QF: [1] Nour El Sherbini (Egy) 3-1 [5] Sarah-Jane Perry (Eng) 11-9, 5-11, 11-7, 11-6 (46m)
A new Champion is guaranteed as top seed Nour El Sherbini beats Sarah-Jane Perry in four games …
Those two have played 12 times. Last three times, the victory went to Nour (three matches in 2020), but in 2018/2019, their three matches went to SJ. So it was not an easy match on paper for either of them!
A perfect start from the Egyptian, 4/1, 8/3. As usual, the English dug in, forcing a couple of errors from the racquet of the Princess, but Nour set up game balls 11/7. SJ saved two, but forced a bit her shot at 10/9, and exist the court 11/9, having only 5 winners, against 9 for Nour.
An excellent second game for the Gladiator, 3/1, 3/3, 4/4, 11/5 in only two hands, 10m. 8 winners for SJ, only 2 for Nour.
The third is close at the start, 2/2, 3/3, 5/5, but Nour stepping up the court, and making the court very big for the English, 10/5, 11/7 in 11m.
An excellent start for the Egyptian in the 4th, 3/0, 5/1, 6/3, 7/4, 8/5 and 11/6 match on her first attempt.
SJ: Well, I found the top of the tin or the middle of the court, and she found nicks and winners!
I was close to playing well. I was half a step off the sharpness I needed to be today.
When I was in good position in front of her, I was sort of devastating, but I was constantly half a step too far, and that was very frustrating because I was so close, but only returning the ball or scrapping it through.
In the second, I got in front and I was able to put the ball in the front corners, but after that, she managed to get back in front…
Like I said, I was not far off, but you do what you can on the day…
🗣 "I think SJ loves playing here and she is in top form right now."@noursherbini reacts after booking her @BlackBallSquash semis spot at the expense of @SJPerry15 🎥#BlackBallOpen pic.twitter.com/FJ9xeFpbYH
— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) March 16, 2021
Nour: “It was a really tough one,”
“SJ loves playing here, she plays really well and she’s on top form now but I was really digging deep in every game and as you can see it was close until the end.
“I’m just taking it step by step, match by match. Every day it’s different and I’m in the semi-finals now, so I’m just going to focus on the next round and hopefully it goes well. I don’t want to be distracted and hopefully I’ll reach the end.”
