Waters Races To Hurghada Quarters
12 May 2005
Young England squash star Alison Waters took just 17 minutes to book her place in the quarter-finals of the Women's Hurghada International in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada when she despatched local player Amnah El Trabolsy for the loss of only three points.
Waters has been steadily rising up the rankings since reaching the semi-finals last year. Now in the world top twenty, the 21-year-old Londoner was just too far forward in the court and too steady for her marginally younger rival. El Trabolsy, a qualifier who is studying industrial engineering in Alexandria, was too often caught out by tight boasts and drops and so Waters reduced the crowd to virtual silence.
El Trabolsy's first point came at the start of the third and brought the crowd to life - rapturous applause, repeated moments later as she won her second. But this was a short-lived revival as Waters cantered home 9-0 9-0 9-3.
The crowd that thronged around the court set up on the promenade were confident of cheering a home winner later when second seed Omneya Abdel Kawy took on fellow Egyptian Eman El Amir. Both players (along with Engy Kheirallah) had been in the winning team in the World Junior Championship in 1999 - since when Abdel Kawy has won the World Junior individual title and risen to the top ten.
Clad in her characteristic black, Abdel Kawy maintained a solid length and combined inducing mistakes from El Amir with an assured touch on her drops - ultimately securing an anticipated victory.
It was the sort of comfortable start that Abdel Kawy craved: "I was really worried. The crowd put me under a lot of pressure as I was in the final last year, saying that I really have to be there this time too," said the 19-year from Cairo after her 9-2 9-2 9-1 win in 27 minutes. "Eman is a really good player and when she is in the mood she really gets her shots."
The final member of the Egyptian quartet was Raneem El Weleily, the new kid on the block. Only just sixteen she has been tipped for success - maybe at the World Juniors this year, but if not the next one in two years' time! Voted by the WISPA membership as the 'Young Player of the Year' in 2004, the schoolgirl from Alexandria showed off to the public and national TV audience her mature approach and general tactical awareness - but only after she had shrugged off the cloak of nerves that wrapped her at the start of her match against Malaysia's seventh seed Sharon Wee.
The Egyptian teenager led 2/1 and 6-2 before her squash brain switched off. The experienced Wee fought back, however, to claim a 9-2 1-9 2-9 9-7 9-7 victory in 51 minutes.
"When I was losing the fourth, I thought that if I used my experience and hung in I could make her lose focus and it worked," said the Belgium-based Malaysian afterwards. "But she is very, very fast at the front and a really great prospect for her age."
The last match was an all-Oceania affair in which New Zealand's third seed Shelley Kitchen wasted no time in beating Australian Dianne Desira.
Desira had come over from Australia on her way to an Australian doubles camp in England, in preparation for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games early next year. The 23-year-old from Melbourne hadn't expected to get beyond the first round.
"It was a good opportunity and I had heard so much about this event," said Desira after her 9-3 9-2 9-3 loss to Kitchen. "The court and the whole set up in Hurghada are really great."
1st round:
[5] Alison Waters (ENG) bt [Q] Amnah El Trabolsy (EGY) 9-0, 9-0, 9-3 (17m)
[3] Shelley Kitchen (NZL) bt Dianne Desira (AUS) 9-3, 9-2, 9-3 (24m)
[7] Sharon Wee (MAS) bt [Q] Raneem El Weleily (EGY) 9-2, 1-9, 2-9, 9-7, 9-7 (51m)
[2] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) bt Eman El Amir (EGY) 9-2, 9-2, 9-1 (27m)