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Thu 18-Aug, round ONE (top):
[Q]
Peter Barker (Eng) bt [7] Shahid Zaman (Pak)
11/8, 11/8, 4/11, 11/7 (46m)
[4] James Willstrop (Eng) bt Ben Garner (Eng)
11/6,
11/10(3-1), 11/9 (34m)
[1] Lee Beachill (Eng) bt Bradley Ball (Eng)
11/3, 11/7, 11/2 (34m)
[5] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt Stewart Boswell (Aus)
9/11, 11/8,
11/8, 11/6 (70m)
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Good Night for
England in Sheffield
Tonight's top half
of the draw provided four English winners, and a guaranteed English
finalist for the English Open.
Top seed Lee Beachill will face local favourite Nick Matthew
in Friday's quarter-finals, while Beachill's Pontefract team-mate James
Willstrop will face qualifier Peter Barker, who created the
only upset of the night as he ousted Pakistan's seventh seed Shahid Zaman.
Framboise reports on the
first round ... top half ...
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[Q] Peter Barker
(Eng) bt [7] Shahid Zaman (Pak)
11/8, 11/8, 4/11, 11/7 (46m)
SCRAPING THROUGH…
 The
first match on last night was Peter Barker against Pakistani
number one Shahid Zaman. “He is a bit heavy for a squash
player, isn’t he? How does he get away with it?” I heard somebody say
behind me. “Because he’s got amazing racquet skills” I retorted…
Yes, Shahid is extremely gifted, and for a big guy, he is moving
extremely fast, and runs an awful lot… But his gift is the racquet. He
could place nicks back from the changing room and standing on his
head…
 You
think I’m exaggerating? Ask all the players on the circuit… They dread
playing him because he is so darn gifted… But it’s also true, he lacks
in fitness, and if you can resist the nicks, kills and winners, run
for days, pick-up, retrieve and return from hell, you may have a
chance to run Shahid out of the race…
And that’s what Impressive Barker did last night. Oh, it wasn’t
Peter’s best squash, I have to admit… I saw him play soooo much better
(I remember a match against Alex Gough for example, where Peter was
awesome, even if he lost). But racquet between his teeth, heart on his
sleeve, eyes on the next round, the Englishman imposed his style,
rally after rally, forcing the Pakistani to rally more than he wished,
and frustrated him with so many “perfect length” forehand and backhand
straight drives that luck was ruled out…
 The
first two games were all Peter’s. Long rallies, both of them working
hard at visiting the four corners of the court, tight length from
Barker, great winners for Zaman... The third was very scrappy, with
Shahid imposing his style, as in three four shots and zoom, a nick,
Peter unable to place a long drive, playing too short too early,
dominated by a redoubtably talented Pakistani.
In the fourth, Shahid had a bit of a lead at 5/3, and we thought we
were in for a fifth, but Mr Barker would have none of that, and hung
on to come back to 5/5, then 6/6. Shahid was obviously tired, and
started to make errors. Barker, sensing victory round the corner, hit
a series of great drop shots that his opponent just couldn’t return
anymore. And a very honest Shahid, declaring his last boast, out of
sight of the referees, down on match ball, offering Young Barker the
best win of his career…
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 "I
knew that on paper Shahid can be awesome, but he can also make
errors. I knew I could build on that and frustrate him a little,
but what did the trick was a day’s rest.
"Shahid is two years older than me, but even in juniors we never
played each other. So before the match Nick Matthew gave me a few
bits of advice, and also David Pearson was advising me during the
match.
"If you give Shahid too many angles he crucifies you, he can hit a
nick from anywhere. So I thought to keep it straight, frustrate
him and stay in the front.
"This match was not my best squash, I’ve played better and lost.
Today it was just about getting the job done … and that’s what I
did.
Peter Barker
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 "Peter
player very well, but I simply hadn't done enough preparation for
this tournament."
Shahid Zaman |
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 "I
had never seen Shahid play, so I didn’t know what to expect. Maybe
I thought that Peter would have a harder game..? Shahid has
amazing ball skills, but I feel that Peter adopted the right
strategy by moving him around.
"I’m delighted for Peter, because he’s been working awfully hard
for a very long time…
Jan Barker
(Peter's mum)
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[1]
Lee Beachill (Eng) bt Bradley Ball (Eng)
11/3, 11/7, 11/2 (34m)
GOOD
EXPERIENCE…
Not much to say on a match when one of the players is just recovering
from injury and out of matches, and the other one is world number two…
Bradley Ball hurt himself badly less than a month ago, has been
under an intense physio treatment, and couldn’t train properly leading
up to the match.
Lee Beachill on the other hand started “slowly”, all is
relative I suppose, and soon got into his rhythm, never giving Bradley
a chance, and at times, it was painful to watch the young man being
pushed around the court by the Master of Precision. But Bradley was
very positive after the match, says that he enjoyed the experience,
and the chance to perform in front of a large crowd. But I'm sure that
he must have been disappointed not to be able to defend his chances...
Lee now has to face a very positive Nick Matthew, and that could be a
match you should all come and watch tonight…
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 "Not happy
with my performance obviously, but it’s my first match since the
Pakistan Open, against Thierry, as I got injured (back and knee)
as soon as I came back…
"I’ve been spending every other day at the physio, trying
desperately to make it here… And once I got on court, you have to
get on the competitive mode… But what can I say, Lee was just so
sharp today, he looked even sharper than last time we played…
"I’m still so happy to have played here, it’s such an experience
to play in the English Open, and I thoroughly enjoyed it… All
those weeks, I thought I wouldn’t be able to play… At least, I’ve
made it…"
Bradley Ball |
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 "It’s
been eight weeks since my last competitive match, so it feels
strange, but in a good way, getting back on court with everything
at stake. Practice matches are all very well, but it’s no
substitute for the real thing.
"As for tonight's match, I was a bit tentative to start with, but
in the end I thought I played well.
"It’s going to be an exciting season … the World Team
Championships is a major target for England. We’ve got a really
close team and it would be the icing on the cake to win that.
We’ll be away for a month then, travelling training and staying
together, so it’s good that we’re a close-knit group."
Lee Beachill |
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[4] James Willstrop
(Eng) bt Ben Garner (Eng)
11/6, 11/10(3-1), 11/9 (34m)
FAST AND FURIOUS…
“Frenetic”, “Ridiculous”… These were the words James Willstrop
used in his after match interview to describe the pace that Ben
Garner imposed on the game…
And it was both… Young Garner wanted to do good, this year, after his
last year fantastic performance in the first round, where he pushed
John White in a classic long five setter. And maybe Ben put too much
pressure and expected too much of himself.
My feeling was that he tried too hard, imposed a rhythm that even he
couldn’t sustain without missing out on precision. But boy, did Ben
hit the ball, did he run, and did he retrieve James’ lethal winners
one after the other, matching shot per shot…
 In
the first game, Ben made too many errors (I counted 6), that’s a lot
of points given away… But he made it up in the second, when he came
back from 5/10 to impose a tie-break, got a game ball 11/10, had the
rally of the century where he finished on the floor trying to get a
fantastic volley drop shot from James, and when at 12/11 for James, he
decided to test the side glass panel with his forehead to make sure
that it wouldn’t break under the impact.
Bless…
“I’ve hurt my forehead, my tooth, my elbow, may I have a bit of time,
please?” asked an extremely wobbly Garner to Wendy Denzey, the referee
of the match. “Three minutes for self inflicted injury.”
I know it was not funny for Ben as he really hurt himself plunging on
the front left side of the court to try and save yet another great
backhand drop shot from his opponent, but for us, Ben’s little speech
was extremely funny. Sorry…
But Garner tinned his next and last shot, offering a comfortable lead
2/0 to Willstrop. That was a close call though, and the same goes for
the third, where both players were giving us 150%, offering us classic
rallies, no up and down the wall, let me tell you, a festival of drop
shots, winners, volleys nicks, retrieving from hell that delighted the
crowd…
Once again, James sneaked the game, but needed two match balls and an
amazing last rally to push aside a Ben Garner that proves, this year
again, that he was well worthy of his wildcard…
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"I knew that Ben would play at a really fast pace, that's the way
he likes it. The first rally was ridiculous, and I was happy to
just stick in there in a lot of the rallies.
"11 scoring makes it easier to stage a comeback because the gaps
are are less and you see more of them these days. Ben almost got
back twice, so I'm glad to win it in three.
"I've had a reasonable break, played Pakistan and the World Games,
and I'm really looking forward to this season, especially the few
weeks at the end of the year when there's a series of big events.
"Obviously my aim is to get to number one, but that's very hard to
do, so for now I'll be happy to stay where I am for a while, then
see if I can move higher ..."
James Willstrop
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 "Maybe this
year, I was expecting more from myself, whereas last year I had no
expectations, and I may have put too much pressure upon myself,
leading me to make too many unforced errors…
"I knew I had to play at a fast pace, I knew I had to take the
game to James because he is just too good, but once again, too
many mistakes… And that’s the difference with the top 10 guys… If
you play the ball just a bit too short, or not tight enough, they
punish you and you find yourself losing several points in a row…
 "I
know it maybe looked a bit strange that I stopped at 12/11 game
ball for James in the second, but I really did hurt myself pretty
badly [crashing into the side wall], and as that was at a pretty
crucial time, I just wanted to compose myself and check that
everything was OK.
"Between games, Tim told me to stay positive and go for it, not
forgetting about the length, and to avoid too many exchanges at
the front of the court…
"I ran a lot today, I retrieved quite a lot of James’ attacks, but
I was aware that I HAD to retrieve his shots and get them back, as
he does an awful lot of them…
"Yes, Framboise, I am disappointed…"
Ben Garner |
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[5]
Nick Matthew (Eng) bt Stewart Boswell (Aus)
9/11, 11/8,
11/8, 11/6 (70m)
Matthew ends
Boswell's run
report from Steve Cubbins,
plus Framboise's impressions ...
He was the qualifier no-one wanted to face ... Stewart Boswell
was back in the big time after seven tournaments and 37 matches
unbeaten ...
The big question was always going to be how close Bozza was to his
best, and tonight he proved that he's not far off.
 Nick
Matthew, playing in front of his home crowd, was fully tested by
the Australian, who was quite prepared to engage in long, punishing
rallies.
The first was close all the way, never more than two points in it, but
it was Boswell who took the final two points to take the lead 11/9 in
21 minutes.
The second was the same pattern, both probing for weaknesses and
taking chances when they came. Matthew hit three exquisite winners to
reach 10-6 which was enough to level it after 14 minutes.
In the third there was just the odd sign that Boswell was feeling the
pace, as Matthew kept his nose in front, and Matthew started the
fourth strongly.
Although Boswell pulled back from 3-6 to 6-6 in that fourth, Matthew
could sense he was on top now, and surged ahead again, winning the
match on an outrageous mishit boast.
So the run is over, but the main question was "is Bozza back?" ... and
the answer is a resounding yes.
Matthew moves on to face Lee Beachill in an all-Yorkshire quarter
final, while Boswell looks forward to another surge back up the
rankings ...
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 "I
just said to Stewart that I hope he realises that it was such a
high quality match, and that tonight, he would have beaten many
many guys on the circuit, and there are two reasons why he didn’t
win.
"One, Nick played amazingly well, and two, he fell slightly behind
the pace, which is normal as he lacks matches at the kind of
speed.
"But the squash was just incredible…"
Joe Kneipp |
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 "Stewart
was the qualifier everyone wanted to avoid, and that was a tough
match. Stewart's a top player ... we've played three times this
week and he won 2-1 so I'm pleased to have won that one.
"It needs to be stressed how uncomfortable it was to play Stewart
at this point of his career, because he had nothing to lose… The
first two games were really a sort of sparring game, but in the
third, I found my confidence in my shots, in my game."
"The last two times I played against Lee, at the Nationals and the
Super Series Finals, we went very close. He won because he had a
bit more confidence, a bit more composure than I had… And I learnt
a lot from the experience…
"I don't think I've dealt with the pressure of playing in front of
my home crowd in previous years here, but I've been working on
turning the pressure and attention to my advantage, so I think I'm
much better prepared this year."
Nick Matthew |
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 "I
really wanted to win tonight, I didn’t come to make the numbers,
you know… I also wanted to make sure, to be confident that I can
play at the same level than those guys…
"For the first two games, I was putting pressure on Nick, moving
well, but in the third and fourth, my intensity dropped a bit,
physically, mentally…
"Of course I’m disappointed, because at this minute, I don’t see
what I’ve achieved, but what amount of work I’m got to produce to
get back to my level…"
Stewart Boswell
 "I
was really nervous…
It feels strange to have Stewart back on the tournaments with me
again, it’s been so long…
"I thought he played really well, and that it was a very good
match…"
Vicky Botwright |
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MY
IMPRESSIONS…
First
of all, you need to know that I was sitting next to Hedley Matthew,
father of, and in front of “Antie Sue”, as Peter Barker calls
her, Nick’s mum. So I lived the emotions, the fears, the hopes, the
expectations and at last the relief from the Matthew camp…
Nick was purely and simply awesomely amazing. And that is a fact, not
a “I like the boy so I see his performance through a pink glass” kind
of comment. And I do believe that Lee may have a few troubles tonight…
Watch this space…
 On
the other side, there was a young Australian that I just discovered
four days ago, after hearing about him for months and months, like
from Anthony Ricketts, for example, who stayed with Stewart a few
months ago, and who was telling me that Bozza was thinking about the
jobs he could convert to if he couldn’t return to squash.
“You could always become an air pilot,” proposed Anthony. “Yes, I
couldn’t couldn’t I, shame I hate flying…”
Needless to say I was looking forward to the meeting… And I wasn’t
disappointed. In two matches (against mate Bianchetti, a classic, in
the final of the qualifier, and against Nick, another gem), he
demonstrated not only racquet skills, fitness, good brain, good legs,
determination and guts, but also a perfect, immaculate attitude on
court.
Having seen Stewart play against Nick last night, who played at a
level I rarely saw him, no wonder the AIS (Australian Institute of
Sports) kept on supporting the young man throughout his dry spell:
they know what that boy can and will achieve…
Welcolme home, Bozza… |
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