[20] Melissa Alves (FRA) bt [7] Fayrouz Aboelkheir (EGY) 11-8, 11-7, 11-8 (33m)
Melissa
I could feel it coming today.
Today was just a good day, all the planets aligned. I had Raneem in my corner, which I need to say gave me a big push and it was the best support you can have.
I prepared for this match much more than for the others. I knew that against her, if you didn’t prepare the match tactically, you would get punished. She’s not a player against whom you can just say, ‘I’m going to play my best squash, and I’m going to beat her.’
So, with Raneem, we really prepared the match in great detail.
You know, I have to give Raneem her due. I’ve done a lot of work with many different coaches, but here, I have to give credit where credit is due. Over the past few months and the past few days, she has given me confidence, the desire to play, and, above all, confidence in myself.
I know she believes in me; I know she believes I can do it. On court, I play a little with her strength and with the confidence she places in me. Confidence is really what I have been lacking lately. I knew I could play at that level; I was convinced of it. But then, you have to actually do it.
Fayrouz was stressed; she was the one under pressure — the ranking, playing at home, the expectations. Maybe seeing Raneem in my corner does something too.
I’ve been training, I thought I’d been playing really well in practice, but I didn’t manage to cross the line really in matches and haven’t had a big win for quite some time since Qatar maybe.
I wanted to make Raneem proud, to prove to her that she wasn’t wasting her time coaching me and leaving her children to spend time with me on court. I wanted to show her that it meant something.
There are no words to express what I feel… It feels amazing, but it’s the way I played today is really all matters. I’m very proud of what I did today because I worked really hard for this.
I try not to think about the round of 16 it’s about each match. Can I play the way that I’m training? What am I working on? Does it apply in a match? That’s what I’m trying to think about.
“Obviously getting to a bigger stage, getting a day off, playing on the glass, it matters. But it’s really about each match, making sure that everything I’ve worked on I can see in a real match, under pressure in front of my coaches and my friends. That’s really what matters. But of course, it’s now a big opportunity to go even further.”
