F: Nouran Steamrolls Satomi
[1] Nouran Gohar (EGY) 3-0 [3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 11-5, 11-5, 11-4 (38m)
Nouran didn’t take any prisoners today. It was the 5th time they met and out of those 4 matches played, Satomi only took a game.
Yes, Nouran has another event in a few days – heard of a little Diamond called British Open? – and wanted to waste as little energy as possible. But I feel there is another incentive for the Terminator – yes, it’s her club, she is so grateful to them, of course.
A little inside the Tour: this morning, at breakfast, I see Nouran arriving at her table, and being extremely busy, you know, fetching this, and that, 4 glasses with different fruit juices – from far looked like Orange and Strawberry. I was a bit surprised by the number of glasses and food quantity as Nouran was on a her own.
But in comes the husband, Ziad, one of Egypt top athletes, hoping to get the medal in LA he didn’t get in Paris. Those two make an extraordinary cute couple – see the advert, I was awwwhhhhhhh… And that’s what Nouran was a busy bee: preparing everything for her love. I know, it might be trivial or even old-fashioned to you, but that’s something that my generation would do… And I love it.
Yes, so I think one of the incentives was the presence of her husband, which is not an usual happening. That’s my story and I’ll stick to it. SUE ME!
It took 5 points for Nouran to take the measure of her dangerous opponent. Down 5/1 in the opener, the Terminator zoomed to 11/5. 15m game.
From that point on, the Egptian never looked back: 10m second game, 11/5 again, and 9m last game, 11/4. She forced a few errors out of the Japanese, by taking the time away from her, and blasting off to the back. Typical Nouran.
She looks very, very, very impressive at the moment. With Hania out of the British, it’s going to be much opened draw for her as well… only saying…
Nouran
“We are both competing at the British Open, and before a last change of draw, I was going to play Satome first round. I’m very happy the draw changed…
“Every time she plays against me, she brings her better standard and game, she keeps on studying her opponent very well, and making the final here is huge. It was all the Egyptians playing so it’s incredible to see a level like this, and it’s very good for the sport.
“All credit to her, she improved so much and congratulations to her team as well. It was good to compete against her today.
“I mean it’s my home crowd right! I felt extremely happy to be competing, seriously, I have played many finals, over 60 finals, but today felt very special. I keep saying it, since I wear this brand on my t-shirt, it has been my lucky charm, and I’ve been playing my best squash”
“Thank you Palm Hills for everything, thank you Mr Yassin, thank you for everything. He is my biggest supporter since I started playing squash. Thank you so much for everything.
“I can’t forget Eva, Mr Tarek and all the marketing team. They do an incredible job, its on the highest level, you see this, this is a Gold event, and this should be a world championship, so Palm Hills keep bringing the high standard.
“I am just lucky to be a part of this and hopefully I can keep going and playing like this.
“I’m looking forward to my off season and my summer vacation, being on the beach, but before I need to put my hands on two more trophies hopefully!”
