10-Jun: Day FOUR

Duncalf claims Euro title,
Hat-Trick for Gaultier
 
It was top seed Jenny Duncalf who won the all-English women's final in Budapest, as she and Laura Lengthorn renewed their rivalry from junior days.

Duncalf got the better of the opening game, but Lengthorn fought back to contest the second strongly. Once that was gone it became clear that her harder route to the final - particularly yesterday's comeback against Isabelle Stoehr - was taking its toll, and Duncalf quickly took the third to add the European Senior title to the junior crown she won some years back.

In the men's final France's Gregory Gaultier recorded his third successive win in the event, taking the first two games with ease before fending off a spirited fightback from Spain's Borja Golan in the third.

"I felt a bit tired today, I didn't feel my legs, but I am here to win the title. I felt confident during the first two games, but he realized that I was down in the third. "The court is quite hard, and you have to be quick to take advantage. Good organization, as it was before in Prague and Bratislava." "I'm really happy to win this third in a row. I am already looking forward to defending my title in front of my home supporters in France next year." Gregory Gaultier

"I am happy, it was a good match. Finishing second place in a European Championship is not bad. Both of us became very tired in the end. "The first two games showed a big difference, which is really because of the traditional scoring system, where handouts are not showing." "I'm really happy to have won silver, especially considering that it came in the middle of my summer training programme." Borja Golan

"We almost grew up together, know each other very well. "We have played against each other the last Junior title as well, and it is nice to be in the senior final together. "I really enjoyed Budapest, yesterday we went to see the Buda Castle." "It is a nice title, and this was my toughest match during the tournament. I am very happy that I won it, and I want to come back next year! " Jenny Duncalf European Champion 2006

    

"Yesterday I had a tough match against Isabelle, I was got to get through that, and it was difficult. "I felt fine today in the beginning but as we got into the game I became tired quite quickly. "The Hungarian association did a nice job with this beautiful glass court, the arena, the Hotel and we can see quite a few spectators around ... "There are no WISPA events held in Hungary, so this is my first time in Budapest and I really enjoyed it." Laura Lengthorn

Thanks to Philippe Signoret for the photos

Gaultier aims for hat-trick,
English champion guaranteed

Saturday's finals of the European Individual Championships in Budapest could see France's Gregory Gaultier claim his third successive title, while an English women's champion is guaranteed ...

Gaultier was two games up on fellow Frenchman Renan Lavigne, but a slip early in the third saw Lavigne in trouble with his ankle. He struggled on for a couple of points, but was soon forced to concede the match. Aiming to prevent Gaultier's hat-trick will be Spaniard Borja Golan, who cruised past Jan Koukal in straight games.

The women's final will be an all-English affair between the top two seeds. Jenny Duncalf wasted no time in ending the run of Belgium's Annabelle Romedenne, but Laura Lengthorn found herself trailing by two games an 4/1 down in the third before staging a remarkable recovery to fend off the challenge of France's Isabelle Stoehr.

08-Jun: Day Two:

Quarter-Finals: Gregory Gaultier bt Simon Rosner      9/4, 9/4, 9/3 Renan Lavigne bt Jonathan Kemp        9/6, 9/3, 9/0 Borja Golan bt Mark Krajcsak              9/5, 9/1, 9/1 Jan Koukal bt Peter Barker              w/o  (ankle injury) Jenny Duncalf bt Soraya Renai             9/4, 9/0, 9/2 Annabelle Romedenne bt Frania Gillen-Buchert                                                             3/9, 9/7, 9/1, 9/2 Isabelle Stoehr bt Pamela Pancis         9/2, 9/2, 9/1 Laura Lengthorn bt Chantal Moros       9/1, 9/0, 9/5 draws & results

End of home hopes in Budapest

The first of the quarter-finals in Budapest saw the demise of Hungarian champion Mark Krajcsak as Spanish champion Borja Golan maintained control throughout to win in straight games.

Golan will play Czech Jan Koukal, who received a walkover after England's second seed Peter Barker was forced to withdraw on doctor's orders after a recurrence the his ankle injury which kept him out for several weeks earlier in the year.

Whoever wins that one is guaranteed to meet a Frenchman in the final. Defending champion Gregory Gaultier eased past Simon Rosner, and Renan Lavigne had an equally-convincing win against his Duffield team-mate Jon Kemp, the 3/4 seed.

So, no Englishmen left in the men's event, but top seeds Jenny Duncalf and Laura Lengthorn remain on course in the women's event. They both recorded two comfortable wins today, and Duncalf faces Belgian surprise package Annabelle Romedenne in the semis while Lengthorn takes on France's Isabelle Stoehr in a top-20 battle.

Proud locals …
Daniel Szabo reports

Locals are proud of their three players who managed to get into the best 16 in the European Individual.

Hungarian nationals 3rd Sándor Fülöp beat Greek nationals 2nd Petros Tzamaloukas, and Mark Krajcsak (Hungarian Champion) easily managed to get his place in the best 8.

Main sponsors of the event Tamás and György Nagyiványi (brothers shown on the picture) are directors of HEAD Hungary and say this is what they really like: broad publicity of the event in Hungary and throughout the world via the internet.

"I'm glad that Budapest is decorated with EIC giant-posters everywhere, this is the only major international sport event in the city today. "Hungary’s number one sports-channel is covering the event fully with every-day evening summaries of glass-court matches, interviews, and the National Sport newspaper publishes full coverage. "We are also delighted to have live audio-video streaming through the internet, absolutely free of charge. " Although there were some critical moments, eg. when the door-handle of the arena broke at the start of the event, preventing spectators from entering for an hour ("they could use the backdoor", laughs Tamás), sponsors are smiling which is good for squash.

07-Jun, Day One:
You can’t blame it on sunshine!
Daniel Szabo reports from Budapest

The warm-up day of the HEAD European Individual Championship 2006 happened to start in a record cold Budapest. Meteorologist say this is the coolest weather measured in June so far in their files, and it turned out to help the Northern Europeans a lot.

When I entered the AKTÍV squash club in the afternoon I could see almost the same scene on all four courts. Young talented pumas of northern countries like Scotland, Sweden, England and the Netherlands chasing shocked and a bit sleepy Greek, French, Israeli and Central-European contesters.

No doubt, the biggest upset for me was Julien Balbo from France losing to the young (not even PSA-ranked) Rasmus Holt from Sweden.

The whole French squad teamed up at the shocking match, in which Balbo tried to tame down the Swedish tiger as if in a circus feat. But the two-handed backhand drives of this young lad fired on full power, showed no mercy to the experienced French in the end.

That was the secret what I have seen on the experienced Christian Drakenberg’s face watching the match silently from behind …

I also watched the match between Renan Lavigne from France and Tomer Noah from Israel, which showed the perfect warm-up for the French star.

Both players started firm, and Lavigne brought up his tactical advantages of the big ranking difference soon in the first game (9:2). Noah changed the pace for the second game and we were at 6 all after a few long rallies decorated with really hot fireworks, but Lavigne stepped on the gas to collect the second game 9:6.

Noah started the third game with the pain of his previous match in his legs, where he defeated the Croatian champion Spoljar, and left the court exhausted, but with a relief on both players faces.

A different event ...

It is definitely different from a PSA tournament, where cool pros and stars show their brilliance for ranking points and money. These guys here are national champions, with the support of millions behind them, to chase the pride of being THE European Champion.

It is countries’ pride against prides of countries. They are playing for the glory of their national squash-sport. No question of differences in levels, as obviously players from England, France and the Netherlands are favourites, but who will be the winner in the end? Gaultier from France, or the cool English rising star Barker, Stoehr or Duncalf?

Meteorologists say, there is a change in Budapest’s weather, and temperature started to warm dramatically. This might help the frozen southern players like Golan from Spain, Serme from France as well.


  

"Currently I do my summer training in Barcelona, running, swimming on the beach. "Last September I restarted my professional training, after three years of studying. This made me go ahead in the PSA ranking a lot. Before that I spent one year in England, right after high-school, and I could break into the top 40. "In Barcelona there are three other guys to train with, not the level of this match, but ok for preparation. I thought that against Mark it might be tough, and it was. I will try to watch the sports-channel’s summary in the evening at the hotel."

"I was just tired after a long season. I had to work a lot in the beginning to wait for his errors, he could hit slightly better shots, and I lost fuel at 5-all in the first game. "If I had been able to win the first, I could have saved my motivation for the rest. I knew that it is Koukal in the semis, and I could beat him in our last two encounters. "But Borja kept his pressure firmly, which was a bit of a surprise, because he has changed a lot compared to his morning match. "I think he will play against Gaultier in the final, and if both can keep the pressure, errors will decide."

Jan Koukal

9/4, 9/4, 9/3

9/3, 9/5, 4/0 rtd (36m)

17.00

9/6, 9/3, 9/0

Jonathan Kemp

9/5, 9/1, 9/1

9/0, 9/5, 9/0 (36m)

 Jan Koukal

w/o

Peter Barker

First Round Results:

Martin Stepan (Cze) 3-0 Oleg Pogrenbnyak (Ukr)                  9/0, 9/0, 9/0
Sebastian Viktor (Swe) 3-1 Balasz Welesz (Hun)                   9/4, 9/4, 3/9, 10/8
[9/16] Patrick Gaessler (Ger) 3-0 Roman Cellar (Svk)          10/8, 9/0, 9/3
Marco Datwyler (Sui) 3-0 Artem Shandybin (Ukr)                  9/0, 9/1, 9/4
Alexander Pavuans (Lat) 3-0 Paul Linehan (Irl)                     9/4, 9/0, 9/0
Tomer Noach (Isr) 3-0 Domagoj Spoljar (Cro)                       9/4, 9/4, 9/3
Alan Clyne (Sco) 3-0 Sanjay Raval (Lux)                                9/0, 9/5, 9/0
[9/16] Andras Torok (Hun) 3-0 Sergey Kostrikin (Rus)            9/0, 9/2, 9/1
[9/16] Sandor Fulop (Aut) 3-0 Nikolay Angelov (Bul)               9/3, 9/1, 9/0
Petros Tzamaloukas (Gre) 3-1 Roman Dolynich (Ukr)            9/7, 7/9, 9/5, 9/7
Lukas Jelenik (Cze) 3-1 Ivan Djordjevic (Ser)                       4/9, 9/4, 10/8, 9/4
Robert Dobai (Svk) 3-0 Dove Haroze (Isr)                             9/3, 9/1, 9/3
Petr Martin (Cze) 3-1 Graham Melvin (Sco)                            7/9, 9/4, 9/1, 9/5
[9/16] Andre Holderegger (Sui) 3-0 Dimitry Sudilovsky (Bls)  w/o
[9/16] Julien Balbo (Fra) 3-0 Arnis Tihvinskis (Lat)                   9/2, 9/5, 9/0
Rasmus Holt (Swe) 3-0 Marek Manik (Svk)                             9/1, 9/5, 9/2
Tom Hoevenaars (Ned) 3-0 Andrej Bratter (Rus)                    9/0, 9/0, 9/0
Jakob Dirnbirger (Aut) 3-1 Alexey Severinov (Rus)                9/0, 9/3, 2/9, 10/8
Marton Szaboky (Hun) 3-0 Oleksjy Davkdenko (Ukr)              9/0, 9/3, 9/0
[9/16] Christian Drakenberg (Swe) 3-0 Peter Kviecinsky (Svk)  9/4, 9/3, 9/5
Ron Levy (Isr) 3-2 Jamie Macaulay (Sco)                                9/6, 9/4, 3/9, 6/9, 9/5
Basiannn Meulenbelt (Ned) 3-0 Daniel Varga (Hun)                9/0, 9/1, 9/3

 9/4, 9/0, 9/2 (18m)

9/0, 9/1, 9/2 (23m)

 Annabelle Romedenne

16.00

Laura Lengthorn

3/9, 9/7, 9/1, 9/2

 Annabelle Romedenne

9/2, 9/2, 9/1

Pamela Pancis

3/9, 7/9, 9/4, 9/1, 9/6 (63m)

Laura Lengthorn

9/1, 9/0, 9/5 (16m)