16-Year-Old Nour El Sherbini Reaches British Open Final, To Face Nicol David
by Steve Cubbins
photos courtesy britishopensquash
May 19, 2012 - Nour El Sherbini continued her remarkable run as she beat fellow Egyptian Raneem El Weleily to become the youngest-ever British Open women's finalist.
One of them was sure to become the first-ever Egyptian women's finalist, and it was the 16-year-old Shernini who took the first step, taking a nip and tuck first game 14/12. A five minute delay as Nour had the knee that started bleeding yesterday bandaged again, and El Weleily, 23, started the second well and struck back to level 11/7.
Sherbini raced through the third 11/4 in just four minutes, firing in those drops and volley drops she loves so much.
The fourth was close all the way, but from 9-all two unforced errors came from Raneem's racket and Sherbini was in the final.
"I'm so tired after that match! There was a lot of pressure but I just had to relax and try to play my game, and I managed to feel very relaxed on court, my game was working well.
"Now I'll just try to believe I'e really won, enjoy the function tonight and get ready for the final tomorrow ..."
-Nour El Sherbini
"I can’t find any words, that’s good sign, isn’t it… No words can describe what I feel…"
-Atef El Sherbini (father)
"Too much pressure on myself, but she played really well, she had me tight. I found it difficult today to put the ball to the back, and I couldn’t play high either, as she is tall and was volleying everything. I just couldn’t play my game today.
"It’s not a good day for me, but a great day for Egypt…."
-Raneem El Weleily
David through to a fifth final
Sherbini's opponent in the final will be in familiar territory, after top seed Nicol David beat the last remaining English hope Laura Massaro in straight games to move into her fifth British Open final.
The Malaysian seemed to be able to control the pace of her opponent and the match, taking the first game with a run of points from 3-all. The second game was much more contested, although it was still the World Champion who seemed to be dictating the pace of the game, and this time she pulled clear from 5-all to double her advantage 11/9., Nicol was in charge from the outset of the third, Laura did a few "c'mon" self-admonishments, but to no avail as Nicol kept it tight, kept it controlled, and closed it out 11/4.
"At the start, yes, I was a bit nervous, I had to get the feel, you want to stay strong, but you try and force it, and the more you force it, the less you get it. After playing about 3, 4 points, I just played, let it happened, and it went into place.
"Laura fills the court when she plays, and she was getting very comfortable with the height of the court, and I knew she was going to slow the pace down. So I had to make things happen, and make sure I speeded it up. Then she started to go for too much, I got my confidence from there, and build on it.
"Also, she had a lot of hard matches to get to the semis, so maybe she was getting a bit tired in the end. But she has had some much experience playing against me, she knows how to take advantage of my loss of focus moments, so I was conscious that every point, every rally, every shot was important. Finally, everything came together."
-Nicol David
Allam British Open Semi-Finals, O2 Arena, London
[16] Nour El Sherbini (Egy) bt [5] Raneem El Weleily (Egy) 14/12, 7/11, 11/4,11/9 (40m)
[1] Nicol David (Mas) bt [3] Laura Massaro (Eng) 11/5, 11/8, 11/4 (39m)
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