2020 Round TWO REPORTS

R2: Yathreb finally relaxed against dangerous Joey

[12] Yathreb Adel (EGY) 3-1 Joey Chan (HKG)  7-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-4 (32m)

Joey yesterday was struggling with a bad knee – ice on it at the end of the match – and didn’t like the court which at the start of play was a bit slippery – it got better as it got cleaned with water. But today, she said that she felt much better and that the court was much better!

The Hong Kong player – the only one left in the HK Armada that played in day one – was pretty much in control in the first game, Yathreb falling into her old game of making too many errors and not switching the brain cells on, bless her.

But speaking with her, her niggle in the foot was creating chaos in her brain, and she managed to trust her movement by the middle of the second game, close u to 7/7. A few errors from Joey gave her the upper hand and it’s 11/7 in 7m – same length than the first game actually, with same score!

The third, Joey didn’t seem to read the Egyptian game that well, only 5m game, 5/0, 7/1 11/5 to Yathreb. The last one, about the same really, 3/1, 7/2, 11/4, same length.

Yathreb
In Chicago I strained my ankle, and I have been resting it since, so I was a bit weary in the begining of the match, testing it a bit. And she is such a dangerous player, I couldn’t contain her at all. I kept worrying instead of focusing on the match.

Whenever she gets the chance to kill it, she’ll go for it and I think I was struggling a bit at the start to find my targets and try to get her to the back, so I could start attacking. It took me some time, but I managed to turn it around and push her deep so I could attack when I had the chance.

But finally, after I took the second game, my two coaches, Mohamed Ali Rede and my brother Islam told me that I was in it, and that I just had to play my game.

Once I relaxed and felt a bit more comfortable, I was not under as much pressure, and not running as much!

So happy to get through against such a great player and also very  happy to be playing a big Platinum event in Egypt. Thank you to the sponsors and Black Ball Sporting Club, it means everything because you get to have your family support you and your friends, so I’m very pleased to win today and looking forward to taking this forward.