[5] Torrie Malik (ENG) 3-1 [7] Alicia Mead (ENG) 12-14, 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-3 (50m)
If yesterday, Georgia seemed to feel uncomfortable playing Torrie, asking a lot of lets and complaining about her movement, none of that today from Alicia. I counted five calls the whole match – I could have missed a few, but you see the drill. Very pleasant match to watch.
Let’s remind us that Alicia didn’t play a single match in this event, as her opponents seemed to fall like flies: she entered the semis with no match in her legs. It’s obviously a great advantage fitness-wise, but it’s not easy to burst into the semis without any match or momentum.
Torrie tonight played catch up. Down 1/0, she levelled, only to go down again 2/1, levelling 2/2 and finally taking the 5th comfortably, 11/3.
First game is brutal scorewise but very fast, only 11m for a 14/12 score! Torrie had 3 game balls, 10/9, 11/10, and 12/11 but it’s lefthander Alicia that clinches the opener on her first attempt, 14/12. 8 winners each.
Again, a very quick second game, 8m only, for 11/8 for Torrie, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 5/5 6/6, 7/7, 10/8 Torrie. This time, no quible, and it’s 11/8. No errors for Torrie, 2 for Alicia.
Errors will creep in the Malik girl inthe third, I could see she was tired, bit heavy legs from the previous matches. She led 4/1, but was caught up 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, Alicia taking that one in 9m, 11/8.
From that point on, Torrie seemed to be in control of the middle, forcing Alicia to cover a lot of ground, and preventing her from attacking in good position, and it’s 11/5, 11/3 for Torrie.
Torrie : “She played really well and coming into a semi-final match without playing due to injury withdrawals is never easy without that because you’re not going to have that momentum.
“She was match ready anyway, though, she played really well and I had to make sure I was focused. I was a little bit tired in that third game, but then I found myself but then brought it back to 2-2 in that third game and I felt like I was moving better.
Attacking has always been at the heart of my game. I should do it a bit less, be a bit more defensive. And I love this court, you’ve got to be very sharp on it, as you might clip the side if you are not accurate enough, but I just love the court, the court conditions and also, I played a lot of junior events on it, it’s nice.
My goals are performance based, because the better you perform against the best players, the rankings speak for themselves. If you are putting in good match, and playing good squash, the rankings will reflect that.
To have my brothers alongside me as well as my mum and dad, it’s nice that we’re all here together and hopefully Curtis gets the W today.”
