R3 : Hania in 3 tough games against Gina

[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-0 [9] Georgina Kennedy (ENG)  11-9, 11-6, 11-8 (44m)

Fram reports

Before anything else: who else managed to reach WR9 AND play their first ever world champ event??? Gina, what a journey already… And I feel that we have a new rivalry of the “Hania/Camille” calibre… Looking forward to their next match…

The English started her match “sur les chapeaux de roue” full blast, taking the Egyptian Gazelle by the throat, thanks to 2 nervous quick errors from Hania, 4/0, 7/2, 8/4. Shaking the nerves off, the Gazelle slowly clawed back until she turned the tide, and scored 4 points in a row from 7/9, 11/9 to Hania in 16m.

Funny to note that in the first 2 games, Hania made her errors at the start/middle of the games, while Gina made them at the middle end.

The second was about the same than the first, 3 errors from the Egyptian, 4/2, but this time, Hania reacted quicker, and levelled 4/4, keeping the momentum going till 7/4, 11/6 in 10m. Two errors from the English to close that game.

The third is close up to 5/5, but then the Egyptian was relaxed, and Gina couldn’t contain her as well as she did. Still the English put Hania under pressure, 7/5, but in two hands, the Egyptian closed the game  and match, 13m, on her second attempt, 11/9.

PSA reports

World No.3 Hania El Hammamy took a step closer to a maiden PSA World Championship title as she overcame England’s Georgina Kennedy in straight games. El Hammamy had beaten Kennedy en route to her Allam British Open triumph back in March, but started the slower of the two tonight at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation as Kennedy stormed to a 7-3 lead in the opening game.

El Hammamy was uncharacteristically passive in the opening exchanges as Kennedy hit her targets, but the Egyptian soon settled and was much more proactive in the closing stages of the opening game as she recovered to take a one-game lead.

It was a tightly-contested beginning to the second game, but a confident El Hammamy soon took control to double her advantage.

Kennedy came back at her opponent in the third, scampering around the court to pick up El Hammamy’s shots and responding with some winners of her own to lead 7-5. However, El Hammamy’s accuracy was ultimately just too much for the Englishwoman, and she closed out the win by an 11-9, 11-6, 11-8 scoreline to reach the last eight.

El Hammamy will take on former World No.3 Nour El Tayeb for a place in the semi finals, and will look to avenger her defeat to her compatriot during March’s CIB Black Ball Open.

Hania

It was very tough and very physical with Gina, as always. I really enjoyed the match today. I had to be as accurate as I could be to get through in three. To beat her in three gives me a lot of confidence and I’m looking forward to my next match.

“This venue is absolutely amazing. It’s our first time here, so it gives us a lot of motivation to perform well. Hopefully I can go a few steps further in this tournament and try to get the title.

“I’m going to be very focused, I’ll watch the last match against El Tayeb to learn from what I did wrong and hopefully I can change that.”