[6] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) bt [13] Nada Abbas (EGY) 9-11, 11-3, 11-8, 11-6 (43m)
Very pleasant match to watch. Coached by Legend Raneem, Nada played a superb first game, 11/9, 11m duration. I guess it took a lot out of her, as the next game was all about Satomi, 11/3 in 7m.*
Nada seemed to be more dangerous from the middle of the game 3 and 4. From 4/1, 6/3, 8/5 in the third, she came back to 7/8. An incredible rally at 8/10, as Nada managed to save a game ball: Satomi managed to pick up the ball with a dive, but cannot get up in time to recover, Nada is on the other side, point won but she tins the ball… 11/8 to Satomi!!! 10m game.
In the third, Nada is running on fumes, still giving it everything mind. Little errors are creeping in, from 2/2, three unforced errors in a row. That give confidence to Satomi, off to 9/3 within seconds. A good last push from Nada, saving a match ball at 10/5, but bowing eventually, 11/6 in 7m.
Satomi
I think I lost the first game. It was close, but in the end, it caught the nick. It didn’t give me a good memory of that game.
“I was trying to forget about it and regroup from the second game onwards and I still tried to stick to my game plan. I knew it was working but I wasn’t quite getting some here and there. I’m very happy with the performance today.
“For the crowd and everything, I have kind of got used to it now. There’s been a lot of tournaments in Egypt and I’ve been experiencing some really good crowds as well. Even though it’s against me or it’s for my opponent, I still like the crowd to be there.
“I just try to take it as motivation and try to not think too much about it, try to focus on my game and yeah, I’m definitely happy.
“I’m really excited, really excited. Until today, I was on the normal court, which I still quite like, but at the same time, to play in that glass court looks amazing, so yeah, definitely looking forward to it.”
