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TODAY in Espoo ... Fri 29th, Day THREE 

Day Three Gallery

M2 Semis:
Finland 2-2 Sweden
Olli Tuominen 3-0 Rasmus Holt                        11/6, 11/0, 11/8
Matias Tuomi 1-3 Christian Drakenberg   11/7, 9/11, 10/12, 9/11
Henrik Mustonen 3-0 Gustav Detter                  11/8, 11/7, 11/6
Arttu Moisio 0-2 Romain Tenant                               7/11, 6/11

Spain 1-3 Denmark       
Borja Golan 3-2 Kristian Frost         8/11, 4/11, 11/7, 11/7, 11/9
Alejandro Garbi 2-3 Morten Sorensen  4/11,9/11,11/3,11/8,9/11
Ivan Flores 1-3 Michael Frilund              8/11, 11/1, 3/11, 10/12
David Vidal 1-3 Rasmus Nielsen             2/11, 11/7, 8/11, 11/13

Finns & Danes back at the Top Table
 
"This is the match we've been waiting for for a year," said Finnish National Coach Mike Harris before this showdown with Sweden for a place in the top division at next year's ETC.

"Ever since we got the championships and found we were in division two in the new structure, this is what we've been working towards. The fact that it's a local derby against Sweden is an added bonus. I'm just jumping here, 4-0 would be nice but as long as we get those seven games before they do I'll be happy ..."

Happy he was as his top pairing of Olli Tuominen and Henrik Mustonen duly delivered, both winning 3-0 on the glass court in front of a full house of enthusiastic Finnish fans and schoolkids, and in front of the Finnish TV cameras too.

By the time Mustonen took to the court Matias Tuomi had already taken a game off Christian Drakenberg, so everyone knew that a 3-0 would do the trick for Finland. Drakenberg went on to win 3-1 in 77 minutes, but that couldn't dampen the Finnish celebrations.

"Absolutely delighted," said Harris after the match, "and so relieved. We've spent a year working hard for this, and to do it at home, against Sweden, I'm so pleased with and proud of the boys.

"They worked hard for this, they turn up at the club at 7am every day for training, it's pitch dark, -38 degrees but they never complain they just get down and do their work, I'm so delighted for them."

The other semi-final, Spain v Denmark, was a much tenser, and longer, affair. Borja Golan came from two games down to beat Denmark's Kristian Frost after 88 minutes, just a few minutes shorter than Morten Sorensen's 3-2 win over Spain's Alejandro Garbi.

That meant it was all down to the second pair of matches and once again we had one of those 4-man-team finishes.

Rasmus Nielsen had just gome 2-1 up against David Vidal, but on the other court Michael Frilund was 2-1 and 10-8 up against Ivan Flores - a win for Denmark here and it would all be over. In a thrilling and, as you can image, noisy, climax, the Dane eventually came through 12/10 to render the resumed match on the next court irrelevant.

So it's a Scandinavian double in division two, well done lads ...

In women's division two Wales and Belgium kept up their chances of finishing in the top two with wins over Austria and the Czech Republic respectively.

Wales won comfortably enough, but Belgium needed Nele Gilis to pull out the win with a gritty 3/2 in the deciding match.
 

Women's Semi-Finals:

Netherlands 2-1 France
Vanessa Atkinson 0-3 Camille Serme        6/11, 10/12, 7/11
Natalie Grinham 3-0 Isabelle Stoehr            11/9, 11/7, 11/8
Orla Noom 3-2 Coline Aumard    9/11, 3/11, 11/3, 11/8, 11/8
  
England 2-0 Ireland
Jenny Duncalf 3-0 Madeline Perry                 11/5, 11/0, 13/11
Sarah Kippax 3-2 Aisling Blake  11/13, 11/5, 6/11, 13/11, 11/9

Orla sees Dutch home,
English back in the final

The Netherlands held on to the title they won last year, but only by the skin of their teeth as they just, just held off a concerted challenge from the French in a repeat of last year's final.

Camille Serme reversed the result from Aix last year as she beat Vanessa Atkinson in straight games. The Dutchwoman threatened to level in the second but a determined-looking Serme held off that challenge before leading all the way in the third.

Natalie Grinham was missing for the Dutch last year, and has marked her return with an impeccable record so far. Isabelle Stoehr had chances in all three games though, it was only in the latter stages of each that Grinham was able to pull clear.

That set up the decider. Orla Noom, ranked #39, Coline Aumard ranked #65. But it was the French girl who was dominant in the first two games, playing controlled squash to take a deserved two game lead.

She came out at a million miles an hour in the third though, and quickly fell 6-0 behind. This gave Orla some breathing space and much needed confidence, and she went on to take the third and open up a lead in the fourth that was too big for Coline to close down.

The fifth was neck and neck. 5-all, 6-all. Coline was on the floor as Orla barged her in the back. 8-all. Then two costly errors from Coline, a drive and a boast into the tin.

She was on the floor in the next rally too, scrambling to reach Orla's dropshot. She reached it, but had no chance as Orla put the ball into open space, much to her and the Dutch team's delight, and relief.

"I went on excited/nervous - nervous, but in a good way as I'd played her a few times before and had a plan in my head.

"I felt fine on court, but she got a few lucky bounces in the first and I was 9-1 down, but I came back and thought I had a chance to win it.

"The second was really bad, she was getting more and more confident and I was getting more and more tentative. In the third and fourth my length was better and I was feeling more confident again.

"I have to admit I wasn't too confident going into the fifth though, anything can happen there. It was close all the way, I was so glad when I pulled away from 8-all and had that volley to win it.

"It's the first time I've been in that situation for the team, so it's a huge relief!"

England back in the final

32-time champions England will make their 33rd appearance in an ETC final after beating Ireland 2-0 in the second semi-final.

Jenny Duncalf beat Madeline Perry in another of those bizarre scorelines the Irish world number three seems to be specialising in this week, 11/5, 11/0, 13/11.

Aisling Blake took Sarah Kippax the full distance in the second match, and had a match ball at 10/9 in the fourth before the Englishwoman fought back to obviate the need for a decider.

(which the played anyway, after I'd gone!)

It wasn't as tense as the first semi-final, even if Blake had won the enormous ranking difference in the third string would surely have resulted in an English win, but it did highlight the importance of Duncalf getting the team off to a good start.

So it will be Netherlands v England for the title, their ninth successive meeting in the final stages, eight of those being finals, all won by England.

That's at 15.00 tomorrow, don't miss it ...

Men's Semi-Finals

France 4-0 Italy
Mathieu Castagnet 3-2 Davide Bianchetti
         11/8, 6/11, 7/11, 11/4, 11/7
Grégory Gaultier 3-0 Stéphane Galifi
         11/9, 11/3, 11/4
 Yann Perrin 3-1 Amr Swelim
         9/11, 11/9, 11/2, 11/7
Greg Marche 2-0 Marcus Berrett
         11/3, 11/?

Castagnet marathon catapults
French into final

A hundred and one minutes, that's how long it took Mathieu Castagnet to get France off to a winning start against Davide Bianchetti in the first Men's semi-final, and to be honest it felt longer, much longer. Of course, the one hundred and ten decisions requested of the referees didn't help.

No doubt it was exciting, especially towards the end, but the match was marred by endless collisions, endless lets, endless arguing (nothing too bad in that respect though), endless gesticulating from both players.

There was probably a lot of good squash in there, but to be honest it was drowned out by the lets - time after time one of the players would go short, the other would be on his back, one or the other would point at the ball or complain, and we'd start it all over again.

From 2-1 down Castagnet played the better squash, but the fifth still went to 7-all, the match was in the balance and everyone in the arena was fully involved. A couple of errors from Davide and a couple of winners from Mathieu and it was all over amid scenes of great emotion.

The Italian tried to have angry words with the young Frenchman as they left the court, but Castagnet brushed him aside to go and celebrate with his team. No love lost there then, but a valuable lead for France.

Next up were Gregory Gaultier and Stephane Galifi at number one. The ex-Frenchman contested the first reaslly well, right until the death, but once Gaultier had taken the final two points it was one way traffic for the next two games.

They had two tremendous rallies to finish, but by then it was far too late for Galifi.

Amr Swelim knew he had to win, and preferably 3-0 to give the Italians a chance. He started well enough, taking a close first game, but at 9-all in the second it was Yann Perrin who found two winners to level matters.

It was worrying for the French that Perrin took an injury timeout in the interval, but he came out much stronger for it, playing calm and controlled squash, easing to a 9-0 lead, each point won accompanied by a fist pump.

Swelim stayed in contention in the fourth, but was always behind, and the match felt as though it was drawing to an inevitable conclusion - Swelim's body language told the same story, and soon enough Perrin was able to execute one final fist pump and a loud "YES".

France were in the final.
 

England 4-0 Netherlands
James Willstrop 3-0 Piedro Schweertman        11/2, 11/5, 11/6
Nick Matthew 3-1 Dylan Bennett            11/7, 9/11, 11/2, 11/5
Daryl Selby 3-0 Rene Mijs                           11/3, 11/6, 12/10
Peter Barker bt Sebastiaan Weenink                     12/10, 11/8

England cruise into final

Looking at the teamsheets for this second semi-final would have given you a clue as to how it might go - 18-time defending champions England fielded their top four while third seeded Netherlands rested their number one (yes, I did write the headline before the match).

James Willstrop dealt with Piedro Schweertman in convincing style, although the Dutchman improved as the match went on.

After taking the first Nick Matthew's concentration dropped, allowing Dylan Bennett to take a 10-5 lead in the second. In an exhibition style second half of the game Nick clawed his way back to 10-9 before Dylan took the game with a volley drop into the nick to loud cheers from the crowd.

That was the end of the fun for them and for Dylan as Nick asserted himself in the next two.

Daryl Selby was given a good workout by Rene Mijs and Peter Barker and Sebastiaan Weenink played out an enjoyable final two games.

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