Tournament of Champions RD2: Gohar Powers Past Fuller

Egypt’s World No.3 Nouran Gohar was in spellbinding form to ease past South Africa’s World No.41 Alexandra Fuller in straight games in round two of the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions taking place at New York’s Grand Central Terminal.

The PSA Platinum event marks the first tournament back for the women since their World Championship in Egypt in November, but Gohar showed she had picked up where she left off as she showed no signs of being rusty to punish Fuller with her accurate hitting to take an 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 win in just 19 minutes.

2019 U.S. Open champion Gohar will come up against either compatriot Hania El Hammamy or Mariam Metwally in the last 16 as the 22-year-old looks to go one better than her semi-final finish in 2016.

“The US might be my lucky place!” said Gohar afterwards.

“I was struggling a little bit during the season of 2017/2018, after being so young and winning so many matches, so I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think, with my team, we just tried to calm down, try to enjoy it as much as possible and just focus on tactics and the technique of the game rather than the results because if you think the other way around you just put pressure on yourself.

“We didn’t change much, just changed the mindset and the tactics remained the same, I think.

“I’m a very straight person in my life, I think things to go really well and I’m a tough person. I started to accept that you can lose some matches even if you are playing well and it happens, it’s just a part of the draw in the end.”

Result:
[3] Nouran Gohar (EGY) bt Alexandra Fuller (RSA) 3-0: 11-5, 11-3, 11-4 (19m)