EVENING SESSION
French Corner      Quickies from St George's

Draw & Results

BROKE MY HEART....

It's little things like that that really get to me, you know. It was the first time I saw Henrik Mustonen play. I probably glanced at him a few times, but this was the first time I actually stopped and really watched that young man.

What struck me first was the unorthodox style of play he has, I would  bet he learnt more or less on his own, and developed his own style. Mind you, can't say that Robbie is your typical player either! Left handed, plus a two handed backhand ...

Still, I've known Robbie a few years now, and of course, your heart always goes to the one you do care for. But when between the games, I realised Henrik was completely on his own, nobody to speak with him, to advise or support him, my heart went for him. Poor thing, all the others had coaches and/friends/family to help them out. But he was just alone. Not fair.

But you cannot help raising your hat to Robbie. He got injured 9 weeks ago, he tore some foot ligament, and since, has gone twice on court, Thursday and Friday last week, and this was his first match back after he got the all clear from the physio and his coach, Pete Genever.

A little scare in the third for Robbie, who seemed to twist his ankle, and got three minutes for a self inflicted injury, lost a bit of focus, that helped a fighting for every shot Henrik who took that game 11/4.

But Robbie came back and gave it everything he had in that fourth. Lucky he got it, as Pete told him that if he didn't win it, he would have to pull out, too much struggle physically.

Well, the Englishman pulled out quite rightly from the Saudi Qualifiers list tomorrow. Like he said "I'm not going to be able to walk tomorrow, I'll be aching too much...".

NOT SURE
WHAT HAPPENED THERE...

OK, I'm sometimes a bit blonder than I should be, but I got those two completely wrong. As I'm up and down stairs on a regular basis trying to get a connection, I missed a lot of the action. But never as much as for those two matches.

I arrived for Wan (Nafiizwan) v Max in the third, the game that Max won. And honestly, there was no doubt in my mind Max was going to win the match. He was more accurate, he was keeping Wan so far back the Malaysian just couldn't move to the front fast enough. Wan was playing everything short, it was really not a good day for him. But I was stunned to here that Wan won that in 4! Which proves that you cannot judge a match if you don't see it fully.



And again, Nicolas - Happy Birthday again - seemed in a lot of trouble every time I watched him. So when I heard match ball, I sort of saw that he was on the receiving end, and assumed he lost the match. So I went to Jens, thinking he was the winner, and asked him how he felt. "Not well! I just lost!"



Mmmmm. Gifted, the French woman, isn't she????

Well, thank God, Nicolas didn't take offence, I said "sorry" when I saw him right after his match, and Jens doesn't hate me too much....

DIDN'T SEE MUCH...

That session, let's be honest, I saw very little of, busy I was getting connected up in the office, and updating articles and results.

According to the players, Aqeel completely missed out on the end of the match. After being led 2/0, he crawled back, and got the upper hand on the match in the fifth, 9/6, and on his way to victory.

But fear of winning, oh my God, I'm going to be playing in the World Open, and zoom, mishit, wrong shot selection, tin, you know the drill, he just couldn't get another point in. A few seconds later, Scott was walking out the court, 11/9...
 

"This is not the first time it happens, trust me. So many times I'm up 10/6, match ball, or like here, 9/4, and I managed to lose the match. It just something in my head, I seem to freeze, I'm starting to realise that my opponent is much better ranked than me, that I'm going to create an upset, here that I was going to play in the World Open, and that's it. My game goes to pieces..."

As far as Alan is concerned, he played his typical strong and focused squash, making his opponent work so hard for every point. And lucky him, Bradley today was not in the best of disposition. Obviously tired, both mentally and physically after the first long game, he never seemed to really get into the match, all credit to Alan of course.



Now for the longest match of the day, they played "catch me if you can" all the way. Yann was ahead, then Dick equalised 1/1, the Frenchman took the lead again 2/1, only to be caught up 2/2.  And that's when I arrived.

Honestly, there is something in the education of the Asian players. Dick, like Beng Hee (one is from Hong Kong, the other is from Malaysia), doesn't show his emotions.

 I could sort of see he was angry with himself, frustrated, probably heartbroken not to be able to find solutions in the fifth, but only at one point, he hit the ball against the wall. That was as far as anger we saw of him. That's such a great strength I think. A strength I wish I had, by the way....

Dick took an excellent start in the decider, 4/2, only to be caught up, 8/4. At that moment, Yann took all the time he needed, experience I guess, to regroup, and got to 9/5. Five lets. The tension was pretty high. 6/9 for Dick. A return kill crosscourt nick for the French, 10/6 match ball, and a backhand crosscourt that finds a lucky nick. A quick ending for a very loooong match.

MORNING SESSION

LONG VERSION....

If some earlier matches were a bit on the short side, those three ones kept us on our seats for longer than expected really...

My compatriot likes to make it last. Well, must be something to do with the French trade, I guess, how many matches have you seen Thierry win in 3??? Mathieu, who trains a lot with him, is confident enough to unconsciously, allow himself to get into trouble, like today, down 2/0 and still make the day...

Mathieu, who is normally very patient, was all over the place to start with, and was put under tremendous pressure by American Gilly Lane, who is now based in Amsterdam.



Gilly has got some stunning front shots, it has to be stressed. What that boy gets in is purely remarkable, but as ever, where you play a high percentage game, you are bound to have a few miss. It's all a question of finding the right balance.

The American found it in the first two games, and honestly, had they played on a cold court, Mathieu would have been back in the changing room in 20 minutes. But luck was on the French side today, and when Gilly started to rush things a bit in the third, Mathieu found a few brain cells that were actually connected, and broke through. From that moment on, the Frenchman slipped into his normal game, as in, returning everything, and sticking his teeth strongly in, never giving one point away.

And it worked. But as Mathieu kept on repeating to everybody after the match, he was pretty lucky today, and Gilly probably deserved to win that one....



And what about Ben, hey? Supposed to be old and all, trying to pretend like "I've got grey hair, I'm tired, I'll never make it to the end"....

It took Martin 81 minutes to get him to match ball for crying out loud - depriving us of a well deserved break of 30m we could have all done with, the refs and I!!!

What a match that was really. What experience from both players, with similar games, lots of touch, accuracy, intelligence of play, and a few years between them that I feel made the difference in the end, more in the head than anything else really, Martin having the feeling that he was bound to win, and Ben lacking of confidence on the last game.

Actually, it was Martin who appeared the most tired at the end, and even had to stop for a sec before shaking his opponent's hand. But what a gentlemen's match, polite yet determined, disputed yet fair at all times.

A credit to those two.

Well, that was a strange session. First, Ritwick, in his own words, just "didn't turn up today", which of course doesn't take anything away from Rasmus, who is fit as a fiddle, and moves pretty well.

Still, it must be very disappointing for the Indian, as he spent a few weeks down in Aix, France, to train with Stéphane Galifi and also played a few matches with Greg....

Then, Gentleman Abbas who couldn't even go on court today, as his back simply went as he warmed up before his match. What a string of injuries for that lovely player. A real heartbreaker. But that makes a very happy John Rooney who himself had his share of bad luck with health...

And then, a superb match between Strong Hitter Fit as a fiddle Yasir Butt, and a Rubber Ball Clinton, whose ability to stretch and come back within seconds to the T is rather impressive and should be shown in Squash Schools around the world.

Also, Clinton possesses a delicate backhand volley drop shot that gave him a few points, when he was able to get into an attacking position, that is, which unfortunately for him, didn't happen as much as he would have liked.

And that because Yasir was finding some superb length, and put a lot of weight on the ball, smacking it with confidence and accuracy. Clinton, who is lacking match fitness, as he doesn't have people to train with, just got tired from the fourth onwards, and made most of the running.

Yasir played very well, never lost his focus, and kept on hitting where it hurt, mixing short and long well, forcing his opponent to spend every drop of energy he had in the tank...

JOE HAS MATURED...

Joe Lee has worldly famous for his drop shots, and his superb volleying. But he is also famous for losing matches that he led 2/0, or tinning his way all the way back to the changing room....

But none of that today. Against a confidence player, Jan, who likes to feel in control, Joe HAD to win the second game to keep mentally on top of his opponent. At 10/8, he seemed to be doing that just fine, but his old demons came up, playing home, dad right behind, the expectations, and zoom, tinned a few to allow Jan to come back right into it.

The "old Joe" would have probably lost the plot and the match there. But not the new one. With the confidence that comes from knowing you can last forever on the warm court if needed, Joe took the game 15/13.

Two love down was always going to be hard to come back from for Jan, who never really gave up, the rallies kept as long as previously, but just a little tin here and there that gave even more mental strength to the English boy.

At 8/3, Joe went for the ball on the backhand wall, and accidentally stepped on Jan's foot. Game was stopped, as the poor newly married couldn't walk anymore, and match finally declared for Joe, as Jan was just unable to resume play.



NOT SURE....

As I've been struggling a lot this morning with my connection, I missed the end of the match, therefore, wouldn't dream of pretending I knew I happened in the players mind.

But my feel at the time was that Grayson's wheel just came off, if you pardon me the expression. He was really in control, absorbing the power coming from Shawn's racquet quite well, and volleying very well, counter-attacking beautifully.

Still, when the New Zealander lost the second on tie-break, I had the impression he just couldn't put that loss out of his mind. Mind you, the fact he just got off the plane from NZ must not have helped either!!!

He sort of woke up at the end of the third, 3/9 I think, but it was too late to catch up with that one. "I felt very flat today, I wasn't able to do much with the ball, and he played extremely well...", he told me later.

The game was a bit intense, both players seemed to be in each other's way a lot. But you'll have to remember that it's very warm here, courts are pretty bouncy, and as Shawn was hitting very hard the ball indeed, a bit of imprecision, and zoom, it's in the middle of the court!

A very contrasting match with Joe and Jan's, who were more into accuracy at the front than the power battle that went on between Shawn and Campbell.

Gilly Lane a débuté les 2 premiers jeux sur les chapeaux de roue, mettant une bonne pression sur Mathieu, qui manquait d’agressivité en début de match.

De plus Mathieu a fait beaucoup plus de fautes directes qu’à son habitude, ce qui permit à l’Américain de remporter les 2 premiers jeux sur un score confortable.

Suite à cela, Gilly s’enflamme dans le troisième, sort mentalement du match et tente beaucoup trop, alors que dans le même temps, Mathieu gagne en agressivité, et entrevoit des solutions tactiques.

Dès le début du quatrième jeu, il mène tactiquement les échanges et contre toutes les attaque de Lane à l’avant du court. L’Américain ne trouve plus de solutions pour gagner les échanges et fait de plus en plus de mauvais choix et de fautes directes.

Mathieu se qualifie donc pour le world open dans la douleur.

Après un début de match hésitant où Yann se retrouve mené 6/3 dans le premier jeu en manquant de longueur, il emporte le jeu 11/7 dès qu’il est plus patient et plus précis en longueur.

Dès lors, le match est très irrégulier, Dick Lau gardant un niveau de jeu régulier, mais Yann alterne le bon et le moins bon. Alors qu’il domine les débuts du second et du quatrième jeu, il sors de son schéma tactique, tente trop tôt dans les échanges et remet son adversaire dans le match.

De nouveau embarqué dans un match de 5 jeux. Yann prend un bon départ, et ne sera jamais rejoint en contrôlant son adversaire ne lui laissant plus les ouvertures qui lui avaient coûté la perte des second et quatrième jeu.

Il s’offre une balle de match d’un retour de service frappé croisé dans le nick et finit sur un croisé qui trouve un autre nick à l’arrière du court.

Julien prend un départ moyen et se retrouve mené la plupart du premier jeu, 9/7 pour Bennett, puis, prend les 3 points suivants pour s’offrir sa première balle de jeu, qu’il rate ainsi que la seconde et se voit perdre 13/11 après un très long jeu, qui a compté 32 demandes de let.

Le Hollandais n’étant pas réputé pour sa condition physique, ce long premier jeu, fait l’affaire de Julien, qui au fur et à mesure prend le match plus à son compte, et malgré une longueur approximative, se bat comme un forcené, et trouve des super défenses.

Plus le match dure et plus le Hollandais tente des attaques à tout moment, faisant ainsi soit des fautes directes, soit ouvrant le court ce qui permet à Julien des contre attaques qui marquent la plupart du temps.


Menant 2/1, Julien prend l’ascendant dès le début du quatrième jeu, et s’attribue 4 points d’avance, qu’il ne lâchera plus jusqu’à la conclusion du match.

Carton plein, 3 Français sur 3 qualifiés pour le world open, ce qui signifie que 7 Français seront présents dans le tableau final.

Draw & Results

Rasmus Nielsen (Den)

Steve Coppinger (Rsa)

Lucky Losers :
Ben Ford - Jens Schoor - Ritwick  Bhattacharya - Gilly Lane - Henrik Mustonen - Max Lee - Campbell Grayson - Clinton Leew