R1: Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) 3-1 Alexandra Fuller (RSA) 11-9, 12-10, 7-11, 11-5 (40m)
Again, the two players never played each other, fourth match in a row with 0/0 for the H2H!
So nice to see Sivasangari back on court! I hadn’t seen her since forever – her last match on the PSA tour was back in Chicago for the Windy City, that’s a while ago…. She then spent 9 months back in Malaysia, and went back to Cornell where she happily trains with former World Number 1, World Champion and British Open champion, David Palmer for the past two years.
Today, Alex was the consistent on court. But heavily frustrated with slippery conditions – despite the court being swept between each game – the South African couldn’t relax and it showed, although she didn’t do much wrong, her basic game truly put her opponent under pressure and gave her nice attacking opportunities.
Very very close first two games, it could have gone either way, and it even took 3 game balls to the Malaysian to close the second game, while she was done 8/3 in the first!
In the third, the girls were neck to neck up to the middle of the game, when Siva seems to completely lose focus. But funnily enough, it was a bit of a reverse situation in the fourth, with score close up to 6/5, but Alex losing her way at the end, unable to contain the Malaysian, only too happy to get a win for her first PSA in a year.
Sivasangari:
I haven’t played for so long! And I was very, very nervous to start with, I was down 8/3 in the first game, and I knew how quick and how good player she is. I managed to calm myself down, and played each point, one at a time.
The fact that she was struggling with the court conditions was helping me, and if I was frustrated as well, I managed not to show it cause I didn’t want her to feed of it.
I am so happy to be training with David Palmer, we have a good connection, and everybody there makes me feel very special, and I really appreciate it…
