[8] Mohamed Zakaria (Egy) 3-0 Marwan Asal (gy) 11-6, 11-6, 11-3 (43m)
Mohamad Zakaria: : “Today was a good match. I never really have a lot of opportunities to play a younger player, so I think today it was a good test and a good match to get me right into the mindset. I knew if I was off it, Marwan would take all his chances and I know how good he can play. He’s been doing so well, so I’m pretty happy with how I dealt with it and how I got the win in three.
“It can get very physical and very ugly pretty fast. I just really need to move him away from me as much as I could and tried to open the court up because he can really close it down and he never really lets go of opportunities easily. I just knew that I had to keep him moving and I had to always get him away from me or have him go and play the shot without hitting me at all. I felt like I did that pretty well to be honest.
“I think they [Mostafa & Marwan] both close the court down very well. Their side step is very big, so their reach is very high. I think he plays with the same ideas most of all, but maybe with some differences. I try to play good length and then try to take a step up the tee to volley and then hold the point from there. But I feel like Mostafa is on a totally different level of accuracy and he can do that a lot better than a lot of other players. I just feel like they’re playing maybe with the same tactic, but different accuracy for sure.
“I’ve done well on the junior circuit, now I have to do well at the World Champs. I just feel like this time I’m really ready. Last year, maybe I was doing well, but not as well as now. So I feel like this time I have a really big shot and I have to really use it and focus match by match because anything can happen anytime, just like last time in El Gouna.”
