Salma Shabana (l) reached the main draw while Osama and El Trabolsy fell short. (photo © 2006 WISPA.)

[THE DRAW]

The pressure to qualify is hard enough. Prize money and ranking points await those that succeed. But for the Hurghada International a third factor was included that were heated things up...much like the 38c temperature outside the Cairo Stadium courts where the action took place.

As it would only be the winners that boarded the evening flight down to the sparkling Red Sea resort of Hurghada to play the main draw, nobody wanted to wave the others off and then leave Cairo for home.

Four matches, eight players but only four could be winners. And all watched by a live TV audience. As ever, where else would qualification matches receive such coverage?

Italian number one Manuela Manetta was top seed and so closer than the rest to an automatic main draw slot. For her it would have been even worse to stumble now. Her opponent, 21 year old Amnah El Trabolsy is better than her ranking, being a sporadic competitor as she studies industrial engineering in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

El Trabolsy made too many mistakes overall, but made life difficult for the Italian who combined a light touch with some tins of her own. But in each game she took control in the middle section and stayed ahead to book her plane seat.

"I tried not to put any pressure on myself and I was happy with the way I played. Save me a sunbed!" said the joyful winner.

Salma Shabana had seemingly done the more difficult job by eliminating third seed Eman El Amir yesterday, but seventh rated Lauren Siddall was as keen as anybody to take the flight. However, the right handed sister of the leftie men's World Champion didn't let her nervousness about her lack of match play stand in her way. Siddall spent too much time changing direction as the Egyptian displayed many of the skills that had made her the Egyptian number one before she started a family.

"I'm pretty inexperienced on the Tour so hadn't actually seen her play until yesterday," said Siddall, who had rushed to the airport straight from a Sports Medical Science exam back in England to reach Cairo.   

Shabana, meanwhile was elated. "I knew that if I played the squash I wanted to play I would be okay", she commented. She did and she was.

"From now on I will be pretty relaxed as everything is a bonus," she added.

Fast improving Georgina Stoker, who had played on the Stadium courts as a member of the England junior team at the worlds there in 2003 had more local opposition to contend with, and managed to deny Hend Osama an eve of 21st birthday present when she picked up her game, the pace that Osama was generating and took control to win 3/1. Osama, a biomedical engineering student solved the conundrum of what on earth that was when asked, explaining that it involves the design and maintenance of medical devices. No wonder the talented play hasn't too much time to train! 

Stoker reported, "I played well in France last week so I felt really good and was quite confident". In the Open de la Cite she had beaten Rebecca Botwright, and by the law of interesting rematches was later drawn against her a week later here!

Finally, second seed Nicolette Fernandes was the last name into the hat for the main draw when she saw off the German challenge of Daniela Schumann after saving a game ball in the first. From that point the challenge petered out and the Guyana player was able to book her place.    

For all the winners there would be time for a shower, a meal and then the evening flight to the coast. The glass court at the resort awaits. 

CAIRO STADIUM     27 MAY 2006
Results: 

Manuela Manetta (Ita) (1)  beat Amnah El Trabolsy (Egy) (6) 9/4 9/5 9/5 (32m)
Salma Shabana (Egy) beat Lauren Siddall (Eng) (7) 9/7 9/2 5/9 9/1 (38m)
Georgina Stoker (Eng) (4) beat Hend Osama (Egy) (8) 4/9 10/9 9/5 9/7 (42m)
Nicolette Fernandes (Guy) (2) beat Daniela Schumann (Ger) (5) 10/8 9/6 9/2 (34m)

Main draw [THE DRAW] qualifier pairings:

Manetta plays Abdel Kawy
Shabana plays Teran
Stoker plays Botwright
Fernandes plays Nimmo