Today the semi-finals were played at the PSA Rotterdam open. In the ladies half of the draw Tessa Ter Sluis convincingly beat Rafaela Albuja with 3-0. Although Tessa admitted that it looked more simple than it really was, her victory gave her a lot of confidence for the finals on Sunday. In Sunday’s finals Tessa will meet Cristina Tartarone.
Christina’s match against Catalina Palaez was a really great to watch. Catalina was the best of both player on the T, but Christina proved to have great tactical skills. Every game saw lots of great squash. In the end it was Christina who won with 3-2, and successfully beat the number 1 seed. Christina didn’t know what to expect in Sunday’s finals, but after a good night rest she thought she could give Tessa a great game.
In the mans half of the draw Ivan Perez and Seif Tamer had a great battle to decide who would make the final on Sunday. The first game went to Seif, but in game 2 and 3 it was Ivan who had the best of the play. But just as the public had the impression that the match was over, it was Seif who surprisingly took game 4. Game 5 was an open battle but Ivan proved to be the winner. After the match Ivan explained that it was a difficult game to play due to Seif great squash skills. Also Ivan had a lot of confidence for winning Sundays final.
Yassin Elshafei and Eilijah Thomas were to decide who was going to meet Ivan in that final. The audience saw an epic battle with Yassin and Eilijah battling point for point. The first game went fairly simple to Yassin with 11-5. In the second game Elijah showed his grit and hit back with 11-7. Game 3 and 4 were really close and nobody could foresee the outcome of the match, 12-10 to Yassin and 9-11 to Elijah. In the deciding game Yassin had bad luck on his side which resulted in Elijah kicking out the number 1 seed in the tournament. Afterwards Elijah explained that it was a really hard game, but he looked forward to Sundays final. If I can play 2 epic games I also can play 3.
Sundays finals:
- Tessa Ter Sluis – Christina Tartarone 13.00 hours
- Ivan Perez – Elijah Thomas 14.00 hours
