[1] Nour El Sherbini (EGY) 3-0 [8] Rowan Elaraby (EGY) 11-6, 16-14, 11-4 (33m)
Don’t get fooled by the score. Nour tonight didn’t take Tinkerbell lightly, and we could all see how the contender, only 21 years old, was able to threaten the Might Sherbini.
A real good start from the youngster, 5/2, only too see Nour stringing the points, 7 in a row. At 9/5, a let turned stroke gives some hope to the young girl, but it’s still 11/6 in 9m to Nour.
A second is a splendid demonstration of how far Rowan has come in the recent months. Led heavily the whole game, 3/1, 8/4, 10/5, she just dug in like she did against Jana and Nour El Tayeb in the previous rounds, and pushed the World Champion to a tie-break. She set up two game balls of her own, 13/12 and 14/13, but the Princess was not to be denied, and clinches the crucial game with her 8th attempt!
The third is all Nour’s domination against a young player with that little less mental experience, 5/1, 6/2 11/4 in 5m…
Nour
“Rowan is a very tough opponent and very skilful. It’s her first semi final at a Platinum event, so I know it’s huge for her and she deserves more than that. Maybe she just needs a little bit more experience, she’s very good and I’ve watched her growing up at the same club. She’s been good since she was five or six years old, we’re definitely going to have more battles together.
“The second game was a bit hard for me, I didn’t want to lose this game. I was 10-5 up and losing it would have been bad for me. I just wanted to keep pushing until the end and win that game. It’s a huge difference being 2-0 up instead of 1-1, and I think the second game made the difference in this match.
“It’s been a long time since we [El Sherbini and Gohar] have played each other. We’ve never played on this court, so it’s going to be a new one, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s always tough against Nouran. She’s really on top of her game now, and she’s the most in-form player now. I’m looking forward to this one and I hope it’s going to be a good match for the crowd to watch.”
