[11] Amina Orfi (EGY) 3-0 Lee Ka Yi (HKG) 11-7, 11-3, 11-6 (28m)
Tesni Murphy (WAL) 3-0 Enora Villard (FRA) 11-6, 11-4, 11-0 (22m)
Chan Sin Yuk (HKG) 3-2 Georgia Adderley (SCO) 6-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-7 (48m)
[WC] Amina El Rihany (EGY) 3-1 Millie Tomlinson (ENG) 11-13, 11-7, 11-8, 11-7 (46m)
Amina El Rihany/Millie
Millie’s experience today was not sufficient to contain yet another talent coming from Egypt, also named Amina! Must be something in the name… Not panicking after the first game loss, the young girl kept pushing in long rallies, and managing an upset on the first match of the day!
Amina is coached by Hashim Samir, and her club is very close to where we are, the Shooting Club.
Amina E.R : When I got on court today, I was confident as I had nothing to lose. I was the wild card, and I just played my game, I was really focused.
I was playing deep back in the corner, length and crosscourt, and I got a few volleys as well, keep the pace up. When I lost the first game, I told myself, don’t worry, you can do it again, and I think the key today was my focus throughout the match.
Tesni/Enora
A very strong start for the French girl, 5/1, quick to attack and finding crispy winners to the front. But from that point on, she started struggling physically, the last week at the Europeans seems to take its toll, against a Tesni that was making the rallies hard and pushing her opponent to the four corners.
Amina awaits…
Tesni : At the start, I was giving her a lot of balls in the middle, where she is really good, she hits really good nice kills, and takes it in, she is very confident. And she started very confidently, and I thought, oh, I’m in trouble here. So I tried to find my length and straightened up; I got a bit more opportunities and got her behind me.
Last week was a hard week at the Europeans, everybody is a bit tired, and obviously for Enora, it was a very hard week as she had to play all of the matches and had some pretty hard ones as well, with Melissa injured.
So to be fair, I don’t think that Enora played at her best, maybe a bit leggy from last week, but it’s the world champs, I’ll take that any day.
I haven’t played Amina yet, and I’m up for the challenge. I think that what she is doing is amazing for her age. It’s fascinating to watch. And being older now, it’s even more impressive. Her game is so solid, doesn’t really break down, hence why she is beating so many top players.
Hopefully I can bring something different to the table, and maybe throw her off a little bit if I can, get her out of her rhythm a little bit. It will be really tough, but I’m looking forward to it, I’ll have no pressure, I’m going to go in, enjoy it, and see what I can do.
Amina Orfi
After the first game, I relaxed a lot and was playing better and better, and I got more confident, so I’m happy with the way I played today.
I had played her back in December in Hong Kong, so I knew what to expect, and I knew she was going to drop shot anything short. So I tried to lengthen the rallies. The court was quite cold at the begining, and I tried to keep the ball away from her height. And that went well.
Tesni is obviously a good player, she was in the top 10 for a while before her injury, so I am expecting a good and competitive match, and I’m looking forward to it.
