QF: Ali too strong for recovering Soliman

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[1] Ali Farag (EGY) 3-0 [8] Youssef Soliman (EGY) 11-4, 11-2, 11-5 (37m)

Youssef is recovering from an injury and was probably not at the fitness level required to play one of the most clever players that ever put foot in Gouna!

And Ali, as he mentioned wanted “the worst for his mate”, made sure he was constantly pushing Youssef to the fourth corners, taking the ball very early and volleying everything he could, lobbing everything he couldn’t.

Ali got so many errors out of Soliman, 7 unforced errors in the first game, plus a stroke, that 8 points given away, 6 errors in the second game. Ali capitalised on the big work he made Youssef do in the first game (15m), and if the error count lowered in the 3rd, the intensity decreased as well, and Ali was in control of the T constantly.

Very few calls between the two friends, the only interruption was due to court cleaning…

Hesham El Attar, coach to Youssef

Ali played extremely well. He felt that Youssef was not at his best physically, and he played a pattern that really worked against Youssef, and from the very begining.

Ali is a bit more patient with his basics, but today, he went quickly to  working front and back, making Youssef life very difficult, mostly to the back but also to the front, making him use his legs, and be ready to follow up on that, to make sure the rally doesn’t slow down. After using the legs, there is a sprint to the back, or a heavy movement to the back, and it makes it the more difficult.

He went it into his highest level mode from the word go, I saw him warming up as well, I think he did a very vigourous warm up to produce his best alertness.

And Youssef very well knew his body was not going to help him today, coming out of a recent injury. He didn’t have enough time to get ready and prepare himself. But he absolutely want to trick himself into being ready mentally, and playing the type of squash that could save him.

Of course, on a day like this, when Ali is very sharp, it’s not easy. But Youssef tried to stay tough, and focused but it was a very difficult task…

Ali : “I felt very, very good to be honest.

“You don’t know how dangerous Youssef is. He comes up with good plans and he is very solid so I had to try and eliminate his attacks. I was very worried about the match all day but I did very well today so I’m so pleased. Couldn’t of played better really.

“It’s hard to play a friend. You want the best for them but when you’re on court you also want the worst for them because you need to put them under pressure and be the one to dictate the play so it obviously can get a bit feisty but we always leave it on the court.

“Part of my post match ritual is to watch my next opponent. I’ll be watching that and seeing where I can do well. Both are great in their own regard so I would watch that match even if I wasn’t playing the winner so I’ll watch that, get a plan together and enjoy it.”