[4] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) 3-0 [15] Nadine Shahin (EGY) 11-2, 11-6, 11-5 (20m)
I know the score doesn’t tell the story is used and over used, but as I have been following Nadine since she is 14, I can see the improvement. Today in the second, she really took the gme to Nour and hit the ball hard and accurately, forcing Nour to rally, which the world champion is happy not to do!
Up 2/0, 3/1, it was a good start for Nadine, who managed to keep neck to neck, 3/3, 4/4, before the magic racquet started to produce her quick fire, 9/5 and 11/6 in 6m.
Same in the 3rd, Nour relaxed a bit at 5/1, Nadine was in there like a shot, really hitting good shots, good balance between power and precision, clawed back to 4/5. Again, a big push from Nour and it’s 11/5 in 6m…. but a much better game I thought than the last two times they played…
Nour
Nadine had been playing really well from the start of the tournament. You can see that when she has the opportunity, she kills any shot and she’s very fast to get everything back. I had to make sure that my shots were very good to make sure she doesn’t get them back.
I feel definitely better than I did in Chicago last week. I had to go through the flew and coming back from injury to take the win, and in a perfect world, I would need a little time to recover. But still, I feel sooo much better than in Chicago, so that’s helps.
Because I’m getting old (*Fram bursting laughing*), I have to take care of my body now, thing I didn’t used to do before, so I’m trying to stay as little as possible on court. I wish I could stay a bit longer on court to get used to the conditions but… How long was the match? 21m? Perfect. Short is good.
We’re getting into the serious rounds now and I’m going to prepare like I do for every match and hopefully I’ll prepare well and be ready.
