R2: Come back from 2/0 for Salma against Siva

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Salma Hany (EGY) 3-2 [7] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS)  9-11, 4-11, 11-7, 11-2, 11-8 (51m)

Egypt’s Salma Hany scored the only upset of the day as she recovered from 2-0 down to beat Malaysia’s No.7 seed Sivasangari Subramaniam and secure a place in her third successive quarter final in El Gouna.

A game of two halves, OBVIOUSLY.

Two different players in each half. One dominant, the other one, “dans les choux”, lost at sea, even in the first game, I thought that Salma was not the player she has been recently, all thanks to Siva’s superb crispy squash.

Complete transformation in games 3 and 4, with Salma completely dismantling her opponent confidence in her own shots, playing a mid pace, weight in the ball, patient yet assertive game. 7m for the third game, 11/7, and 4m for the fourth, 11/2.

Balle au centre, as they say in Football.

Superb start from the Egyptian, 5/2, 7/4, but the Malaysian, encouraged by Greg Gaultier, clawed back to 4/5, 6/7. Nailbitting time for both camps. Another push from Salma, 10/7 match ball, sublime winner from the Malaysian, but her hopes are short lived, and the Egyptian closes the game and match, 13m last game, 11/8.

Salma : Before the match, I was very excited to play her, I haven’t played her for so many years, she beat me actually here in El Gouna last time we played. So I was really excited to play a new opponent.

I was a little bit surprised with my start, I felt I was feeling well, I had a good warm up, but I couldn’t execute very well the plan I wanted to implement, my shots weren’t very accurate as well.

At 2/0 down, I told myself I haven’t played yet. I’m not ready to go home until I’m all out. This is not your calibre anymore, not your standards, just all out today.

I wasn’t as accurate as yesterday and not every day, I’m going to be 100% accurate, I told myself. You have to dig deep and find a way. It’s not going to be rainbows every day!!

I prepared for this before the match, I wrote down that this match could go different ways, and I visualised all the different scenariis, that I was 2/0, and then she comes back. That I was 2/0 down, and I come back. That we were both on today and we would go all the way to the wire, until she tinned a tie break at the end. I was prepared for all of this.

I just kept believing that I could produce good squash, and she was going to break down. And I kept pushing and pushing and pushing. And once I found the door openened up slightly, I kept telling myself ‘don’t take your foot off the gas, keep pushing, keep pushing”. Even when I had a lead, I made sure I didn’t relax for one bit.

And Andrew, after 2/0 down, he said something that really clicked, you are thinking too much about the Big Picture to win. But you are not thinking about the small things that will get you the win. And this is actually how I function. I break down in small things what I want to do, in a match, in my practice, and I forget completely about the result.

And I then realised yes, this is what’s happening, I’m kind of blind, I’m not aware of what’s happening on court, so when he told me this, it was like a cloud that went away out of the vision. And I started to think about, ok, my length is not good today, let’s get it done now. Focus about the length, get it accurate, you can do it. I believe in my accuracy. And before I served I was like, just play a good serve, let’s play a good drive, and my mind got shifted from the score, the fact I was 2/0 down….

I’m really really proud of how I came back today.