Marie Stephan (FRA) 3-1 Ainaa Amani (MAS) 10-12, 11-7, 12-10, 11-7 (42m)
Next oponent : Emily Whitlock or Satomi Watanabe
Marie : It’s a bit complicated at the moment. We had the European Team Championships last week, and I thought I had recovered well. I played 5 matches in 4 days as the number 1 because Melissa [Alves] was injured and couldn’t play.
It was emotionally intense and complicated, with many ups and downs, because team competitions are always more emotionally charged than individual ones. So, I arrived here a bit mentally tired, but physically, I thought I was fine.
But this morning, I woke up with my back completely blocked. Fortunately, we have Florent, the physiotherapist for the French team, with us. He worked on me a bit, got me back on my feet, and gave me some warming balm and scotch tape, you know!! With the adrenaline, it eased off a bit, but I think I’ll be in pain tonight!
Yann Menegaux told me to put the pain aside and focus only on the game, and today, I went for the match with the desire and determination to win. The content wasn’t great, but it did the job.
Logically, Satome in the next round, she has had very good results recently, she won a Bronze, so I am the underdog, no pressure. I played her in 2015, in Penang, at a 5K event, and I lost 3/2!
She is a very good player, technically, physically, and mentally, and she is very strong, too; I think they call her the Samurai! And she is very nice, a friend off the court. It will be a good match if I play her, no pressure, I’m happy to be in the 2nd round already, and we’ll see what happens next. You never know, on a good day, I’m hoping my back will be better!
Today, rest, tomorrow, we’ll think about the match.
