R1 : [1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) 3-0 Zeina Mickawy (EGY) 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 (22m)
Those two are good friends, training partners, and obviously know each other’s game pretty well! Zeina is struggling with a painful ankle, while Nour has trimmed even more since last event, move pretty well despite her knee injury still impairing her.
A quick first two games, onesided, but a good last one, although not much rhythm, short rallies – 8 minutes for 11/9 score, the difference being at the end of the game Nour finding some crispy counterdrops that Zeina couldn’t pick up…
Zeina
I have an ankle injury, so I cannot move as well as I would like, I need to rest it, but I wanted to play so badly today…
She is the Number one, so of course, she is going to be better, we train together, we are training partners, we know each other’s game, but like I said, she is just better!
I wanted to do so well at the start, I put too much pressure on myself and I got very nervous. My shot quality was terrible, I was not focused enough… I expected to do better, like I do in practice… A bad day. A very bad day… 🙂
Nour
Zeina and I, we play every week. We play in the same club and have the same fitness coach. We have played many times. It is difficult to play an opponent that you know very well. She loves to attack a lot. I am very happy, I just wanted to start strong and that’s what I did.
Surprisingly, my knee injury is the same as last year, I am just handling it better now. The struggle is the same, but the time off made me understand my body more. It helped me know when to push and when to stop. I am handling it well up. To now and hopefully it will continue like this. We will just see how it goes.
