Rachel Arnold (MAS) 3-0 [7] Jasmine Hutton (ENG) 11-9, 11-8, 12-10 (35m)
What a close and intense match today between Florida players… Both of them are actually working Wael El Hindi – along with Amanda Sobhy.
The crowd was logically expecting/hoping/demanding their girl to win, and when Jas found herself coming down from 4/10 to 9/10, they supported the remontada, which unfortunately for them, stopped there, Rachel finding a lovely winner on her backhand… 11/9 in 7m
I feel that the accuracy of the Malaysian serve played a heavy role today, Jasmine seemed troubled by it at time, and that gave Rachel the time to adjust her attacks from early in the rallies.
The second game was much closer the whole way, although Rachel had always her nose in front, 6/3, 8/5, 11/8, despite a few too many errors that kept the English lady in the game. Still, in 11M, the Malaysian is now 2/0 up and it’s panic time in the English camp…
The third started with 3 errors from Rachel in 4 points, opening the score for Jas for the first time in the match, 5/1, 6/2, 7/3, only to see the Malaysian scoring 6 points in a row… 9/7, 10/8, match ball.
A great effort/push from Jasmine to force a decider, 10/10, but it’s still Rachel on top, 12/10 in 13m…
Rachel
“I came into it trying to be confident and I wanted to try and take it point by point and I think that really helped me today. I’m disappointed that I let her back in at the end of each game but overall I’m happy to be able to get through.
“Jaz is such a good player and she’s been playing really well lately and she was fighting hard again today but I think I played well in the front corners and just happy to be through.”
