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Windy City Open 2024 Presented By The Walter Family SF: El Sherbini Battles Past Kennedy to Reach Final
Nour El Sherbini reached her sixth final of the season, battling past England’s Georgina Kennedy 3-1 in the Windy City Open semi-finals.
The World No.1 had never lost in her eight previous matchups with Kennedy, but was made to work for her place in the final in Chicago, needing 45 minutes to complete the win.
Targeting a 13th straight win on the PSA Tour, El Sherbini made a typically strong start, needing only eight minutes to take one game, crunching a forehand winner down the line on her first of five game balls.
But anyone watching who thought it would be one-way traffic from there was in for a shock, as Kennedy took control of the second, dominating the T and not allowing El Sherbini to volley nearly as much as she would have liked.
A 5-3 lead soon turned into six game balls for the English No.1 at 10-4, with things seemingly going against the Egyptian, who needed a new racket after breaking her strings.
Kennedy’s nerves would have been jangling after an El Sherbini fightback made it 10-8, but the World No.9 kept her cool and avoided an error, with an El Sherbini tin halting the comeback in its tracks.
El Sherbini remained somewhat off her best in game three, needing a tie break to get herself back in front, after Kennedy had found a well-timed nick to save the first game ball at 10-9 down.
The point that did eventually clinch the tie break for El Sherbini was a timely reminder of her quality, though, hitting a perfect length on a forehand to the back right-hand corner, off balance towards the back of the court as she hit the shot herself.
Kennedy remained stubborn right until the end and would have been sensing a deciding fifth at 8-6 up, but once again, El Sherbini’s quality showed through.
She hit three winning drop shots in a row – one on the forehand and two on the backhand – to help erase the deficit and bring up match ball, which saw Kennedy hit the tin to bring an end to her campaign.
“It was a tough match, Gina was playing really well, and she’s been playing amazingly the whole tournament,” El Sherbini said after her win.
“I knew it was going to be a tough one. We had some tough matches last year, so I’m happy I won and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s finals.
Dicussing the second game, she added: “My string broke, I hit two tins and I had no lets, so four or five points ran away. I tried to come back, relax and play point by point. I was coming back but it didn’t go my way.
“I tried not to think too much about what happened in the second game, I tried to focus on the third game. It went to a tie-break but I’m glad I won that game.
“When you’re not playing your best squash, you have to push yourself mentally and physically and believe you can win even if you’re not playing the squash you want to play. You have the experience and the fight that you can win any match in any conditions. You’re not going to play amazing squash every time, so I didn’t put any pressure on myself and tried to win the match.
“All that matters is that you win at the end.”
Result:
[1] Nour ElSherbini (EGY) bt [5] Georgina Kennedy (ENG) 3-1: 11-5, 8-11, 12-10, 11-8 (45m)
