[12] Sabrina Sobhy (USA) 3-0 Kenzy Ayman (EGY) 11-4, 11-6, 11-1 (23m)
Next opponent: Nouran Gohar / Hana Moataz
The score doesn’t reflect the intensity of the first two games I feel. The Egyptian, once again having nothing to lose and a lot of confidence – quite rightly – in her physical abilities and skills to the front, took the game to the American nicely. Setting up a few nice opportunities, she unfortunately found the tin too many times but that’s all credit to the pressure that Sabrina was applying throughout.
I felt that the American today was very powerful – more that I remember her playing, but what do I know. As if she had worked on that part of her game, or had decided to use it more often. Anyway, she was lethal today with her accuracy at the back, allowing her to make her opponent do a lot of work and making a royal avenue for lovely winners at the front.
Sabrina : I don’t think I hit harder than normal today but maybe more controlled. I felt that the rallies where I had a slower pace, she was able to move onto the ball much quicker, so I upped the pace a little bit to get it past her and into the back corners.
It was definitely a good day, I wanted to make sure the accuracy was there, everybody here is up for it and will try to get as far as they can especially the lower ranked players, their goals are to push the top players and that’s exactly what we want to see too. Nothing is easy, we can all probably agree, every match, you have to show up for it, and prepare for it as well as you can because everything is a challenge.
Happy to move to the Museum, that’s exciting!