R1: Sana 3/0 Rachel

Sana Ibrahim (Egy) 3-0 Rachel Arnold (Mas) 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 (31m)

Sana

I worked hard, preparing for this match, in the States and here in Egypt. I was injured in December, and when I played at the start of the year in the States, I was not ready and I was in pain constantly.

Since then, I worked on a few things, I worked on different things on my fitness side of things. I realised I was having troubles with my hamstring, when I was lounging, so I worked on my fitness to prevent that pain, and now I feel confident with my mobility.

So I was confident today for my match with Rachel, I had played her twice before, but it was before she improved a lot. And now, she has changed a lot, and she is playing great squash. But I feel I had a bit of advantage mentally, because I won our last two matches.

She was playing well, but I was solid, I thought. I worked hard with my coach to study her, which shots to play against her, and we had a good game plan, with shots I had to avoid playing because I would lose the point very quickly!

She is a very attacking player, we are both attacking, not a very defensive style of squash. I was trying to pick up the pace in the middle because she can be so dangerous there, I tried to vary the height, lob a lot, I won the first game only just, 11/9, the second she lost a bit of focus, and made a lot of errors, and in the third, I knew she was going to come back, and she did, so I’m happy to get through this match in three…