QF: Hania clinches the crucial first game against Salma

Posted on by

[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-0 Salma Hany (EGY)  13-11, 11-6, 11-4 (37m)

During her previous match, Salma had a little scare with her damaged knee. She will have to have a few more exams, but the fact that she is in pain again in the same place as the injury which kept her away from squash for weeks was certainly worrying.

She needed the first game. She had her chances, keeping in tough score wise the whole game, 6/8 down, levelling 8/8, then fighting two games balls to level yet again at 10/10, playing her sublime squash, and had one chance to take the opener at 11/10.

But Hania felt the danger and just found her best squash at that point, taking the game 13/11 in 14m.

Salma never was able to impose her squash from that point on, although she never gave up or let go of any point. She will be disappointed with her loss but surely, cannot be disappointed with her week here. She showed where she is at now, and she is there to stay…

Andrew Shoukry, coach to Salma

Salma has been playing really well lately, for the last couple of months whereas she is coming back from a knee injury, that took her 4 months out of the Tour.

Luckily, she got back into it, with the good results last week in Manchester, where she took the title.

In this tournament alone, she beat Nele, above her ranking, Siva, above her ranking, it’s her third time reaching the quarters in Gouna in a row.

To play at that kind of level, you have to take the chances you are given, in the first game, she had the chance to clinch the game, and it could have made it tougher for Hania.

I’m really happy with her performance, we still have a few more tournaments coming up. I feel she is now playing top 6 level with the performances she has produced. She is giving a tough time even to the top players.

It’s going to take us a bit more work to be consistently compete with those top 4, or 5. Very happy with the results.

Hania : “Today I played against Salma who I haven’t played for so long. She had two great wins this event and has been playing so well recently. All credit to her for the way she has come back after her injury, she was firing it in and really took it to me then I got used to how she was playing and from there I could take control.

“It’s the latter stages of the event now so you need to control your emotions but also fire yourself up to be ready. The opponents get harder and harder so you need energy to battle through those matches and especially so if you’re not playing at your best.

“I’ll prepare just like any other match. I think I need to prepare myself mentally more than anything but physically I will have a rest, prepare my body for a battle and go again on Thursday.”