SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open: El Hammamy Beats Orfi in Intense Quarter-Final Clash

Hania El Hammamy battled past Amina Orfi in the last quarter-final match at the SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open. 

The two young Egyptians, who shared a five-game thriller at last season’s PSA World Championships, put on a show for the watching Florida crowd, going toe-toe-toe across four intense games. 

There was little to separate the two throughout the opening game, with Orfi having a game ball at 10-9 up, only to be denied by a brilliant switch of play on the backhand side by El Hammamy. 

The 16-year-old did get herself on the board in game two, though, hitting a deep forehand drive which was too good for El Hammamy on game ball, levelling the score at one game apiece after 38 minutes. 

The pair were then locked at 3-3 in game three when El Hammamy hit another brilliant backhand to send Orfi the wrong way, and that appeared to shift the momentum in her favour, as she ran away with the game to win it 11-4. 

That momentum continued into game four as the World No.3 raced into a 4-0 lead, but Orfi hit back once more, winning six points on the bounce to get her nose back in front in the game. 

But the 23-year-old El Hammamy then put together a defining run of her own, winning the next eight points to clinch victory.  

“It was a very tough match to be honest,” El Hammamy said after the win. 

“Amina is a very good player, she’s still 16 but the maturity and the level she’s playing at is definitely not 16, and I needed to be prepared very well. 

“Mentally and physically she’s still young, she’s still fresh so she can match me physically, she can match be mentally, she has nothing to lose and I just had to be prepared.  

“But I’m definitely pleased with that performance. There’s probably a couple of areas in the second game that made me play a fourth, but overall I’m happy with that performance. 

Speaking on the last two games, she added: “I tried to stick to my gameplan even more and reduce the errors that I made in the second, and that definitely made the difference.  

“She’s very hungry and she plays until the last point. It didn’t matter if I was 10-4 up or 9-0 up, whatever the score is, she doesn’t care and she’s firing everything at me, so I had to play as if it was the first point.” 

Result: [3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt [6] Amina Orfi (EGY) 3-1: 12-10, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6 (64m)