El Hammamy Beats Sobhy to Reach QTerminals Qatar Classic Women’s Final

Egypt’s Hania El Hammamy is into the final of the QTerminals Qatar Classic after a dominant win against USA’s Amanda Sobhy.

The pair went into the match with a 2-2 head-to-head record in their last four meetings, though El Hammamy will have taken confidence from her 6-4 overall record against Sobhy as well as the convincing 3-0 win the World No.3 recorded over Sobhy in the quarter-finals of this year’s World Championships.

Sobhy, though, came into the match in good form, with the World No.5 capturing headlines in the quarter-finals with her 3-0 win against top seed Nouran Gohar.

In a one-sided first game, it was El Hammamy who took the lead, with the 23-year-old deadly at the front in an 11-4 win.

The Egyptian picked up where up she left off in game two and – save for a short spell where Sobhy found a measure of control in the middle – was able to double her lead in relative comfort, moving 2-0 up after an 11-6 win.

The American was able to mount better resistance in the third game and 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.

Afterwards, El Hammamy said:

“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.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Result: QTerminals Qatar Classic Women’s Semi-Final

[3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) bt [7] Amanda Sobhy (USA) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 12-10 (34m)