a good start," said David, "she was bound to be fired up after her win over Rachael yesterday. "It's sure to be a pretty exciting match against Laura in the semis tomorrow, the crowd will be on her side but hopefully I'll have some support too!"
Quarterfinal Results:
[1] Nicol David (Mas) bt [12] Joelle King (Nzl) 8/11, 11/3, 11/4, 11/0 (45m)
[3] Laura Massaro (Eng) bt [10] Camille Serme (Fra) 11/13, 11/3, 11/9, 11/9
[16] Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt [7] Annie Au (Hkg) 9/11, 11/7, 11/6, 9/11, 11/6 (56m)
[5] Raneem El Weleily (Egy) bt [2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) 12/10, 11/7, 11/5 (27m)
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