El Hammamy, El Sherbini set-up all-Egyptian final

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September 14, 2023
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14-September-2023

El Hammamy, El Sherbini set-up all-Egyptian final

Doha: Egypt’s Hania El Hammamy on Thursday ended the spectacular run of American star Amanda Sobhy in straight games to reach the final of the QTerminals Qatar Classic.

Tied 2-2 all in head-to-head meetings prior to Thursday’s dominant show, El Hammamy won 11-4, 11-6, 12-10 in 34 minutes on the Glass Court at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.

In the final today, El Hammamy will meet Egyptian Nour El Sherbini who outclassed Belgium’s Tinne Gilis 11-5, 11-6, 11-2.

“That was exactly the type of form I was looking to find in Paris, but I wasn’t able to. I’m definitely very proud of how I’m picking myself up,” El Hammamy, 23, said.

“Each match, I’ve been working on improving each round, each game and I’m very positive of the way I’m doing on court this week,” El Hammamy said after the match against an opponent who stunned top seed Nouran Gohar on Wednesday. “Amanda had a good win last night and she’s very dangerous on the volley. I just tried to stick to my plan, and I’m very pleased that I managed,” the Cairo-born added.

“I’m just human, I think I just lost focus a bit in the middle. But we’re all athletes, we’re all human and it happens, it’s just something that I need to focus a little bit on, but overall I think I’m doing pretty well,” the Egyptian said.

El Hammamy seemed least troubles in the match except for a little while in the final game when the American was able to saved one match ball to force a tie break at 10-10. El Hammamy, however, was unperturbed, calmly resetting and regaining match ball before keeping her cool as a Sobhy error got her over the line.

El Sherbini, also known as ‘The Warrior Princess’, on Thursday made it 6-0 in head-to-head meetings against Gilis after her 25-minute win on Thursday. El Sherbini said on Thursday: “It’s amazing to be playing (against Gilis) like this. She’s had an amazing tournament and we’ve been training together a lot, we’ve actually being doing the same routine every day!” She added: “She has a lot of potential and this is her place. You’re going to see her at this stage a lot this season. For me, I’m really happy with my performance.”

Makin beats Lobban, Hesham stuns ‘angry’ ElShorbagy
In the men’s draw, Welshman Joel Makin beat Scotland’s Greg Lobban in straight games to reach the semi-final of the $187,500 event. Makin, playing his first Platinum quarter-final, won 11-2, 11-9, 11-5 in 46 minutes. This will be Makin’s second semi-final in Qatar after his win over Mazen Hesham in 2021.

Makin said on Thursday: “When he was coming back in the second he was dangerous. I always back myself when it goes longer and I’d put some good work into him. The longer it was going to go I’d always favour myself, but on a cold court when he’s attacking there are always threats.”

In the semi-finals today, Makin will play top seed Ali Farag of Egypt who beat compatriot and eighth seed Tarek Momen 11-9, 8-11, 15-13, 11-4 in 69 minutes.

In another quarter-final, Egypt’s Hesham stunned world no. 4 Mohamed ElShorbagy of England 8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9, 12-10 in 76 minutes.

The deciding point was marred with controversy as ElShorbagy, who claimed to be unprepared, played Hesham’s serve into the side wall.

To the England No.1’s fury, it was deemed that he had accepted the serve, costing him the point and handing the match to Hesham. Afterwards, Hesham told the media: “I’m pretty happy to be able to reach the semi-final after so many years.

“I wish I could have done better from the beginning, I had two leads in the first two games but blew it. I think what I can get from this match is... when I was 10-8 down I felt a feeling I’ve never felt before. I believed I could turn this around. He added: “I wish I could have a better start, I wish I could have kept going in the fifth (game) when I was leading. I’m learning, it’s all new to me. Hopefully I can learn from this and get even better in the future.”

Hesham added On the controversial ending: “Think about it, if I play the serve and he plays it into the front wall, he was going to take it and I’m fine with that.”