World Open: Qualifying Round 2

Today I was up against rising young star Nour El Sherbini who is 29 in the new World Rankings.

In the first two games I possibly gave her too much respect and mixed with a bit of nerves, I put a lot of balls in the tin. In the 3rd I dug in and with a better length worked myself into more winning positions and kept more of them out the tin than earlier in the match! I managed to sneak the game 12-10. I played good squash to take the 4th 11-7, getting forward to volley as well as keeping a better length.

The 5th was a see saw, I went 7-4 down before bringing it back to 7-7, 8-7 down, 8-8, 9-8 down, 9-9 and I played a straight drop from the back at 9-9 which was too tight for her to get back giving me 10-9 and match ball. On a crosscourt drive to the forehand I broke my strings but thought it was going to die in the back corner. However, she managed to scrap a boast back but left the ball in the middle of the court for me to hit any shot. Unfortunately I couldn't control the ball with the newly broken strings and the ball came straight back at me to give her a stroke. I was unfortunate again in the following 2 rallies, catching the frontwall/sidewall nick on both and the ball squirted out into the middle of the court leaving me unable to avoid giving away strokes. This made the score 10-12, meaning I was out of the tournament.

Gutted I couldn't get the win today, probably a win on any other day. However, I will take plenty of positives out of the match and the tournament overall.
I am flying home on Tuesday and then will have the rest of November training at home before my next event which is the Coronation London Open and runs from 1-4 December at the Cumberland Club.