SF: Satomi upsets the seeding and the crowd….

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[3] Satomi Watanabe (JPN) 3-1 [2] Amina Orfi (EGY)  7-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-8 (54m)

Let start by saying that if it’s a bit of a surprise result – their last two encounters ended with an Egyptian victory – Amina didn’t do much wrong today. Again, that amazing young lady made only one error in the whole match. At 17.

It was a very good start from the Egyptian, who seemed to handle the pressure of playing home and being favourite, very well. 2/3, 7/3. Only winners from the Japanese to come back level 7/7, 4 points, but Amina manages to force a couple of errors and finds winners of her own, and it’s 4 points for her, 11/7, 11m.

The second is I believe the turning point. Even if Amina took the first game, she had to do a lot of work to cover Satomi’s attacks, and she feels it a bit in the middle of the second game. Up 5/3, she cannot contain the accuracy coming from the Japanese racquet, 5 points straight, 8/5.

9/6, 10/7, and finally 11/8 in again 11m. The crowd is stunned.

The third is even more damaging for Amina’s supporters, as the score is close 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6. Nail biting stuff. But again, a string of points from Satomi, out of the blue and it’s 10/7, game ball.

Bit of nerves creeping in the Japanese game it seems, and hope comes back in Amina’s camp, as she finds superb winners, 9/10. But a no let destroys the coming back and it’s 11/9, again 11m.

Satomi is in control in the 4th, 3/0, 4/1, 7/3. It looks like it’s all over but it’s not what Amina has in mind. She claws back to 6/7, but it’s like Satomi is freer on court, and she get her first match ball, 10/7. One saved, 8/10. But a video decision – Stroke – ends Amina’s run in the event. Maybe a bit of a harsh one, I will look at it again. 11/8, 13m, match to Satomi.

Satomi : “It’s definitely never easy playing Amina. I think she’s beat me 3-0 before but I don’t think I’ve ever beat her 3-0 or 3-1 – it’s always a 3-2 big battle. I’m really pleased to get through today.

“Every day there is different conditions and the first game was really for me to adjust and to see how I’m hitting the ball and how the lengths are dropping. There was a lot of unforced errors but I wasn’t really too stressed about it – I knew what I was doing, I stuck with the same game plan that was winning me points. I just trust that process and it turned out to be a really good plan tonight.”