R2: Farida 3-1 Hana

Farida Mohamed (Egy) 3-1 Hana Moataz (Egy) 5-11, 11-7, 11-9, 13-11 (43m)

Not the most relaxed of matches, with at some point Hana’s coach, Omar Abdel Aziz, being warned for descent. Not sure what happened as I was focusing on my writing at the time. I only saw bits of the match, a lot of decisions, arguments with the ref, and a huge shout from Farida at the end looking at Omar.

Farida

Hana is a really good friend of mine, I usually enjoy playing with her, she is so nice. But your coaches have an impact on you. I played her a lot and she never was that aggressive toward me on court, so I put the blame on the coach!

I was not impressed with Omar speaking with the ref as he did, on PSA, it’s not a professional attitude. It was really weird. I came out of court, my coach Vito told me to stay calm on court (Ahmed Shohayeb) and I was able to stay focused on court as I was calm, I was able to focus o nmy game, and I was actually smiling at the end, which was nice.

I’m glad I got through this, it was more of a mental game than anything else really. There was a lot of stopping, a lot of talking. In the first game, I felt the calls were a bit inconsistent, I knew how to deal with this bit, and I am just glad I was able to focus at the end.

I’m playing Tinne here at the Centre the day after tomorrow. I played against her a lot of times, we played in the final of Squash on Fire, I was not at my best, a lot was happening in my life then, but now I am fine, I’m ready now, and as it’s the last tournament, I’m trying to push as hard as I can.