Kennedy Downs El Tayeb In See-Saw El Gouna International Quarter-Final Encounter

England’s Georgina Kennedy defeated Egypt’s Nour El Tayeb in an exciting 3-2 clash to reach the semi-finals of the 2024 El Gouna International Squash Open.

El Tayeb had won five of their six previous clashes, with Kennedy’s only win coming in the Best-Of-Three format in the second round of the 2022-2023 World Tour Finals.

The two physical players appeared evenly matched as the hot outdoor court at the El Gouna Conference and Culture Center assured long, tiring rallies. The Englishwoman and the Egyptian traded points to a tie-break, and a slip from El Tayeb at 11-10 gave Kennedy a 1-0 lead.

The England No.1 struggled to manage the unpredictability of her opponent in the second game as the Egyptian dispatched Kennedy 11-3.

As both struggled to assert dominance on the match, Kennedy retaliated in the second game and controlled the pace of play as she surged to an 11-5 win to reclaim the advantage in the match.

The two players jostled for control of the match, but El Tayeb looked as ruthless as in the second game and won game four 11-3.

In an end to the see-saw encounter, Kennedy took early command of the decisive fifth game with a 5-0 lead. El Tayeb fought back, but found difficulty containing the Englishwoman as she pushed on to win the game 11-4 and claim victory in the 60-minute affair.

“Before, when I’ve played Nour she’s made me open the court way too early and today I wanted to push her back as far as I could and still be positive,” said Kennedy after the match.

“In a length game, I can’t match her skills by any means so I really wanted to attack the back and take it in short when she was behind me. I can’t read her from the front when she has time.

“I’m really happy with that. Besides the first game, scores weren’t that close and once someone got off to a start it was really hard.

“I think I played a really good fifth. I could feel her drop off in some of the games but her class shone through.

“I’m really relieved to get through that. I’m a bit shellshocked to be honest, I’ve not beaten her [except] when she was injured at World Tour Finals so this is a really big win for me.”

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Result:
[4] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) bt [6] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) 3-2: 12-10, 4-11, 11-5, 3-11, 11-4 (60m)