Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt [WC] Salma Youssef (EGY) 11-2, 11-5, 11-2 (20m)
Zeina Mickawy (EGY) 3-2 Rachel Arnold (MAS) 8-11, 4-11, 11-5, 11-8, 11-2 (39m)
A game of two halves. No better way to describe this one, with both players dominating the match completely each their turn: Rachel in the first two games, Zeina looking lost and unable to read the Malaysian’s game, and then Zeina taking over the control, with the Malaysian never stop trying but just making a few too many errors. Still stunning rallies at times, good sportmanship.
Zeina
In my last tournament, I was up 2/0 and 7/4 up against Melissa, and somehow, I lost the match. It was a harsh loss, and I just couldn’t get over it. I couldn’t train, couldn’t sleep. Just mentally down, and unable to react.
And today, I didn’t think about my game, I was I think thinking about not losing, not playing the ball out of court. And after I lost the second game, I just cried and cried, and I guess I poured out all the emotions, all the negative emotions I felt.
During the first two games, I kept complaining, looking at my coach Omar Abdel Aziz, and saying to him that I just couldn’t focus, that I wasn’t in the match.
But after I cried it off, I just did what my coach told me: I played point after point, I kept hitting and retrieving every single shot, I fought for every ball, and played point by point. It worked out.
This win means a lot for me, I think it made me get over the last loss and I’m so happy, so relieved I won today.
Sabrina Sobhy
“The hardest part about moving to Egypt was getting used to all of the training coming from university.
“It’s a completely different adjustment from balancing studies and sports with just sports now. We all know coming to Cairo is the most intense and probably the best place to get better at squash and train, so I think that added to the intensity of the switch. But I’m very pleased that I decided to come here.
“There’s definitely been some moments where I’ve questioned ‘why am I doing this!’, but I’m really pleased that I’m sticking with squash professionally for the time being.
“I have a rest day tomorrow and the hotel has a phenomenal pool and environment to just relax and recover, so I’ll get some training in and then probably just chill by the pool.”
