Diego Elias
(Per) 3-2 [4] Tarek Momen (Egy) 11-8,
4-11, 11-6, 4-11, 11-3 (65m)

As the
first rally of the match went on and on and on, and on, Tarek finding some incredible attacks that Diego returns with a dividend, I thought to myself ‘Diego
is going to hard to beat”.

And you know what? He was.

Tarek both made the winners and the errors tonight. First game, 6 of each. Diego,
5 winners for only 2 errors. And strangely enough, Tarek’s mistakes were 2 in
the first points, and 4 in the last 5 points…. 16m of very intense attacking
from Tarek, and superb defence from Diego.

Change of pace in the second, Tarek speeds affairs up and it works. He finds
some exquisite volley drop shots, but has got to win the point again and again
which he manages to do beautifully this time 3/0 6/2, 9/3 11/4, 7n winners for
only 1 error….

The third again a terrible start for the Egyptian, 4 errors in 5 points, and
again 3 at the end of the game, 6/1, 6/6, 11/6. As if Tarek is in and out of
the match. Weird. We’ll have an explanation later…

The 4^th is again completely controlled by the Egyptian 9 winners for
1 error and 1 stroke, 8/1 11/4 in 8m.

But in the 5^th, at 3/1 for him, Tarek seems to stumble. He looks
suddenly extremely tired, his face is extremely white, as if he hit the wall.
He is still trying to fight, but tins ball after ball, and quickly will shake
his opponent’s hand.

Tarek
From the beginning of the match, I was struggling with extreme fatigue,
absolutely not justified by what was happening on court; I was making him run and
I was the one tired! I kept fighting against it, but in the 5^th, I
just had a complete blackout. First I didn’t see the ball, then I didn’t see
him at all. The only thing I did at the end was trying not to fall on the
floor. The doctor that saw me after the match thinks it could be a low blood
sugar…

Diego

I’m really
happy with the win, Tarek is a great player and he’s eight in the world.

I’ve been
playing well and I think this match was one game for me, one game for him. The
start of the games was really important and at the end I pushed as hard as
possible.

I think I
went to the front too fast in the second and fourth games and his
counter-attack is too good. I went to the front in the first five or six rallies
and then I was 4-1, 5-1 down so it was really hard to come back because he gets
a lot of confidence and he’s really hard to play when he is confident.

It would
mean a lot to me to get to the final, I’ve been in three semi-finals at $100k
tournaments and I always lose, so I want to do my best tomorrow and try to get
to the final.

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