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SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open: El Sherbini Caps Dominant Week With Title Win
Nour El Sherbini kicked off the new year in style, producing a clinical performance to beat Hania El Hammamy 3-0 in the SmartCentres Kinetic Florida Open final.
El Sherbini had not dropped a game coming into this final, while the No.3 seed had needed four games to beat Amina Orfi in the quarter-finals and then come through an epic 99-minute matchup with Nouran Gohar in the last four.
Given that difference in minutes on court, it was perhaps no surprise that it was El Sherbini who made the better start, controlling the early rallies before closing out game one when an El Hammamy lob went out.
Any thoughts of another comfortable game for the top seed were quickly dispelled in game two, as El Hammamy found herself 9-4 up inside 10 minutes, but El Sherbini proved her class, reeling off seven points on the bounce – the last two on stroke decisions – to snatch the game away from her opponent.
Determined not to give up without a fight, El Hammamy continued to throw everything at El Sherbini, even giving herself whiplash after a sprawling dive on the backhand side.
But her efforts would ultimately prove to be in vain, as El Sherbini made the most of her freshness to clinch game three 11-7 to secure the 38th title of her PSA career.
“I’m very pleased, very happy with my performance,” she said after victory.
“I’m very happy with the way I played, very happy with the start of the new year. It’s definitely a positive start, so hopefully it keeps going like this.
“I’m really pleased with how I’m playing, how I’m attacking, and I think I’ve improved from the first round until the finals, and I’m definitely playing good squash that I’m really happy with.
“Hania definitely wasn’t playing her best and she was feeling it from the past couple of matches, but I’ll just take the win and keep going.”
Result: [1] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt [3] Hania El Hammamy (EGY) 3-0: 11-5, 11-9, 11-7 (39m)
