Contrasting tales of two friendships
dubai — There were contrasting tales of two friendships in the second round of the ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals at the Emirates Golf Club on Wednesday.
While there was no love lost between friends and England teammates Laura Massaro and Sarah-Jane Perry, in their Group B tussle, Egypt’s Karim Abdel Gawad had countryman and childhood friend Ali Farag by his side during his win against France’s Gregory Gaultier. Massaro and Perry were involved in an intense and heated battle with the latter asking questions about Massaro’s movement.
Massaro, the defending champion, did manage to scrape through, but the match did have its fair share of drama and gamesmanship. Gawad, who battled pain on his right shoulder on Tuesday, had no such worries as Farag’s helpful tips from the sidelines, helped him overcome Gaultier. “I had him by my side over the last two matches and he gave some great tips,” Gawad said on Wednesday.
Strangely enough though, Gawad and Farag’s friendship will be tested when the pair square off in the third round on Thursday. “Hopefully, he (Farag) can coach me tomorrow during the game,” joked Gawad.
“Tomorrow, I’m playing him. He’s a great friend of mine and we grew up together, playing each other. Hopefully, we can play a really good game and just enjoy our match,” added the 26-year-old.
Meanwhile, Massaro said that she didn’t appreciate Perry’s comments about her movement. “We are friends and teammate off the court but you just get angry and frustrated if both of do any wrong there. But I’m sure both are fine later,” said Massaro. “We are playing an individual sport and although we are both English, we train together and play teams together, we are friends and we play for England but you are out there on your own with your team.
“It was just emotional afterwards because I don’t feel like I did an awful lot wrong on there and I don’t really appreciate the comments about my movement. So, obviously, you just get angry but you just realise that everything is being said in the heat of the moment and move on and try to be back the next time,” she added.
Massaro said that trying to shut things out and stay calm was the key to dealing with such situations. “I was asking myself that when I was down and I said to myself to dig in. It is funny isn’t it because you get a reputation for being tough in such situations. I just tried to be calm. One of my strengths is to stick to a game plan when I’m under severe pressure and I don’t think there are many people who can do that. So, when it gets to crunch time, you stick to something that you planned to do before. It obviously makes such a huge difference,” he said.