R1: Farida upsets Rowan 3-0
Farida Mohamed (EGY) 3-0 Rowan Elaraby (EGY) 12-10, 11-3, 11-6 (27m)
The mysteries of Round One with the new system. Is it fair on the players? I don’t think so. But hey, what do I know.
So we have side to side two matches, that could should be quarters… SJ/Gina, and Rowan/Farida.
Farida is a changed player. She dedicates her win to her coach, Ahmed Effat, with whom she has been working for a very short time but who seems to have had a big influence.
The first game is paramount, 10/8 Farida who is playing sharp low kills all over the court that Rowan struggles to read in time to get to them in a correct position. A good response from Tinkerbell, and it’s 10/10, but it’s not enough, and Farida is now 12/10 up, after a few calls too many.
The second is the turning point. Two no lets against the higher ranked, and she loses completely confidence in the game, in her squash, feeling that she cannot get to the ball and therefore, cannot win. She loses that second, in 6m, 11/3.
The third sees her trying hard, even given us a loud scream at 4/6, but it’s just too little too late, as Farida is playing the best squash I saw her play and with all the confidence in the world, 10/4. Two good shots from Tinkerbell, but it’s 11/6 in 27m match for the underdog.
Farida : I owe Ahmed this victory. He is the reason I won the match today.
I have been training with him for 6 weeks, two months now. Which is not a very big period of time to improve dramatically things normally. But actually, we took it as a challenge from the moment I started to work with him.
I have changed mentally, knowing that I have to stay longer on court, instead of going short from the first shot in the rally. I need to play a very long game at the beginning to get the player to do more physical work. And I can go for my shots later on.
Our sessions are over 80m, so this for me was nothing. Every shot she plays, whether is a drop or length, I know I can get it, and I automatically tell myself mentally that “you get this during practice”. We practice every day and it’s basically like a game, so I now have that confidence to go in the match knowing I can get to the shots.
So, my aim today was to reach every shot.
We have changed a lot of technical stuff, how I play my shots, how I hold my racquet, which helps me more with my length, my basic game is stronger, and I play my shots more easily because I get a looser shot from my opponent.
He didn’t take anything away from me, he added layers to my game, and I can execute my game better, I have much more confidence in my game thanks to our training sessions.
