Before the quarter-finals of the World Junior Women's Championships started, Egyptian coach Magdy Saad turned his chair so his back faced the court where two of his charges, Raneem El Weleily and Nour Bahgat, faced each other.
As the two played - a 9-4, 9-2, 9-1 match in favour of El Weleily - Saad kept his eyes on the quarter-final between another of his players, Heba El Torky, and New Zealand's Joelle King. While others shifted their eyes between the two matches, Saad used a white pillar to shield himself from seeing El Weleily's crisp and precise attacking shots.
'If they play each other, I don't coach,' Saad said. 'I'll coach [today].'
His decision was smart. Of yesterday's matches, the one that kept Saad's attention was also the one that captivated most of the crowd. King's 6-9, 8-10, 9-2, 9-5, 9-1 victory took 73 minutes; it was a demanding match that saw El Torky lose focus and King gain confidence. Both girls played with a physical intensity that displayed frustration on their faces. However, in the fifth game King strung together a couple of clever shots and smiled, pumping her fists while El Torky started to look defeated.
'She lost her concentration,' Saad said of El Torky. 'I told her [between the fourth and fifth game] that she has to take it easy, to play and to relax, but she was very excited.'
El Weleily, the top seed and defending champion, will play King today while the other semi-final will feature second seed Camille Serme of France against Hong Kong's Annie Au Wing-chi, the 3/4 seed. Serme won 9-6, 9-0, 10-9 over England's Sarah-Jane Perry, while Au beat England's Victoria Lust 9-2, 9-0, 9-6 to reach the semi-final.
