R1: Satomi happy to contain Hana 3/0

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[6] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 3-0 Hana Moataz (EGY)  11-6, 11-5, 11-7 (31m)

Satomi

It’s never easy, the score doesn’t the whole story.

Even if I was 2/0 up, I know she can come back and she has that mentality to come back from 2/0 down as well. I know that, cause I played her, been 2/0 up, only to see her coming back in the match!

And she showed that today in the third, she made it really difficult for me.

In the first two games, the ball was really fast, and I really needed to concentrate on controlling the pace. With the way Hana plays, she plays very fast, and she hits the ball really hard and low as well. I’m really happy to win in three today.

Against Hana, I really have to have a really good balance between calm and agression. If I get too aggressive, and play too fast, that’s the way she enjoys her squash. So at the beginning, I really tried to make myself calm, and it worked well in the first two game.

Then the ball softened a bit in the third, so it starts to get slower, so I need to need to push through, because she was pushing as well. Today, happy with my balance …

My next opponent will be Amina Orfi or Rowan. It’s so nice to see her back on the tour, and at this stage as well. She has been out in a very long time, I have not experienced that long from the tour, but I know it feels to come back from injury, there is a bit of anxiety, but I think she is doing really well. And Amina, she is so strong… So, happy to play either of them really….