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WISPA Semi-Finals:
Engy's experience tells,
Sherbini too sharp
With three teenagers in the WISPA
semi-finals, there was only one chance for
experience to tell, and top seed Engy
Kheirallah duly took it as she ended the run
of America's Amanda Sobhy.
With the match broadcast live on Nile TV,
the Egyptian took early control and never
relinquished it as Sobhy suffered from a few
too many errors on the very hot centre
court.
The second match featured two of Egypt's
brightest up and coming stars, 15-year-old
Kanzy El Defrawy Nour El Sherbini, just 13.
Both had been impressive in their earlier
rounds, but Sherbini's defeat of top
Egyptian junior Heba El Torky was especially
impressive, and the three-time BJO champion
continued to be so in this match.
Both strike the ball well, but Sherbini's
movement is sharper, and her range of shots
greater, and she's taller, too. After
closing out a tight first game on extra
points - although she was never behind -
Sherbini held the upper hand throughout the
next two games, and although the rallies
were always competitive she always looked
the likely winner.
Both are 9/16 seeds in the forthcoming world
juniors in Chennai (Sobhy is 17/32), but on
this week's evidence we could quite easily
see a 13-year-old world finalist ...
|
 ATCO
Miro Classic 2009
26-29 Jun, Cairo, Egypt, $8k |
Round One
27 Jun |
Quarters
27 Jun |
Semis
28 Jun |
Final
29 Jun |
[1] Engy Kheirallah (Egy)
11/4, 11/4, 11/4
[Q] Haida Lala (Egy) |
[1] Engy Kheirallah
11/7, 11/4, 11/6
Nour Baghat |
[1] Engy Kheirallah
11/5, 11/6, 11/4 (20m)
[7] Amanda Sobhy |
[1] Engy Kheirallah
11/8, 11/9,
7/11, 7/11, 11/7
Nour El Sherbini |
[8] Milou Van Der Heijden (Ned)
11/8, 11/4, 11/3
Nour Baghat (Egy) |
[3] Lucie Fialova (Cze)
11/8, 11/8, 11/5
Salma Hany (Egy) |
[3] Lucie Fialova
11/7, 4/11, 11/4, 11/4
[7] Amanda Sobhy |
[7] Amanda Sobhy (Usa)
11/6, 9/11, 11/6, 11/6
Salma Nassar (Egy) |
[Q] Yathreb Adel (Egy)
11/8, 11/8, 12/10
[5] Olivia Blatchford (Usa) |
[Q] Yathreb Adel
11/8, 8/11, 11/7, 11/5
[4] Kanzy El Defrawy |
[4] Kanzy El Defrawy
12/10, 11/6, 11/6 (45m)
Nour El Sherbini |
Merhan Amr Mahmoud (Egy)
4/11, 11/1, 11/7, 11/3
[4] Kanzy El Defrawy (Egy) |
Farah Abdel Meguid (Egy)
11/6, 11/4, 11/5
[6] Linda Hruzikova (Svk) |
[6] Linda Hruzikova
11/5, 11/2, 11/4
Nour El Sherbini |
Nour El Sherbini (Egy)
11/9, 11/7, 11/6
[2] Heba El Torky (Egy) |
26-Jun, Qualifying:
Haida Lala
(Egy) bt Zephanie Curgenven (Eng)
11/4, 11/6, 11/7
Yathreb Adel (Egy) bt Sherouk Ehab
Roushdy (Egy)
11/13, 11/6, 11/2 rtd
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WISPA
Quarters:
Sherbiny sails on
The best that Egypt's five quarter-finalists
could yield was three places in the semis,
and that's exactly what they achieved as the
upsets continued in the second round of play
in the WISPA event.
Top seed Engy Kheirallah had little
trouble in ending the run of Nour Baghat,
one of the afternoon giant-killers, but at
the other end of the draw there was no
stopping young Sherbiny as the
13-year-old continued to make hay with the
seedings.
Her victim this time was sixth seed Linda
Hruzikova, the Slovakian having little
answer to Sherbiny's power and shotmaking.
 That
wasn't the end of the upsets either, as
another youngster, USA's Amanda Sobhy,
made it a bad day for the Eastern Europeans
as she played a confident, strong game to
oust third seed Lucie Fialova. Sobhy then
went virtually straight back onto court, to
win her U19 quarter-final 13/11 in the
fifth!
Sobhy meets Kheirallah for a place in the
final while Sherbiny meets her slightly
older compatriot Kanzy El Defrawy,
who ended the run of qualifier Yathreb Adel
to set up a repeat of their nailbiting BJO
final earlier in the year.
Nour won that one, just, and looks to have
improved significantly since then, but so
too has Kanzy, one of the star pupils of the
ATCO academy. It should be a good 'un ...
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WISPA
Round One:
Draw & Results
Sherbiny shines
as hosts take five
 It was a good day for Egypt in the first
round of the ATCO Miro Classic - but then it
would be, as 12 of the starting 16 hailed
from the host nation - as the local girls
grabbed five quarter-final places.
Top seed Engy Kheirallah had no
trouble in getting past young qualifier
Haida Lala, and she will meet Nour Baghat,
who ousted Milou Van Der Heijden in straight
games.
 A non-Egyptian semi-finalist is guaranteed
though, with Lucie Fialova and
Amanda Sobhy both beating Salmas - Hany
and Nassar respectively.
Qualifier Yathreb Adel produced a big
upset as she beat fifth seed Olivia
Blatchford, the American never looking
properly settled as she lost three close
games. Adel meets compatriot Kanzy El
Defrawy for a place in the semis.
Slovakia's Linda Hruzikova took the
seventh quarter-final place with a
comfortable win over Farah Meguid, and will
face Nour El Sherbiny, who created a
huge upset in beating second seed Heba El
Torky.
 Before the match Nour's coach told me that
she had won their last encounter 17/15 in
the fifth, and that may have been preying on
Heba's mind as she struggled to impose
herself on her young compatriot.
Heba looked at times to be trying too hard,
leading to too many loose balls and strokes
against her, while Nour remained calm and
steady throughout. The youngster took, and
held, leads in the first two games and came
from behind in the third to take the match
with a run of eight unanswered points.
They have six British Junior Open titles
between them, but El Torky, ranked 42 in the
world, has one more (and of course next
month's world juniors in Chennai, where she
is second seed) before she leaves the junior
ranks while El Sherbiny, five years her
junior, is aiming to win five more, and on
today's evidence I'm not betting against it
..
Draw & Results
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