Scotland 2-1 Australia to book quarters spot
[7/8] SCOTLAND 2-1 AUSTRALIA C1
Alison Thomson 3-0 Alex Haydon 11-8, 12-10, 11-6 (43m)
Lisa Aitken 2-3 Donna Lobban 11-4, 11-6, 7-7 (rtd) (35m)
Georgia Adderley 3-0 Jessica Turnbull 11-4, 11-3, 11-9 (35m)
Extremely close first match Alison (Sco) against Alex (Aus). Two fit athletes, and to be honest, I thought that the Australian was taking the second game, as she was up 4/0 then 7/5, but a good push from the Scottish, 10/8. There another good batch from Australia, but it’s eventually Scotland that take that decisive second, 12/10.
But then, catastrophical wrong footing for the second match, left front side of the court, with Lisa’s foot looking like slipping and the knee went “funny” as one of her team mates commented. Match over whereas the victory seemed going the Scottish way.
Georgia finished the job for Scotland but it would seem that Scotland, who plays USA tomorrow, will be playing without their number one from now on.
Paul Bell, coach of Scotland, told us a bit more about the tie and the event from the Scotland point of view.
“The knee seems very injured, yes, a bit of slippery court but they seem to do a good job to keep it as playable as possible, it’s to be expected in Egypt, and in the desert really.
“It was a big match for us, we just sneaked in the top 8 after Wales downgrade, a last minute change, a big opportunity for us, especially as we didn’t play this event for the past 10 years.
“We had a tough match yesterday with Germany, everyone was a bit nervous, and to come away with a 3-0 was really positive and that settled everyone down and put them in a good frame of mind for today.
“We need all the three matches were going to be tough, but we also knew we had a chance in all three, and that’s all you can ask for, isn’t it? Today has been about matching the Australian players as much as possible, and get the tactic right, which we seemed to do, which I’m very pleased about.
“Our girls played really really well, and the areas we were trying to exploit were there.
“Not a day off tomorrow, we are playing the USA, but without our number one, we can’t expect too much I guess, it’s going to be very tough in any event. But our aim was to get as far as we could in the event, finishing top 8 is a fantastic result for us. We knew we had a new young team, it gives them the experience and the chance to learn from it.
“Finishing top 8 is just brilliant. There will be some hard matches now… A lot of experience gained over the next days…”
