R1: Farida Mohamed (Egy) 3-0 Enora Villard (Fra) 11-5, 13-11, 11-8 (27m)
Bazooka Farida, who signed with CIB only a few days ago, didn’t seem to move as well as she can be, and the taping on her hamstring could be a sign she might have a bit of a niggle there. But did she still hit the ball with fierce determination? Yes. Did she hammered the front wall and made Enora cover a lot of ground? Yes.
But as Farida said at the end, the French girl never gave up, fought tooth and nail the whole match, but felt she didn’t play the right tactic, that she played a bit too much to the front today. I for one thought she did pretty well recycling the power coming from Farida’s racquet into lovely feathery counterdrop or volley drop.
But I guess she really needed that second to make a difference.
Farida:
I had only my two coaches with me – we are only allowed to two people, so I had Tameem El Welily and Ahmed Shohayeb, and that made me feel at home, as they are always with me whether I’m in Alexandria or Cairo!
She surprised me I didn’t know she could play so many attacking shots, and she never gave up, didn’t give me any cheap points. And she managed to keep me moving around too!
I just signed with CIB, it’s my first big sponsor, and I guess I was feeling the tension today. Up to now, I was coming to event as the challenger, I had only to do my best and I was not expected to win. But now, the shoe is on the other foot, I am expected to perform, I am expected to win. And that makes a big difference.
