[5] Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-1 Kenzy Ayman (EGY) 11-7, 3-11, 11-4, 11-3 (31m)
A great start of the day to be honest.
I am so proud of young Kenzy. She started her PSA career by having a nasty excessive swing and blocking her opponent. None of that now. Only a fair, intense, fast player, with a lovely crisp backhand long drop shot and backhand volley drop shot. She was recovering from an injury, and I could see her fitness is not what it should be. Every time Amanda was making the rallies a bit longer – and very fast/intense squash – the Egyptian would suffer for a few points, that’s what happened in the first game, 7/7…
But Kenzy got a good reward for her effort, in the second, Amanda seemed to get a bit on the back foot, not as aggressive and intense as she was in the first game, dropping the length. ‘Thank you’ said Kenzy, and it’s a quick 5m game for the Egyptian..
A nice chat with her mental coach, the lovely/adorable Jesse Englebrecht, and she was back in front, intense, aggressive, and accurate… Two fast game, 5m each, 11/3, 11/4…
Kenzy : We had played twice, and she has beaten me 3/0, easy. So today, I was not thinking about winning, so I didn’t have any pressure but I still would like a nice win! Sometimes, we need a big win!
I think I played very well in the first game, up to 7/7, and then I made a couple of silly errors. A good rally then but I was at the wrong end of it. But I still felt I was getting very close to her.
I took the second one, and then I thought, not that I could beat her – it’s not easy, you know, she makes it look easy, but it’s anything but easy on there, she is so smart and moving her is not easy – but that I could start doing some good results…
Amanda : “I don’t think it was my best performance today but she played really well. It’s tough sometimes being on at 12 and I honestly think that serving out was the best thing that happened because it couldn’t get worse than that and it actually relaxed me and I was able to play better from there.
“That’s what you get with young Egyptians. I know what to expect: they have no fear and go at it regardless of who you are, and I respect that. I tried to find my length and not being sucked into being the one doing the retrieving. I wanted to be the one dictating, and I was happy to end on a positive note, playing well.
“This is a great venue, the crowd is awesome. I’m just happy to be still competing, I’m enjoying my squash, it’s not about the result per se, but I still obviously want to win, but I want to enjoy myself and be competitive too.”
