Raneem comeback in 5th denies Nicol
[3] Raneem El Welily (Egy) 3-2 [1] Nicol David (Mas) 9-11, 13-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-7 (70m)
This match could easily been the final, and we were all at the edge of our seats. Immersed in the Nicol’s camp – Liz Irving, Peter Genever on one side, and Yow on the other – I was at the heart of the action, and the intensity on the court was reflected on the coaches bench for sure. The 10m first game was extremely close and intense from the start. It’s difficult to believe but if Nicol made two errors – she is now going for a higher percentage game – Raneem chose to make her life pretty difficult bless him, by making 7. Mind you, somehow, it couldn’t get much worse, only better. And it did. 5 in the 2nd, then 3, 4, and 1 (on the first rally of the 5th).
First game, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, 8/8, with the Malaysian taking it, 10/8. 11/9. Second to be honest is about the same, just a few less errors from Raneem, some astonishing rallies, with both attacking and retrieving some stunning shots, but Nicol seems to be taking a step to victory when she get 10/7 game ball. But she’ll make a couple of uncharacteristic errors that give Raneem a boost, and it’s the Egyptian that will take that crucial second, 13/11 in 15m on her second game ball. In the 3rd, the game is pretty amazingly intense up to 5/5, but I can see Nicol’s tiring a bit. She is looking a bit slow – the work she has produced is stupendous, as ever, and it’s no surprise to me she loses that game 10/6 11/7, 12m… But Nicol is still Nicol and she digs in, finding some energy, determination and places herself just a bit higher on the T. And if in the 3rd, she made 4 unforced errors, that figure goes down to 1 in the 4th, she takes it 11/8 on a video decision, stroke, 11m. The 5th is just well, incredible from Raneem. Nicol is cruising, literally cruising out there, 5/1, and it’s not Raneem doing anything wrong. Nic is just on fire, and finding her shots superbly. But little by little, Raneem is back in the game, 2/6, 3/7…. And that’s it. Nicol will not be able to win another point. Raneem score the next 8 points. Imagine the crowd, her crowd, in her club, Wadi Degla….
Raneem
Nicol is definitely the Legend of our game, all credit to her, she always gave me tough battles. I can’t say it was fun. But it’s always been a pleasure.
She was making everything, she was firing everything in. It left me no choice for any loose shots. I just telling myself to do my best and to keep pushing. In the last few points I don’t think my head was there anymore but she made the errors and I’m really grateful for those, and I mean reallllly grateful.
In the end, my head just wasn’t there and I couldn’t push. Those two calls I would have stopped normally because I thought they were down, but I asked the side and they said they were good. I didn’t see them on the screen because of the bushes, but I thought they were right, I hope they were.
I wasn’t thinking about my World Championship final defeat until Robert mentioned it before the match. Then in the fourth it kind of came back. I was down in the entire fifth game and I think the fifth game from last time gave me the push to not quit and to keep pushing harder.