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Northern Ontario Champs 2013
03-06 Apr, Sudbury, Canada, $15k |
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06-Apr, Final:
[2] Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) bt [1] Chris Simpson (Eng)
11/8, 11/8,
11/3 (49m)
Shorbagy takes Sudbury title
World junior champion Marwan El
Shorbagy captured his second PSA title as he overcame top seed
Chris Simpson in straight games in the final of the Northern Ontario
Champs in Sudbury.
 "Very
happy to win my 2nd PSA title here in Sudbury, its been an amazing
week for me and I am glad to win here," said Marwan.
"My aim for this tournament was to get my confident back after the
injury and I managed to do that so I am happy with that.
"I just want to thanks my mother, dad and my big brother for the
support they gave me in the last period without them I wasn't going
to be able to win this tournament, also my coach in Millfield Ian
Thomas and finally my sponsors dunlop, squash kings and alex tours."
Simpson tweeted: "It's been a tough trip for me,& I shud probably b
reasonably content with making the final,but I'll never be content
with 2nd best! All credit to Marwan today tho, he pushed hard and
played good squash when it mattered most."
Mike McCue reports on the final:
The second seeded Shorbagy produced a dominant performance to become
the first Egyptian winner of the Sudbury crown. His length and width
were immaculate from the first rally, contrasting with Simpson who
struggled to find correct lines on both sides.
A few long rallies at the end of the first suggested the Englishman
might be too fit, but Marwan confidently finished the game. After
racing to a 10/4 lead in the second, he lost four straight points
and again appeared winded. The lead was enough of a cushion to
prevent a miracle comeback though, and the third game was a
formality as Chris repeatedly found the tin going short.
Marwan clinched the title overcoming an indisputably difficult road
to the final, and a very resilient opponent today.
Afterwards, it was announced that we will be back bigger and better
next year, mostly likely as a 25k!
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  Northern
Ontario Champs 2013
01-03 Apr, Sudbury, Canada, $15k |
Round One
03 Apr |
Quarters
04 Apr |
Semis
05 Apr |
Final
06 Apr |
[1] Chris Simpson (Eng)
6/11, 11/5, 11/6, 11/8 (62m)
[Q] Dane Sharp (Can) |
[1] Chris Simpson
11/6, 11/8, 12/10 (37m)
[Q] Scott Arnold |
[1] Chris Simpson
11/6, 7/11, 11/4, 9/11, 11/8 (78m)
Charles Sharpes |
[1] Chris Simpson
11/8, 11/8, 11/3 (49m)
[2] Marwan El Shorbagy |
Alfredo Avila (Mex)
11/7, 15/17, 5/11, 11/7, 11/9 (70m)
[Q] Scott Arnold (Aus) |
Charles Sharpes (Eng)
11/5, 11/7, 11/8 (45m)
[Q] Lewis Walters (Eng) |
Charles Sharpes
11/6, 8/11, 11/5, 11/6 (62m)
[3] Julian Illingworth |
[3] Julian Illingworth (Usa)
6/11, 11/9, 12/10, 13/11 (72m)
[Q] Eric Galvez (Mex) |
Cesar Salazar (Mex)
11/4, 11/7, 11/8 (38m)
[4] Shawn Delierre (Can) |
Cesar Salazar
6/11, 11/6, 2/11, 11/8, 11/7 (63m)
Jan Koukal |
Cesar Salazar
9/11, 11/3, 15/13, 11/4 (58m)
[2] Marwan El Shorbagy |
Jan Koukal (Cze)
11/7, 11/8, 11/4, (38m)
Miike McCue (Can) |
Chris Gordon (Usa)
11/8, 11/6, 11/6 (35m)
Mark Krajcsak (Hun) |
Chris Gordon
11/4, 7/11, 11/5, 6/11, 11/5 (62m)
[2] Marwan El Shorbagy |
Arturo Salazar (Mex)
5/11, 11/8, 13/11, 11/7 (47m)
[2] Marwan El Shorbagy (Egy) |
02-Apr, Qualifying Finals:
Lewis Walters (Eng bt Declan James (Eng)
11/7, 11/9, 11/9 (47m)
Eric Galvez (Mex) bt Adrian Dudzicki (Can)
11/2, 11/7, 11/3 (29m)
Scott Arnold (Aus) bt Yuta Fukui (Jpn)
11/9, 4/11, 11/5, 7/11, 11/8 (65m)
Dane Sharp (Can) bt Johan Bouquet (Fra)
11/8, 11/8, 11/7 (47m)
01-Apr, Qualifying Round One:
Lewis Walters (Eng) bt Victor Garcia Ramizer (Mex) 11/4,
11/5, 11/5 (25m)
Declan James (Eng) bt Reuben Phillips (Eng) 11/7, 5/11,
5/11, 11/7, 11/7 (67m)
Adrian Dudzicki (Can) bt Matthew Serediak (Can) 11/9, 4/11,
3/11, 11/4, 11/4 (49m)
Eric Galvez (Mex) bt Paul Rawden (Eng) 11/8, 11/1, 11/3
(31m)
Scott Arnold (Aus) bt Micah Franklin (Ber) 11/4, 11/7, 11/9
(30m)
Yuta Fukui (Jpn) bt Joe Chapman (Bvi) 7/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/4
(49m)
Johan Bouquet (Fra) bt Bryan Bonilla (Gua) 11/6, 11/5, 11/6
(33m)
Dane Sharp (Can) bt Richard Birks (Eng) 9/11, 11/7, 11/6,
11/2 (55m)
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05-Apr, Semis:
Top seeds Simpson and Shorbagy
through to the final ...
It was top seeds Chris Simpson
and Marwan El Shorbagy who triumphed in the semi-finals in
Sudbury, but neither had it easy.
Simpson won a seesaw five-setter against fellow Englishman Charles
Sharpes, coming from 4-1 down in the decider to reach the final
after 78 minutes.
"
Scrapped out an 11/8 in the 5th win today," tweeted Simpson. "Can't
say I felt great on court but that's a lot down to the pressure
Charles put me under."
Shorbagy came from a game down to beat Cesar Salazar - having beaten
his twin brother Arturo in the first round - in just short of an
hour.
Quarter-finals in Sudbury
Mike McCue reports, photos by Megan McCue
 Second
seed Marwan El Shorbagy reached the semis with an up-an-down
win over American Chris Gordon. In truth, none of the games were
particularly close, and whoever stayed off the tin early on
generally maintained control.
 The
first phase of the fifth game was the key point of this match; the
pace went up and errors decreased. Despite a few 'discussions' with
the referee, Marwan emerged with leads of 5-1 and eventually 10/3. A
surge of desperation from Gordon came too late, and Shorbagy was
victorious.
Chris Simpson was more clinical tonight than yesterday,
having adjusted to the bouncy panel courts. His straight hitting,
both short and long, was impeccable and left Scott Arnold little to
work with. The Aussie threatened to extend the match with a game
ball in the third, but Simpson sensed the danger and put together
the good rallies to win in under 40 minutes.
"Happy to win in three tonight and get to the semis again.
Particularly happy to be back in Sudbury again and see all the great
things this town has to offer." - Chris Simpson
Julian Illingworth was again involved in the best match of the
night, although this time on the losing end. Charles Sharpes
(who beat #2 seed Shahier Razik at this stage last year) set a very
high pace from the first rally which Julian was not quite ready to
match.
Roles reversed in the second as the American began attacking short
from all areas of the court, and Sharpes was forced into some very
hard work. Despite probably running 30% more than his opponent to
this point, the Englishman didn't come off the pace one bit in the
third. He was brimming with confidence and began whipping in boasts
and kills to test Julian's movement and fitness.
With neither player willing to retreat from this aggressive
approach, something had to give. Illingworth started finding the tin
too often, while Sharpes' attacks were becoming winners. At 9/6 in
the fourth he hit what some people called the best shot they had
ever seen live, in the form of a forehand straight volley kill off a
lob. This setup matchball and seconds later he was into the semis.
 "Really
happy to win against Julian, lost to him earlier in the year, so to
get the win is amazing. Thought I played really well tonight, I was
attacking really well. Hope I can keep it up tomorrow against Chris,
going to be a really tough game but happy to be in the semis
again."- Charles Sharpes
 In
the nightcap Cesar Salazar recovered from a 2-1 deficit to
beat Czech Jan Koukal. After splitting the first two games and going
0-2 down in the third, Koukal won 11 consecutive points in a
brilliant display of accuracy and shotmaking.
At this point, Salazar re-assessed his approach, upping the pace and
lengthening the rallies. He always held marginal leads in the final
two games and hit some winners of his own to book a spot in the
final four.
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Round One in Sudbury
Mike McCue reports
Main draw action began with some very tough matchups for a
tournament of this size.
Marwan El Shorbagy dropped the first game in rapid fashion
and found himself 6/8 down in the second before levelling at 1-all.
Arturo again threatened to take a commanding lead with two game
balls in the third, but the Egyptian sensed the danger and played
four brilliant rallies to take the ever-important 2-1 lead. The
fourth was not as competitive at the other games, and Marwan had
successfully navigated a tricky opener. Worth noting that the sum of
their rankings is barely 100...a very rare stat for a 15k first
round.
Scott Arnold upset the famously fast Alfredo Avila by
controlling the pace and not engaging the Mexican in many wide-open
rallies. From 8-5 down in the fifth he staged a comeback and won the
match on two consecutive strokes in the front left corner.
Cesar Salazar boosted the family record to 1-1 on the night
with a relatively smooth dismissal of Shawn Delierre, who seemed
slightly below par today. Cesar was ruthless and finished the match
in under 40 minutes; impressive considering these two are notorious
for marathon matches, particularly on bouncy panel courts like the
ones here in Sudbury.
Jan Koukal, Chris Gordon and Charles Sharpes all recorded 3-0
and none of three were ever seriously troubled by their opponents at
the business end of games.
By all accounts, Eric Galvez v. Julian Illingworth was the
match of the night. Naturally, I missed the entire thing (playing
then reffing), so I've deferred to local squash enthusiast Rod
Tyreman for a synopsis of this cross-border affair:
"Galvez, aka Jack Sparrow, came out strong in the first and
maintained this strength as the game played out. Up during the
course of the entire game, he took the first 11-6. Pretty much one
sided. Second and third- crowd was treated to some amazing squash.
Unbelievable retrieving, killer shots, etc. I couldn't help but
think that Eric still appeared more solid, but Julian took the
second 11-9 and the third 12-10. Those were some great games. Fourth
game- first three rallies were unreal. Nothing but kill shots,
followed up by killer retrievals. Little to no structure in the
play.
Julian was playing some killer drops from the back and Eric was
picking up shots that were unheard of. At one point, he dove and
dropped his racquet, then continued the rally like normal. This was
followed by Jullian controlling the game and bringing the score to
10-6. The play switched from attacking to basic/neutral, and Eric
slowly brought it back to 10-all.
At 12-11 in Julian's favour, he hit a slightly attacking short shot
(not quite a drop). Eric followed up with a similar shot and Eric's
ball appeared to hit the tin. As far as Marwan and I are concerned,
it was totally a tin (doesn't get any closer than that). According
to most of the crowd, the ball was good.
Galvez was sure it was good, Illingworth was sure it was down (no
surprise) and referee Delierre called it down. A controversial end
to a brilliantly contested match between two top athletes."
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Main Draw Decided in Sudbury
Mike McCue reports
Lewis Walters opened the night impressively with a 3-0 win
over his cousin Declan James. Walters was composed and controlled
throughout and retrieved as needed. The rallies became progressively
more dynamic near the end of each game, and James nearly clawed back
6-10 deficits in the second and third. However, a dubious stroke and
sportingly over-turned 'Yes Let' decision ended comebacks in both
games, respectively.
Eric Galvez was typically energetic in a sub-30 minute
dispatching of Adrian Dudzicki, who couldn't handle the Mexican's
relentless hard hitting and retrieving.
Scott Arnold eventually got the better of a see-saw encounter
with Yuta Fukui. Errors from the Aussie made the difference in the
second and fourth games, and the fifth was close until 5-all. From
that point, Arnold upped his pace and accuracy to overwhelm the
Japanese contender, who deserves much credit for steady play and
determined retrieving.
Dane Sharp made sure one Canadian survived the rigors of
qualifying with a straight games win over Johan Bouquet. The opening
exchanges gave hints of a marathon match, but the Frenchman could
not sustain the accuracy or focus he needed for long enough periods.
All four qualifiers enter the main draw relatively fresh physically
and should provide stern opposition to their main draw counterparts.
Qualifying under way in Sudbury
Mike McCue reports
The fourth edition of the only PSA event in Northern Ontario kicked
off with wins by English cousins Declan James and Lewis Walters.
Walters breezed by Victor Garcia (who flew in from Mexico whilst on
the reserves list and got in yesterday due to a withdrawal), while
Dec went 2/1 down to Reuben Phillips before tightening up his basic
game and clinically winning the final two games.
In the second session, an all-Canadian, all-National Squash Academy
matchup between Matt Serediak and Adrian Dudzicki took a rather
bizarre course. After a close first game, Serediak eased through the
next two, much to Adrian's (extreme) frustration, culminating in a
conduct stroke to lose the third. Dudzicki gathered himself though,
grabbed a new racquet and dominated the final two games.
Eric Galvez, Scott Arnold, Johan Bouquet and Yuta Fukui all won
convincingly, although Yuta (regrettably not a member of the NBA's
Jazz) did drop the opening game to Joe Chapman, in what was
undoubtedly the first ever Japan vs. British Virgin Islands match.
Canadian up-and-comer Dane Sharp was in mild danger of an early exit
to Richard Birks with the scoreline at 1/0 and 5/2 to the
Englishman. However, he sensed the importance of this stage of the
match and slowly began working Birks into submission.
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