Orfi Riding Wave Of Confidence Ahead Of Malaysia Cup Opener

Egypt’s teenage sensation Amina Orfi is riding a wave of confidence ahead of her appearance at the Ace Malaysia Squash Cup 2023 after creating history in her first few months as a full-time PSA World Tour player. 

At the age of 16 years and three months, Orfi became the youngest ever player to reach the last eight of a PSA World Tour Platinum event after she overcame World No.4 Joelle King at the U.S. Open presented by TRUIST- a run which subsequently saw her rise into the world’s top 20 for the very first time. 

Orfi’s superb start to the season has seen her drawn as the No.6 seed in this week’s Bronze-level event in Seremban, with the rising star set to face Spaniard Marta Dominguez Fernandez in her opening bout, before potentially facing World No.6 Nour El Tayeb in the quarter-finals if the event were to go to seeding. 

On how she has adapted to playing full-time on tour this season, Orfi said: “I wasn’t really ready for it at the beginning. It was a new experience for me because last year I wasn’t playing with the top players that often, so I had to adapt. 

“I felt after the World Juniors, I had Paris straight afterwards, so perhaps I was a little tired from that. Then when I played in Qatar, I had just begun school, so I also wasn’t training as I should have been.

“At the U.S. Open I felt like I was walking in with more confidence and more belief that I could play with them, compete with them and possibly beat them. 

“Coming into the Malaysia Cup, I am the 6th seed for the tournament, so it gives me confidence that I can go for it more. 

“I feel more confident in myself and now that I am ranked 20th in the world, it gives me an idea about the level that I should be playing at. Coming into this tournament, I am not going to have too many expectations of myself, but I feel I can do something big and something good. 

“I’ll focus on every match, and whoever I am playing is now not going to be under much pressure, so it kind of reminds me of when I was playing as a junior – there was never any pressure, so I know what that feels like.”

It is easy to forget that Orfi is still just a teenager after witnessing her go toe-to-toe with the world’s best players with apparent ease over the last 18 months.

However, along with playing on the PSA World Tour, the Egyptian has had to juggle completing her school work on a daily basis, even if this is done while travelling or mid-way through an event.

“I still do school every day, but I travel a lot,” she said. “So when I am at a tournament, after my match, I have to catch up with my school work, so I travel back to the hotel and get it done. 

“It’s a bit difficult, but I feel it is a privilege to be playing in these tournaments, so I will do whatever it takes to play in them. 

“It’s very annoying because when you’re in a new country, you want to explore and walk around a bit. I just do it so I can then focus on my matches. When it is done, my mind is always clear and ready for my match.”

Orfi has already managed to mix it with the very best during her rapid rise up the rankings, coming close to staging some huge upsets against the likes of World No.3 Hania El Hammamy and World No.5 Amanda Sobhy. 

Despite eventually bowing out at the hands of El Hammamy in the last sixteen stage of the PSA World Championships last season, Orfi went down swinging, having almost forced an astonishing comeback from 2-0 down. 

After bringing the match all square, it was El Hammamy who eventually managed to squeeze out the win by an 11-9 scoreline in a pulsating fifth game, but the match wasn’t without its controversy, with the victory sealed on a no-let decision against Orfi. 

Again this season, the teenager came within touching distance of another major shock when falling out to Sobhy in the U.S. Open quarter-finals in a fifth and final game, having held a 2-1 lead earlier in the match.

On the lessons learnt from these two blockbuster encounters, Orfi said: “In Chicago when I lost to Hania, I wasn’t too upset because I possibly wasn’t used to the refereeing, and it was obviously different.

“I was 2-0 down in that match, and I felt that towards the end when it was 9-9 [in the fifth game] I couldn’t believe what was happening.

“I thought to myself that I could possibly come back from two games down against the World No.3 in the World Championships. But because I was thinking about it [the comeback], it didn’t help me when taking the decision on the let or no let. 

“And then at the U.S. Open, I felt that I was in control of the match, and maybe a review shifted the momentum of the match in the fourth game, and so I am trying to learn from these moments. 

“Just sometimes when you are in the match, you can’t take the proper decision.”

Having already played a number of high-pressure matches in the early stages of her burgeoning career, Orfi admitted that she has been looking back in an attempt to tinker and mature her game. 

The three-time PSA title winner said that her noticeably calm demeanour at the U.S. Open last month was a specific ploy she had looked to work on, with this tactic especially evident in her four-game victory over New Zealand No.1 King. 

She said: “It was something that I was working on before the U.S. Open. I was trying to stay calm and stay focused. 

“Even after the match, I didn’t celebrate too much because I knew I had another match afterwards and I wasn’t finished yet. 

“I feel I still have a lot to do in terms of maturity and my game, but in recent tournaments I felt like I needed to put the emotions and the thinking behind me and try to focus on my squash, and play it point by point.”

Although Orfi is due to feature in this week’s Malaysia Cup as well as the Hong Kong Football Club Open before the next Platinum level event – the Hong Kong Squash Open – and the Cairo-born player is looking forward to once again playing on the big stage. 

After reaching the second round in Paris, the last sixteen in Doha, and the quarter-finals in Philadelphia, Orfi is hoping to continue this positive trend and go one better in her fourth Platinum event of the season. 

She said: “I have the Malaysian Open and the Hong Kong Football Club before then, so I feel it is very good preparation because obviously I don’t want to not play any tournaments between the big ones.

“Hopefully, I can rise up the rankings a bit before Hong Kong, gain more confidence and then maybe reach the semi-finals of a Platinum event.”