Ireland
GEORGE TOWN: Ireland’s Madeline Perry is confident that her exertions in the marathon five-set second round win over England’s Sarah-Jane Perry will not affect her chances in the world championship quarter-finals.
The seventh seed, who at 37 is the oldest player in the competition, had to dig deep into her reserves to recover from a two-set deficit and take down her namesake 7-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-9, 11-6 in just over an hour at the SPICE Arena on Thursday.
Madeline’s reward for her never-say-die attitude is a match-up against third seed Raneem El Weleily of Egypt in the last eight on Friday.
“I’ll be fine. I’m only 37,” joked Madeline after her win. “I was initially struggling and felt tired at the start of the third game. But I felt better as the match wore on and decided to get stuck in the battle. The momentum went my way after that and I was able to close out the match.”
Madeline has less than 24 hours to recover from her energy-sapping match before facing El Weleily, whom she beat in the opening round of the Tournament of Champions in New York in January.
“The win over Raneem earlier this year gives me confidence ahead of the quarter-finals. It was my first triumph after losing to her a few times,” said Madeline. “I will be relaxed on the court tomorrow (Friday) ... I intend to enjoy playing in the quarter-finals of the world meet.”
El Weleily continued her good run in Penang with a straightforward 11-7, 11-7, 11-1 win over 10th seed Dipika Pallikal of India.
However, El Weleily refused to read too much into her good form here.
“Form is just temporary. Just because I played well in my first two matches does not guarantee that my form will be the same in the next match,” said El Weleily. “It’s important for me to get my head right and not get carried away because there is still a long way to go.”
Also through to the quarters is French eighth seed Camille Serme, who defeated Guyana’s Nicollete Fernandes 14-12, 11-5, 11-3.
Serme made a nervous start and needed to save five points in the first set before triumphing 14-12. It was plain sailing for the French world No. 6 in the second and third games as she booked a last eight meeting with top seed Nicol David.
“It feels good to be in the last eight,” said Serme. “I made plenty of mistakes early on until I decided to push myself a bit more to take the first set.
“I was more relaxed in the next two sets. I intend to rest now and only start thinking of my quarter-final tie tomorrow (Friday).”
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