Day FOUR : Round Three Part Two – Player Reaction

“I think I was a little bit lucky towards the end of the first to sneak that one,” said Perry afterwards.

“I thought I was starting to find my line and length, it is a bit of a baptism of fire even though we have practiced on here, coming and playing a match on here when you’ve been on the back courts. It’s probably been a bit of a theme but you just have to adapt to it and I’m pleased to get through to another quarter final here, it’s awesome.

“We had a practice on here yesterday, I was on the glass court a lot in Manchester. There are some similarities when you switch to a glass court but each glass court it has its own quirks, this one is very difference to the one in Manchester. You do adjust and that’s part of being a professional squash player and adjusting to the different conditions. Tomorrow might not be the same as today and that’s a big part of adapting in the game and that’s what the top girls do really well.

“Nouran can hit the ball pretty hard, they are both extremely good squash players and both very experienced as well, don’t let Nouran’s age fool you, she’s very experienced too. I’ll be enjoying watching that match later and hopefully whoever wins it’s three hours and 112-110 in the fifth.”

“It’s never easy playing Greg, he’s a very fit player. I had to be at 100 percent the whole time. I’m feeling good after [winning the Manchester Open] last week. My body’s feeling good and I just want to enjoy every single match and give my 100 percent.”

On his potential quarter-final meeting with Paul Coll, he said: “Me and Paul have been very good friends for a few years. When I’m in Europe we stay together, I stay with him in Amsterdam and we train together. We have very different types of game so we learn from each other. Training with him is crazy, it’s very hard so that helps me to get fitter and we’re very good friends and I wish him a lot of luck. Hopefully I play him tomorrow.

“Before, anything that had to do with fitness, I didn’t like it. Now I’m starting to like it. I know that’s what’s missing in my game. I started playing to be number one, so I’m going to train for that and hopefully it comes soon.”

On today’s match between Coll and Mazen Hesham, he said: “The have the complete opposite game, Paul is the fittest on tour and Mazen is one of the most skilful players on tour. It’s going to be a very entertaining match and hopefully everyone enjoys it.”

“Tesni played really well in the first two games,” said Gohar in her post-match interview on court.

“She’s a talented player so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I was just trying to find my range and my targets, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s fine as long as I have a 3-0 win.

“It’s something I will discuss with my coaches later on, but overall it was ok out there. It goes without saying that SJ is one of the most skilful players on tour. She’s a shot maker, so I have to be very alert and she likes to play some deceptive squash as well, so I will be on my toes.

“The memories of 2019 are the highlight, but back to 2016 as well, I had some great matches and reached the final when I was 16 – it’s great when I remember those times. I always look forward to play this tournament, there’s some good vibes on court.”

“It was very tough, a lot of people see his shots to the front but today his weight of stroke to the back was really good,” said the Kiwi afterwards.

“I had to cover the front, those boast nicks and quick shots, but then his holds and then that weight of stroke to the back was real tough today. Real mental battle for me today, I got pushy – my coach is going to have my head because I was pushing a lot of shots and I think he makes you do that. I know what I’ve got to work on but happy to get through that.

“I think I found my length a lot better. Physically I was fine, it was just about getting myself into a good pattern on court, getting a bit of rhythm and finding a good weight of stroke so I could be in front of him.

“Diego is useless! No, we trained for two weeks before this and he’s one of the best ball strikers on court and he’s got exceptional holds, he’s so accurate with his shots and moves very smoothly. We know each well, it’s going to be a good friendly match….not.

“Mazen played extremely well last week and this week, I’m taking a positive out of that for sure, I thought I found a good length and I was 5-1 up in the third and let that slip, so I can take the back end of that game, my length in the first round I thought was great and just got to keep finding that and be a bit more aggressive going in short.”

Speaking after the match, King said: “How I thought it was going to pan out and how I wanted it to pan out are two very different things. As you can see Sabrina’s a class player. She’s a great athlete and if you put that ball loose she puts it away. I was finding it really hard to win at the end of games, she just didn’t go away. There were a couple of points there I thought it wasn’t my day today, but somehow I found a way to win.”

On her ankle injury and strapping, she said: “It’s ok actually, it’s more a precautionary thing after the other day. She made me work for every point and sometimes those games are good. They make you really sharpen up. The first one obviously was quite comfortable and then she changed what she was doing. A I say I’m just really pleased to win.”

On whether she felt she would win comfortably after the first game: “Never, at this stage of the tournament everyone’s here for a reason and you’ve got to give every player respect when you come on court. As I say I just couldn’t find a way to finish the games and she kept coming back and coming back. As we saw it was just two points in the end. A tough one.”

On the quarter-final match between Hania El Hammamy and Melissa Alves: “They’re both young, hungry and physical. You’ll see they’re both in great shape, they’re physical athletes but they can play great squash, too. Here’s hoping for another good match for you guys to watch.”

Speaking after the match, El Hammamy said: “I think I played well. Melissa kept me on my toes from the beginning of the match. I knew I would have to be on my toes throughout the match. I knew I would have to be very alert and focused from the beginning because she keeps throwing everything at you and you have to keep up with her. I managed to do that in the first two games and then I lost a little bit of focus in the third. All credit to her, she played so well. She took the lead, a very hard lead. I managed to win in three, I don’t know how I did it in the last!”

“I watched a little bit of the fifth [game between King and Sobhy], the last couple of points where it was so tense. I’ve played against Joelle a lot of times so I know what to expect. I didn’t really need to watch her play. Hopefully tomorrow’s going to be a tough match against her. I’m definitely happy she had a five-setter today. Maybe that will help a little tomorrow. We’re both very physical. I think tomorrow’s going to be a physical and tough match. A long match as well I expect. So I’ve got to go and rest and get ready for tomorrow.”

“Baptiste was just telling me that I’m going to kill you next time I play you! Thanks for that! No, I’m kidding, he didn’t say that. He was congratulating me. We have so much respect for each other, this it the third time we’ve played in the last five tournaments and every time he plays better and every time he gets closer. He was so close to going 2-1 up in El Gouna, this time he was even closer to going 2-1 up, so I was lucky to get the third game. He’s such a fighter, he had a tough match in the first match and he came out with so much passion. He doesn’t care who he plays against, he just wants to win every single point. It’s the way I love to watch players play the sport and I have so much respect for that,” ElShorbagy said afterwards.

He added: “This tournament is a big challenge for a lot of players at this event. To come back after the World Championships and try to back it up here. There are a lot of challenges, every player is going through their own challenge. I’m going through my own, as are others. There are no excuses, everyone has to come back here day in, day out, give it his best to try to win. That’s what I tried to do today, that’s what I tried to do in the last match, that’s what I’m going to try to do tomorrow.

“I go to every tournament, I go to every single match, to try and win. I’ve done that for the last 15 years of my career and I’m still going to do it hopefully for so many more years. Every single tournament I play, I try to win it. It doesn’t matter what happened the tournament before it, of course there was disappointment [at losing in the World Championship final] but when you’re at the top, when you win events you don’t have the luxury of enjoying them because I’m always looking for the next one.

“When I lose an event, I had to learn the hard way not to let the tournament disappoint me or affect me for the next event, and that’s an attribute to stay as the No.1 for a long time. You need to always have the art of letting go and I have to always focus on the next one. The World Championships were a disappointment, but I’m going to come back at it next year and go at it again. But right now it’s the British Open, I’m going to try and win it for a fourth time. There are lots of players playing very well but I’m here to fight another day.”

On his quarter-final opponent Youssef Soliman, who progressed by walkover due to Iker Pajares Bernabeu’s withdrawal, he said: “Even though I’m from Egypt, Ive trained in England for the last 15 years of my life. I’ve moved here when I was 15 years old and [went to] school before moving to Bristol so I haven’t really trained with a lot of Egyptian players in my career. But he’s one of the few I’ve trained with because he lives in Bristol himself. We get along really well, it will be the first time we’ve played on court against each other in a tournament. He has great talent and always had great potential. To make it to the quarters, whether he had a walkover or not, he still beat Fares [Dessouky, World No.7] who is one of the best players in the world. So he has shown that he can make it there.

“Even if it’s a walkover, one day he was going to get there anyway, I was pretty sure of it. I’m looking forward to playing him, tomorrow’s not going to be a training match. I have to show him the difference between playing me in training and playing me in a tournament and that’s what I have to do because this is the generation that’s going to takeover when my generation is gone. I have to give it my all and hopefully play a good match for the crowd.”