[1] Tesni Murphy (WAL) 3-1 [5] Torrie Malik (ENG) 11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 11-9 (45m)
I knew that Torrie was a true threat to Tesni by Alison Waters tension. I was lucky to be seated next to her during the final, and I could feel how NOT RELAXED she was! “You could cut the tension with a knife” she told me at the end of the 4th. She was worried.
And she was right to be.
The difference today, I’m sure everybody that saw the match will concur, came down to experience. Tesni, 32, had been in 4 finals, and got the ‘I’m the British Champion” twice. She knew the drill. For Torrie, just fresh out of the juniors, it was all brand new, and she wanted so much to do well, for her family, for “her team”, for everybody around her. Her dad summarised it well “she started to play when she thought she didn’t have anything to lose, and that she was not going to win”.
How many times did we read/hear that…
Torrie played a perfect tactical game, using the four corners beautifully, finding some exquisite length and width, allowing her to put the ball as far as possible from Tesni, who had to cover a heck of a lot of ground. The Malik Girl was controlling most of the rallies but as often, tried to finish the points a bit too quickly, which got frustrating for the English young lady.
First game is typical of someone who is nervous: Torrie started playing at 10/3 down, bless her, after allowing Tesni to play 7 points in a row. The Welsh was sooo relieved to get a stroke at 10/9, I tell you!
Good response from Torrie at the start of the second, 2/0, 3/1, but caught out, 3/3, 4/4, and from that moment on, Tesni is in charge, 8/4, 11/5.
Momentum under the racquet, the Welsh zoomed at 3/0, 5/1, only to see the young English lady clawing back and levelling 6/6, 7/7 and scoring 5 points in a row to take the third, 11/7.
The fourth sees the Welsh lady in control at the start, 4/1, 8/4, but slowly, point by point, Torrie is threatening to push for a decider, 7/9, 9/10, but Tesni get a final crosscourt passed the English girl, and it’s a huge relief for her camp, 11/9.
Camron Malik (coach/dad) : I’m definitely proud of Torrie.
I feel she probably put too much pressure on herself to do well, and she was quite nervy in the beginning.
She somehow got a way back in the first game, and then lost that one. She kind of beat herself in the second, was a bit frustrated, but in game three, when she realised she probably was not going to win, she relaxed, and won the game! Which is quite common in squash I think.
Sometimes, people put too much pressure on themselves to win rather than play out the game, and that, for me, is what she did: she got back in that third, nearly did it again in the 4th. But nerves played a bigger part, it comes with experience…
Tesni : Now I’m getting older, and like I said yesterday, it’s not all about winning but I don’t know how many more opportunities I’ll have to win a final, so I’m glad I sneaked in the win.
I thought it was a really good match but it was horrible, horrible!!!!. She is an up and coming player, she is such a dangerous player, and I knew that. I knew how good she was going to be, how hard it was going to be.
I knew her style would really hurt me, she’s got so many weapons, it’s scary to play her and you feel you are always on edge. She’s so attacking and she puts you under so much pressure.
I was really impressed today with her attitude today, even when I was winning in most of the games I was up, she kept coming back, and that was making me edgy.
I’m sure this is just the begining of what’s to come for Torrie, a great prospect obviously for the UK and England, I’m sure this won’t be her last final, and I’m sure she’ll win many more.
So, the relief of that last point was what I was hoping for, that she would serve out or something, so that relief for that last point!
Ali (Alison Walters, coach to Tesni for 3 years) and I were just speaking about the fact that it was 7 years ago I won my first title, I feel it was like ages ago. At the time, I was really like an excitable puppy then who wanted to fight with everybody and wanted to win so badly.
Now, it doesn’t feel like that. I want to win very badly, and I’m still an excitable puppy at heart, but it nearly means more now to win at this stage of my career and show that I can still put in good performances. It feels good to be a bit older and a little more mature. I’d never thought I’d won one, so winning three feels really special.
