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Guilfoyle Financial Toronto Classic
2018
19-24 Feb, Toronto Cricket, Canada, $10k |
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24-Feb, Final:
[3] Daniel Mekbib (Cze) 3-1 [1] Baptiste Masotti
(Fra)
9-11, 11-1, 11-8, 14-12 (62m)
Mekbib claims maiden PSA title in
Toronto
Robin Clark reports
The Guilfoyle Financial PSA Squash Classic is over and I’m
exhausted.
It’s been an unbelievable week. We’ve been lucky year after year
to attract top level players to our event and this year was no
exception. The quality of squash throughout the tournament was
top notch and no doubt many of the players who reached the
quarters will go on to top 50 status.
Daniel was the stand out. You could feel the
relief after winning the last point to claim his first 5K PSA
tournament. He mentioned after the match he felt a little
pressure going in as many of his friends and family back in
Czech had expected him to have won multiple titles on tour
already.
He doesn’t have to stress anymore except he wasn’t very happy
with my report last night so decided to choke me out after the
match to show me his “mean side”.
Daniel went straight to the bar downstairs and
over the next few hours drank a few beers and literally
socialized with the entire membership at the Cricket Club.
I haven’t seen Baptiste since the defeat. He
played his heart out and should leave with is head held high
knowing he had his chances to win. He’s an amazing player and
nicer individual, offering to hit with many of our juniors here
and teaching his billets son a little French.
Onto next year. Thanks for reading.
NOTE: Daniel and Baptiste meet again soon - in Montreal
Qualifying round one!
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Toronto Classic 2018
19-24 Feb, Toronto, Canada, $5k |
Round One
21 Feb |
Quarters
22 Feb |
Semis
23 Feb |
Final
25 Feb |
[1] Baptiste Masotti (Fra)
11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-3 (43m)
[Q] Cameron Seth (Can) |
[1] Baptiste Masotti
11-7, 11-7, 9-11, 11-7
[7] Tristan Eysele |
[1] Baptiste Masotti 11-4, 11-5, 12-14,
12-14, 11-5
[6] Emyr Evans |
[1] Baptiste Masotti
9-11, 11-1, 11-8, 14-12 (62m)
[3] Daniel Mekbib
first PSA title for Daniel |
[7] Tristan Eysele (Rsa)
11-5, 11-9, 11-6 (28m)
[Q] Liam Marrison (Can) |
[6] Emyr Evans (Wal)
11-9, 11-5, 11-4 (26m)
[wc] Sam Burley Can) |
[6] Emyr Evans
12-10, 11-6, 5-11, 11-6
[4] David Baillargeon |
[4] David Baillargeon (Can
11-5, 11-3, 11-2 (22m)
[Q] Albert Shoihet (Can) |
[Q] Fernando Magdelano (Mex)
11-3, 11-3, 11-5 (25m)
[3] Daniel Mekbib (Cze) |
[3] Daniel Mekbib
12-10, 11-8, 11-9
[5] Charlie Lee |
[3] Daniel Mekbib 13-11, 9-11, 8-11,
12-10, 11-7
[8] Reiko Peter |
Kale Wilson (Tri)
11-3, 11-5, 11-1 (21m)
[5] Charlie Lee (Eng) |
David Cromwell (Usa)
22-3, 11-4, 11-7 (26m)
[8] Reiko Peter (Sui) |
[8] Reiko Peter
7-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-7
Henrik Mustonen |
Henrik Mustonen (Fin)
9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 7-11, 11-9 (61m)
[2] Robertino Pezzota (Arg) |
Qualifying:
Finals:
Albert Shoihet (Can) 3-1 Adrian Ostbye
4-11, 11-6, 11-5, 11-8
Fernando Magdaleno (Mex) 3-0 George Crowne
11-4, 11-9, 11-9
Cameron Seth (Can) 3-2 James Van Staveren 10-12,
10-12, 12-10, 11-3, 11-2
Liam Marrison (Can) 3-1 Ismail Rauf
11-3, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5
Round One:
Adrian Ostbyte (Nor)
bye
Albert Shoihet (Can) 3-2 James Flynn (Can)
5-11, 11-5, 11-6, 7-11, 11-5
Fernando Magdaleno (Mex) 3-1 Elliot Hunt (Can)
11-6, 11-4, 7-11, 11-4
George Crowne (Can) 3-0 Cory McCartney (Can)
11-9, 11-9, 11-7
James Van Staveren (Can) 3-0 William Kuhn (Can)
11-3, 11-9, 11-1
Cameron Seth (Can) 3-0 Robert Cooley (Can)
11-7, 11-8, 11-3
Ismail Rauf (Can) 3-2 Thomas Manley (Can)
8-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9, 12-10
Liam Marrison (Can) 3-2 Thomas King (Can)
18-16, 10-12, 12-10, 10-12, 11-6
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23-Feb,
Semi-Finals:
Robin Clark reports
For me the best part about writing reviews is making fun of
those I love the most.
I hear there is a Facebook group called Squash Stories that
actually believes my taunts are for real, even going as far as
to say I was a fairly average player.
Let me be clear to those reading. I WAS a very average player
and almost all pros I make fun of, minus McCue, have achieved
far greater success than I on the pro tour.
I got a lot of flak for my comments about Selby. Funny story
actually - I went to Selby’s bachelor party in Spain only to
realize his best man (hint – he was a man child at age 7)
decided it would be a good idea to get a bunch of guys inside a
bull fighting ring to see whether or not we could dodge a 500
pound beast.
Long story short they release a bull and this thing starts
trotting around casually running until making a sharp left hand
turn directly towards yours truly. I flinch, the bull feels the
fear and starts charging. I sharply turn to the right. His head
makes contact with my hip and buttocks area and throws me what
felt like 27 feet in the air landing hard and scraping my entire
arm and injuring my hip and back for months.
So am I allowed to make fun of him? Absolutely.
Baptiste Masotti 3-2 Emyr Evans
I don’t understand why players complain when crowd noise is too
high. Have you ever played in South America with the hissing and
the cow bells going off mid rally? Clearly more training needs
to be done with music blaring in the background.
I’m an employee at the club I work at. Telling members to stop
enjoying the free beer and to quiet down is a recipe for
immediate firing.
Speaking of firing Baptiste was on fire today taking the ball in
short. He clearly read my report last night and decided action
needed to be taken. But the only analogy to describe this match
would be similar to describing a night out on the town with the
boys.
You start strong, fresh out of the gate firing on all cylinders
and feeling good about what the night may bring (2-0 to Baptiste).
By midnight things become hazy, and although still alert and
responsive shapes and objects are starting to slow down and the
hair becomes slightly disheveled (2-2 in games). By 2AM you take
a shot of what was meant to be water but was really tequila and
in an instant you become overwhelmed with energy and feel the
need to absolutely shred the dance floor.
Baptiste shred the dance floor in the fifth to regain his
composure and close out the match. Unlike Galifi who would
continue on without water or food for the next 24 hours Baptiste
would do well to ignore those he admires the most and go to bed.
Get some rest young man.
Daniel Mekbib 3-2 Reiko Peter
Daniel has to be the nicest guy in the world. Seriously, my
billets love him. The members love him. My juniors love him. It
makes me sick.
Truth be told I thought he would lose 3-0 today. But as I
watched the match I started to understand why everyone was so
giddy about the guy. I felt like I was watching a love movie.
Daniel is Ryan Gosling from the Notebook.
He moves so romantically on court, similar to when you meet a
girl and slightly touch her back as you walk her through a door
on the first date. His technique is flawless, his movement
impeccable and has that Eastern European temper. Opposite to
Kouki I can’t take my eyes off his squash game.
In truth the match was 50/50 until 3-2 in the fifth game, when
Daniel hit a crosscourt that Reiko usually picks up but he hits
the tin. It was over. The difficult match the previous night was
creeping into Reiko’s legs and you could tell not much was left
in the tank.
Match to Daniel. He’s the winner again and the crowd goes nuts.
If only he would acknowledge me after the match.
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22-Feb,
Quarter-Finals:
Robin Clark reports
Baptiste Masotti 3-1 Tristan Eysele
If you’ve never seen these two players compete and only watched
the warm up then it was over before it started – match to
Baptiste.
Tristan has an unorthodox way of hitting a backhand, that is too
say I’ve never seen it before so therefore it must be
unorthodox. In general when teaching technique the further away
the elbow is from your body the less control you will garner,
unless your hands make up for the gap. Well, Tristan’s hands are
quite exotic.
He has the ability to hit outright winners from interesting
positions and does so consistently under pressure. With ALL that
being said, Baptiste was the better player and if he decides to
take the ball into the front more often he will be hard to beat.
He hits tremendous length and has so many chances to take the
ball in, only to hit another length and allow his opponent back
into the rally. Anytime he takes the ball short he gains
positions but rarely (in his first two matches) does he do it
consistently to apply even more pressure.
Only when he has big leads do you see his relaxed attacking
style come out. Renan Lavigne must be doing a great job in
France at teaching his pro’s the “relaxed style” he so
desperately tried to attain in his own game but unfortunately
never succeeded.
Emyr Evans 3-1 David Baillargeon
My only known fact about Emyr was from a junior I coach who
constantly watches SquashTV: “He’s going to win easy, I saw him
play a few weeks ago against Selby and he took a game”.
That doesn’t give me much confidence. Selby has two babies,
rarely helps his lovely wife Lucie out around the house, is more
concerned about his Instagram posts being cool (which is
hilarious because without Peter Barker being his best friend I
would suspect he would have had a much tougher childhood) and
the guy is consistently giving comments from the couch.
So for Emyr to have lost to Selby was more shocking to me so
immediately I’ve got David winning the match, at ease. I
probably should have listened to the junior. The first game was
tight throughout with no clear cut favourite.
As the match progressed however it was clear that Emyr moves the
ball around the court a little more than David, who is capable
of staying in the rallies but is lacking that one “shot” to help
him gain the upper hand. Without a little more punch to his
attack Emyr moves well enough to be able to pick up all of
David’s shots short and eventually win the rally.
Daniel Mekbib 3-0 Charlie Lee
Unfortunately I was on the doubles court competing in a Pro Am
during this match. I saw a few points, Daniel has fantastic
technique which is unlike most Czech players.
They tend to be stiff and dormant, Koukal comes to mind but even
Koukal would admit his technique is similar to that of a shovel.
Thank god he weighed 45 pounds and never got tired. God he was
boring to watch, worse to play.
Anyways Daniel won the match.
Reiko Peter 3-1 Henrik Mustonen
What a brutal 5K draw for Henrik. The guy plays the second seed
first round only to narrowly escape defeat. It was a fantastic
first round match but it was grueling and tough.
I heard Henrik is coming back from injury and it showed not in
his hands but in his movement and shorts (probably ones he wore
prior to the injury). He moves well, but I don’t think he’s
confident in his fitness so at times attacks a little too early
which leaves him out of position.
But damn he’s got shots, he actually is the only one I’ve seen
hit topspin trickle boasts for winners when his opponent is
literally standing behind him. He’s also a “weird guy”, quote
from his own mouth but I like that in a man. Leaves room for
intrigue and mystery. Oh ya, Reiko played well and won 3-1.
For a guy who’s in his twenties and has gotten two hip
replacements that’s pretty impressive. If I was Chris Simpson I
would hang Reiko’s picture on his bedside as a confidence
booster knowing things could be much worse. Also congrats Reiko
on your recent marriage to a good Canadian girl.
Tomorrow the semi-finals are set. We’ve got 130 juniors
competing in a junior tournament, the semi-finals of our doubles
pro am, a beer sponsor giving out free beer to the masses and a
BBQ company cooking Brisket on our outdoor patio.
Reiko was slightly upset today about the crowd noise during his
match. I can only hope he wears ear plugs tomorrow because it
will be rowdy and loud.
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