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Bennett prevails in Stockholm
 Top
seed Dylan Bennett claimed the Scandinavian Open title, beating
qualifier Laurence Delasaux in straight games in the final.
The match came down to two players knowing each other from Junior
days and knowing how well each could play. Dylan today was hitting
and moving Laurence in the first and just edging out the Englishman
in that game, and in the second Dylan seemed to up every department
to close out the game 11-3.
By now most were looking for the Englishman to step up a gear, even
after a change of racket by both players towards the middle part of
the third, but Dylan again held strong and after 35 minutes we had a
winner.
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More from Stockholm |
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12-Jun, Quarters:
Dutch & English progress in Stockholm
A
Netherlands v England final is guaranteed in Stockholm after two
players from each country progressed in the quarter-finals.
Top seed Dylan Bennett will meet compatriot Rene Mijs
after both won in four games, while second seed Joe Lee meets
long-time rival Laurence Delasaux for the other place in the
final.Englishman Laurence
Delasaux up to this point hadn't been pushed in any of his matches,
and that's more or less what his match with Issa Kamara came down
too, having to much in the tank. As Issa mention after the match, he
had given his all in the previous match fightback. Delasaux moves
into an all-English Semi final vs Joe Lee, who received a walkover
against Geoffrey Demont.
The next match, Rene Mijs v Matias Tuomi, "A Score to settle for the
Dutchman", having lost to Tuomi in their previous encounter.
The first and second games where control by Mijs, and until 10-7 in
the third the Finn look all but done. But far from being over the
Finn battled back to snatch game ball and the third game, but as far
as the comeback was concerned that was it, four minutes later Mijs
was 10-1 match ball, a point later and the revenge was settled.
The final match, between Alexie Saverinov and Dylan Bennett was the
shortest match of the night. Having only seen the Russian play at
one other event, I was quite impressed with his overall game, but
the Dutchman had no desire to let Alexie get into any kind of flow,
and went through to an all-Dutch semi-final with a 3-0 result.
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 Scandinavian
Open 2009
10-14 Jun, Stockholm, Sweden, $4k |
Round One
11 Jun |
Quarters
12 Jun |
Semis
13 Jun |
Final
14 Jun |
[1] Dylan Bennett (Ned)
14/12, 11/5, 11/6 (35m)
[Q] Charles Sharpes (Eng) |
[1] Dylan Bennett
11/3, 11/5, 11/8 (23m)
[8] Alexi Severinov |
[1] Dylan Bennett
11/6, 11/6, 11/7 (37m)
[4] Rene Mijs |
[1] Dylan Bennett
11/8, 11/6, 11/3 (35m)
[Q] Laurence Delasaux |
[8] Alexi Severinov (Rus)
11/9, 12/10, 11/9 (29m)
Mick Biggs (Eng) |
[4] Rene Mijs (Ned)
5/11, 7/11, 11/9, 11/7, 11/9 (80m)
[Q] Christian Drakenberg (Swe) |
[4] Rene Mijs
11/7 11/8 11/13 11/1 (48m)
[7] Matias Tuomi |
[7] Matias Tuomi (Fin)
5/11, 11/5, 11/9, 11/5 (30m)
[Q] Lucas Serme (Fra) |
Jamie Matthews (Eng)
8/11, 4/11, 11/9, 11/9, 11/8 (60m)
[6] Issa Kamara (Sle) |
[6] Issa Kamara
11/3, 11/4, 11/3 (16m)
[Q] Laurence Delasaux |
[Q] Laurence Delasaux
11/4, 2/11, 12/10, 6/11, 11/5 (55m)
[2] Joe Lee |
[Q] Laurence Delasaux (Eng)
15/13, 11/6, 11/3 (30m)
[3] Henrik Mustonen (Fin) |
Geoffrey Demont (Fra)
13/11, 7/11, 11/3, 11/8 (38m)
[5] Philip Nightingale (Eng) |
Geoffrey Demont
w/o
[2] Joe Lee |
Foad Hammouni (Swe)
11/3, 11/7, 11/5 (30m)
[2] Joe Lee (Eng) |
Qualifying:
10-Jun, Finals:
Christian Drakenberg
(Swe) bt Ali Miski (Leb)
11/4, 11/8, 11/6 (20m)
Charles Sharpe (Eng) bt André Wikström (Swe)
8/11, 11/7, 9/11, 11/5, 11/9
Laurence Delasaux (Eng) bt Jonas Axelsson (Swe)
11/2, 11/0, 11/3 (13m)
Lucas Serme (Fra) bt Carl Johan Löfvenborg (Swe)
14/12 11/4 18/16 (47m)
10-Jun, Round One:
André Wikström (Swe) bt Johan Kjellberg (Swe)
11/2, 11/3, 11/2 (15m)
Jonas Axelsson (Swe) bt Gustav Runersjö (Swe)
11/6, 11/8, 11/8 (25m)
Carl Johan Löfvenborg (Swe) bt Filip Hanson (Swe)
11/5, 11/6, 11/2 (27m)
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11 Jun, Round One:
Delasaux & Demont make Scandinavian
Quarters
Two upsets in the first round in Stockholm as Laurence
Delasaux and Geoffrey Demont progressed to the
quarter-finals. Delasaux, a qualifier, beat Finnish hope Henrik
Mustonen in straight games while Demont ousted fifth seed Phil
Nightingale in four games.
1st Match: Jamie Mathews took a two game lead, and stood two
point from victory at 9-all in the third, only to see Kamara come
back and win a tight fifth game 11-8.
2nd Match: Geoffrey Demont held on to the first game 13-11,
Nightingale pulled back level, but after that Dermont was never
behind again, and closed out the fourth on a stroke.
3rd match: After seeing this one first hand it was the type
of game Mick Biggs could have won 3-0, ahead at the business end of
each game, 9 in the first two games and 10 in the third, but by then
Alexei Severinov was not interested in going on to a fourth and
ended the game 11-9 and so the match, 3/0.
4th match: Rene Mijs v Christian Drakenberg was like two
boxers standing toe to toe, neither wanting to give either a inch.
So from 2-0 to Christian, Rene came back to 2-2 in games, and from
7-7 in the fifth, it was Rene who made two mistakes to give the
advantage to the Swede at 9-7. But from there 8-9, 9-9, 10-9 to Rene
and on the 80-minute mark a mistake from Drakenberg gave the win to
the Dutchman.
5th match: After Lucas Serme took the first, Finn Matias
Tuomi took control, with a slight chance to the frenchman in the
third. Matias had no intention of going to a fifth, and a straight
run of five points gave him too much of a lead for the Junior Serme
to get back.
6th Match: Once into the match Laurence Delasaux just got
stronger and stronger, keeping Henrik Mustonen at bay, though the
Finn will be disappointed with not taking one of his three games
balls in the first game. The next two games followed a similar
pattern, and from the mid way point Delasaux closed out the match
and moved into the quarter-finals.
7th Match: Playing with a ball that looked like it should
have been marked as a single dot, this ball took both players more
or less a game to get use to how high it would bounce. Charles
Sharped will feel a little disappointed to not have take the first,
then the more experienced Dylan Bennett stepped up the control level
to run out with the victory in three games.
8th match: Hammouni Foad must be given great respect, as
running a tournament and playing keeps you busy enough. The playing
part for Foad looked like it was going to be a short and sharp as
Joe Lee came out in the first giving his opponent the runaround up
to 5-0, when Foad got on to the board. Lee then closed that game out
to three points, and although Foad kept Lee on court for a further
20 minutes it was in vain as the Englishman won 3/0 to reach the
quarters.
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More from Stockholm
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10-Jun, Qualifying:
A night for the juniors in Stockholm
First match of the night, Carl Johan Löfvenborg against Lucas
Serme of France. With a score of 3-0 most who witnessed this would have
said it had 3-2 written all over it, especially as two of the games
went to extra points 12-10(1st) and 18-16(3rd), but again the Junior
kept his nerve to hold on to a tight third game and a win of 3-0
Next up was a straightforward night's works for the current Swedish
squash champion Christian Drakenberg against Ali Miski of the
Lebanon. Although Ali had a number of nice holds and flicks, he
counldn't keep the same type of length as Drankenberg, and it
finished 3-0, in the shortest match of the night.
The third match between Charles Sharpe (Eng) and Andre Wilkström
(Swe) was a match I came into about half way through with both
players playing high tempo squash. After 40 minutes we came down to
the fifth game, Wilkström looking good at 6-3 and 8 -5, Sharpe pull
back to level at 8-8, then onto 10-8 and match ball. Wilkström saved
the first match ball 10-9, but with the next rally, a miss hit drop
to the tin gave the plucky 17-year-old a first round match tomorrow.
Finally Jonas Axelsson (Swe) took on Laurence Delasaux (Eng). A match
which just came down to one thing, how much time was taken on the
ball, which was decided by the Englishman's holds, having too much
for the ever ready Swede, lengths dying and drops played at will
from around the court, for the loss of five points and 3-0 to
Delasaux.
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