[13] Olivia Blatchford Clyne (USA) 3-2 Sabrina Sobhy (USA) 10-12, 6-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-8 (58m)
Incredible come back from Olivia today… She was up in game one thoguht, 5/2, 5/5, 7/5; 9/7, only to be caught up 9/9. She coudln’t transform a game ball, 10/9, an it’s finally Sabrina, the newly move to Cairo American, taking the opener 12/10 in 12m. Second was all about Sabrina, from 3/3, 8/3, then 11-6 with incredibly sharp and face paced shots, 8m.
The wheel went off in the 3rd though for the Americano/Egyptian, as she made 8 unforced errors in that game alone. When Olivia mentionned “weathering the storm” in her after match interview, I guess that’s what she was referring too!
Olivia dominated th 4th completely, 6m 11/4, and things became serious again in the 5th, with such a great start from the young American, 5/1. But grinding it beautifully, Liv just strung point after point, with a few loud COME ONE – I’m sure sure Sabrina has a voice though, she is so quiet bless her! Olivia came back to 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, 8/8. But an error, then a stroke and a ball out of court sealed the young contender’s fate.
Older sister now awaits…
Olivia
I’ve watched Sabrina grow up, literally since she was in diapers and there’s no doubt that she is an immense talent. I knew that if I could weather the storm a little bit, say she is going to hit some beautiful winners, which she did and I just thought ‘if she is going to win this, she’s going to have to pry it from my cold dead body and I will die getting every ball back.’ Sometimes that’s all you need and to refuse to give in.
Two weeks from now is US Nationals and so we’ll be playing again in two weeks, hopefully. I think it’s just a matter of trying to get into the groove. Amanda is obviously fantastic and she leads our team so well. You just have to get into the right mind set again to be able to go in and have that never say die attitude.