[1] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-1 [3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-13, 11-6 (61m)
On court today, we had two of the nicest/fairest/most resilient players on the tour. Neither of them would know how to spell the words “giving up”. Passion of the game drives them, but they are never pushy, rude or in someone’s way.
So watching those two battle away was a pleasure, especially after the first game, as both of them were struggling in that opener: Hania couldn’t find her backhand length at all, and got even penalised for it, while Satomi strung the tins – 5 unforced errors.
The second was a bit strange as Hania gave away 6 points (4 unforced errors and 2 strokes), while her opponent only made 2 errors, leading Hania to play 9 winners, only 2 for Satomi. The two first games were 11m each.
Momentum was runing for Hania, 3/0 in the third, but Satomi, screaming her lungs out and raising her fist after every single point, clawed back in the game and in the match. Hania didn’t do much wrong, but the energy, the creativity was coming from the Japanese racquet. 10/8, first game ball for Satomi, she would need 4 to close it, Hania didn’t have a match ball in that one. A very long game, 20m, 8 winners for Satomi this time, only 5 for Hania.
Aware of the danger Satomi could present in the 4th, Hania closed down the angles, and stuck to the game plan, taking the pace out of the ball and being very patient. It worked, and she was in control the whole game, 5/1, 8/3, 10/5 match ball, closing it 11/6 in 13m.
Satomi : Since New Zealand, I’m finding it difficult to find my squash. I have like a big cloud in my head.
I have tried to change that things in my game, to improve them. It was just not fitting me and my game yet, I was always doubting myself today, until I think I lost the second, til the end of that game, I finally found the way I should be playing, trying to get my length right, get more confidence.
I think I started off too slow, especially this tournament, even yesterday, I should have learned really, but still, it didn’t give me quite enough confidence to play against Hania today.
I’m quite happy to actually have found the way I should be playing, I am quite happy with the way I played even if I lost.
It’s obviously not a great feeling to lose but I think I was struggling a lot mentally on this tournament, trying to find joy to play squash. I did enjoy today, though, I was smiling on court today, even when things were not going my way.
I’m glad I found the joy to play again, and I hope I can play better from the first game for the next tournament.
“It was very tough. All credit to Satomi, she’s been playing really good squash lately. Last time I played her was back in September in Qatar, and it wasn’t as close as this one.
“In the first two games, it was edgy, and I had to be on my toes in every single rally. In the third, I just earned some opportunities and I made loads of errors, so I thought it was still a lot of positives to take from that game.
Hania : “It was very tough. All credit to Satomi, she’s been playing really good squash lately. Last time I played her was back in September in Qatar, and it wasn’t as close as this one.
“I watched her play her match last night, I watched her play from Australia and New Zealand as well, so I knew how dangerous she is and how many times she uses her wrists in every single game. I kind of had to study it a bit and how and when she was using it.
“In the first two games, it was edgy, and I had to be on my toes in every single rally. In the third, I just earned some opportunities and I made loads of errors, so I thought it was still a lot of positives to take from that game.
“I was laughing a bit with myself because she missed a couple, but I was definitely where she was going to hit it and I was reading her well.”
“I had to push in the fourth, having in mind that she came from 2-0 down to win yesterday was definitely in my mind. I knew she was going to believe in herself after winning the third.”
