2021 Platinum Reports REPORTS

R2: Farida continues to impress

R2: Farida Mohamed (Egy) 3-1 Millie Tomlinson (Eng) 15-13, 5-11, 11-6, 11-4 (34m)

Farida Mohamed – just out of juniors – continues to impress on the Black Ball court as she beats Millie Tomlinson if four games …

Never played each other before and it was interesting to see Farida without her junior eye protection. “It’s putting more pressure on me, it was easier when I was a junior”. Bless ..

Yes, in front of a numerous crowd of 4 – ref, myself, and the parents that drove his morning from Alexandria (3h drive) at 11am is basically dawn in Egypt, Farida was a bit tense today, making a heck of a lot of errors. When she played yesterday, she had a taping on her hamstring, maybe was she conscious of that as well?

Talking of injury, Millie was still massaging her right quad between games, I guess her niggle was still impairing her a bit, she was not moving as freely as she normally does, but stated very clearly that “she was playing too well today, despite making a lot of errors”.

Yes, today I felt that what was the “fil rouge”, the thread of the match, was Farida. She was making the winners – in particular on Millie’s return of serve, she got a few there – she was making the errors, she was winning when in the match, and lost a game in 6m when she was away in FaridaLand.

Not too many Bazooka shots either today for the Egyptian. It was more a question of not putting the ball in the tin, and although her ratio winners/errors is still impressive, it’s something she seriously needs to look into for her next match…

Millie : “She was just playing too well today, despite making a lot of errors!”

Farida : “It feels amazing, I love this court and I’ve had so many good wins on it, so I was very excited to play today.

“It feels so much different, playing without goggles. I feel so much more pressure, I feel I’m big now and it was easier when I was a junior because there was not so much pressure on me.

“I feel I’m going to do a lot of good things this year. I’m so excited to see what’s coming and I’m excited for tomorrow’s match. I hope I can play better squash than today, I wasn’t feeling very well on court, I didn’t find my game very well, so I hope it’s better tomorrow.”