[1] Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-0 [9/16] Gina Kennedy (Eng) 11-3, 11-6, 11-7 (24m)
I know Gina didn’t believe in herself on court today. It was obvious to us, unfortunately. Like some many non Egyptian players, Gina gives a lot of respect to the top girls and when playing them, seem to hold their breath and squash to only react and are overwhelmed by the occasion somehow.
I feel that at this stage of her career, Gina should come and do a few local events here, to watch the behaviour of the kids. The belief they have when they get on there. I told the English girl today that she needs to “own the court”. That’s the way Ramy Ashour used to describe Thierry Lincou’s squash years ago. At the moment, Gina is a guest on the court. Like the Egyptians that belief they can beat anyone on the day, she needs to step up and own the court. Because her game is good enough. Truly and Utterly.
As Mr James Willstrop would say ‘Squash is such a mental game it’s a joke’….
Gina I’m not feeling positive about that performance. I don’t know why, on the big stages, when I get the occasion to play against the top girls, I feel like I freeze, even from the serve, I felt I can’t even return the serve. Not to mention that her serve is really good!
To be fair, her shots were amazing, but I went on to make it tough for her, I didn’t expect to win, I know that her level is above me at the moment.
It’s so frustrating, I felt I couldn’t do anything, even a simple drive. It’s when I play her, it happened a couple of times against Gohar. It’s weird, I can perform well against the lower ranked players, but I don’t have the belief at all against the top girls.
Sherbini : “Gina is really tough and very strong physically,” said El Sherbini.
“I tried to play good squash and make a good game plan, I think I played better today.
“Starting strongly makes a huge difference and getting a big lead helps a lot. In the second and third games she started stronger and we were equal for the first couple of points.
“It’s hard to maintain this spot and this day was always going to come. It’s not the end of the world, but I’m always trying to win tournaments and that’s going to help me get back to World No.1. We have a couple of big tournaments coming up, so I’ll try to work hard and get that spot back.”
