Malaysia Cup SFs: El Tayeb Rallies To Defeat Subramaniam 

No.1 seed Nour El Tayeb fought back from a game down to defeat home favourite Sivasangari Subramaniam and book her place in the final of the Ace Malaysia Squash Cup against Rachel Arnold.

In front of a partisan home crowd, Subramaniam showed no signs of nerves as she burst out of the blocks and took an early 4-1 lead through a variety of smart play. Despite this initial flurry of points, the experienced El Tayeb slowly worked her way into the encounter and soon found herself two game balls up in the first.

From there, though, Subramaniam rattled off four straight points, including a contentious shot which seemed to clip the line on the front wall, to take the first game.

El Tayeb, who was still visibly riled up about the referee’s line-call, let her racket do the talking in the second, getting her nose in front early on and powering ahead to level proceedings at a game a piece.

Costly mistakes started to creep into Subramaniam’s game as the match moved into the third, with the World No.32 hitting a regulation backhand into the tin to fall 8-7 down and again repeating this error at game ball down to allow her opponent to move 2-1 up.

Subramaniam’s frustration continued to simmer in the fourth as the Malaysian mixed some outstanding stroke play with some occasional loose lengths. El Tayeb raced into a 7-2 lead and never looked back, negating everything her opponent threw at her and turning defence into attack superbly.

Despite a brief comeback from the No.7 seed, El Tayeb finished the match off without any issues, taking the final game 11-6 and progressing through to her second final of the season.

After the match, the Egyptian top seed said: “I am really happy. It was a tough game to back up after yesterday’s match. I am over 30 now, so I can feel the recovery is slowing down big time, so it was hard at the beginning of the match.

“Siva was very smart today and it took me a while to get used to her game, but I’m glad I managed to get into the match quickly and play well towards the end.

“I don’t have the luxury of running around as I did a few years ago, but I think that I am smarter now and I hope I have more maturity in my game now.

“The recovery, the sleep and all these things around the squash are key now, so I hope that I can keep doing them so I can back up match after match.

“Rachel [Arnold] is Malaysian, and they all play well here, but I’m counting on her having played more tough matches [than me]. She has played a lot of big matches, but we are friends, so it’s hopefully a good game tomorrow, and hopefully I play well.”

Result

[1] Nour El Tayeb (EGY) bt [7] Sivasangari Subramaniam (MAS) 3-1: 10-12, 11-3, 11-9, 11-6 (45m)