R2: Gina gets crucial 2nd game against Sana

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[8] Gina Kennedy (ENG) 3-0 Sana Ibrahim (EGY)  11-6, 13-11, 11-6 (40m)

Gina in control in the first game, 9m, and looking very good.

A nice response from the Egyptian in front of her family, pride and hunger kicked in and we had a match on our hands.

Sana was just the nose in front in that game, 4/2, 7/5, 9/7, but Gina managed to stick and come back level. 9/9, 10/9, Sana. The crowd is pretty happy, but despite another game ball at 11/10, the Egyptian cannot close the game and it’s 13/11 on Gina’s first attempt, 16m game.

Sana never gave up in the third but Gina took a great start, 6/1, and Sana struggled to come back, more mentally than physically I believe. The Egyptian clawed back to 4/6, but Gina is just too confident and relaxed out there, and it’s Gina, 11/6 on her second attempt, 10m last game.

Gina : It’s no secret that I have been working with Rodney Martin. We are trying to change a lot about my game, play more attritional, play a better length, volley more, and obviously I had Lucy in my corner, so she kept reminding me to stick to the plan.

I started off well, then I still have a bit of tendency to go a bit AWOL, to go back to my old habits. Obviously, it’s not what I want to do but where I ended up sneaking the second game was by putting a lot of work into her legs. And then she kind of dropped her length a little bit, lower a bit her quality…

She still chased after every ball, which I really respect but it’s a hard balance, maybe it worked in the third, but had I lost the second, which I probably deserved to lose, it would have been a different  match.

I need to be able to focus a bit more on that game plan for a little longer, it’s a work in progress.

I played these players before, I had a good head to head before, that kind of game sometimes works against certain kind of players. But if it goes to seedings, I’ll play Liv in a couple of days, and you can’t afford to play like that against her, against the top players.

I know it’s in there, and there are patches where I’m seeing it and I’m hitting it where I want to. But I just go away from the plan too often. And I can’t afford to do that against Olivia, not even a rally, not even actually a shot, she would end the rally straight away, it wouldn’t be a slow death, it would be a very quick one!