El Tayeb Secures Spot In Final With Ferocious Win Over Home Favourite

Egypt’s Nour El Tayeb claimed the last place in Sunday’s Squash in the Land finals after a ruthless performance to beat out home favourite Olivia Weaver in straight games.

The Egyptian looked as though she could do no wrong in the beginning phase of play, as she accumulated five unanswered points. Weaver’s physicality couldn’t make up for the pin-point accuracy of the No.2 seed, and El Tayeb cruised to a 1-0 lead finishing the near-perfect first game 11-3 after scoring an outrageous cross-court nick on game ball.

Weaver, seemingly recovered from her difficult start to the match, kept up with the No.2 seed, trading points to 3-4 in long, demanding rallies, but despite some excellent squash from the American, she wasn’t able to take a lead in the game. El Tayeb looked the more clinical as she pushed on to give herself four game balls.

The Egyptian only needed one game ball, however, and took a 2-0 lead in the match after a stroke conceded by a tiring Weaver.

The No.3 seed played her best squash of the match as she pushed to establish a foothold in the match. Weaver continued to rely on her physicality, which El Tayeb struggled to keep up with, but the burst of energy couldn’t last for the entire game, and the American slowed down and allowed El Tayeb back into the game.

El Tayeb closed the gap to 4-5 before hitting an inch-perfect backhand straight drive past a planted Weaver to level the scoring. El Tayeb stayed as consistent and ruthless as she had been for the previous two games, an it was too much for the World No.7 to deal with as she took an 8-6 lead in the match.

The last phase of the game saw action-packed, court-covering rallies as Weaver used her energy reserves to try to remain in the match, but El Tayeb was still winning more points, and at 10-8, a backhand straight drive that had its second bounce tuck irretrievably into the back-left corner to give El Tayeb a place in the final.

“I felt confident, but then she [Olivia Weaver] takes it away from you when she’s hard to beat for every point,” said El Tayeb after the match.

“Last time we played she beat me in the U.S. so I know how dangerous she is and she’s above me in the rankings so she doesn’t need me to say how good she is.

“It was hard to stay composed and not get stuck into her game, but all the matches today were very nice and I felt a bit of pressure with the intensity and with the emotions of all the matches today! I wanted to play like that – I wanted to win but win or lose, I just wanted to play with a lot of emotions.”

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Result: Squash in the Land Presented by Greater Cleveland Squash 2024 Women’s Semi-Final
[2] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt [3] Olivia Weaver (USA) 3-0: 11-4, 11-6, 11-8 (38m)