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TODAY in Hong Kong: Mon
12th, Day ONE
Fram
reports, Steve Clicks away.... |
Max keeps HK flag flying
on qualifying day one ...
 Hong Kong is one of the big tournaments, with 32 draws for both
men and women, meaning we need to find eight qualifiers of each
gender.
That means 27 matches on day one, over four courts ... there's
nothing like a gentle introduction, and this is nothing like a
gentle introduction!
The women's matches saw a number of quick results, with all the
expected players progressing, with most of the Hong Kong juniors
finding the opposition too strong, although world junior
team-mates Carmen Lee and and Tong Tsz-Wing gave
Leung Shin-Nga and Misaki Koabyashi - both of whom
are only just out of juniors - good runs for their money.
In the men's event there were some tough matches. Egypt's
Omar Abdel Aziz set the ball rolling in the opening match,
squandering a 2-0 lead before winning 3-2 after 80 minutes, the
longest of the day although the last match, Malaysian Mohd
Nafiizwan Adnan beating Scott Arnold in a 72-minute
nailbiter came a close second.
In between those two the glory belonged to home favourite Max
Lee, who was the only one of eight Hong Kong players to
progress, scoring an upset win over Aaron Frankcomb in a tough
four-game encounter.
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"It was a tough day for our
players, the standard in the qualifying seems much higher this
year, especially in the men's event, but Max did very well and
it was good experience for all of them."
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"I was still a bit tired from my
tournament last week in India, I had a few hard matches, and
bruises too!!!!
"I’m 23, I’m in my last year of Technical Engineering studies,
so I’ve decided to travel a bit more. My aim would be to find a
club in Europe to play Leagues for, as I really would like to
have more opportunities to train with top players, as being
based in Australia doesn’t give us much opportunities to do so…"
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Miguel Angel
Rodriguez (Col) bt Matthew Karwalski (Aus)
11/8, 11/13, 11/8, 11/6 (41m)
MIGUEL ONLY JUST
I have to say I was quite impressed by the racquet skills of
this young Matthew, who I have to admit, I never saw play
before.
He has some great shots, that come from nowhere most of the
time, although he still plays far too many unforced errors,
especially when he gets a bit tired – fitness is maybe one area
he could improve, but then again, I didn’t see the whole match,
don’t take my word for it. But he volleys instinctively, and
produces very entertaining squash.
He put Miguel under a lot of pressure today, a Miguel who never
looked relaxed, although his fitness, determination and
experience got him through. The Colombian will have to raise his
game tomorrow, especially as a cold court is not his first
choice…
 "I’ve
been here since Friday, but I’ve been training on the other
courts, which are completely different from this one!
"I was very tense to start with, Matthew was playing very well
and I was running, running, especially in the first, so I
decided to slow down the pace, and that worked fine for me. But
at the end of the second, he found some great shots, and I lost
a bit of length…
"I’m happy I got a good hard match today, I’ll be playing on the
same court tomorrow, that’s a plus, but I hope I’ll play better
tomorrow…"
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Omar Abdel Aziz
(Egy) bt Ryan Cuskelly (Aus)
11/4, 11/7, 4/11, 9/11, 11/9 (80m)
UP AND DOWN…
This was one of the matches you think, well, I’m not missing it,
going to be a great battle. But as the match unfolded, I
thought, well, what’s going on there. Ryan was unable to play
his normal stunning attacking game, and got more and more
frustrated up to 4/1 in the third.
 Then
it’s like he started to relax, found his pace, length, and let
the arm go. We suddenly had a match on our hands as the
Australian took the third rather comfortably, and clinched the
fourth.
But a bit tired with the effort that comes from coming back from
2/0 down, both from a mental and physical point of view, Ryan
dropped his length and movement at the start of the decider, to
find himself 9/4 down.
That’s the moment Omar went for too much, found the tin, getting
his opponent right back in the match, up to 8/9. A stunning
return of serve winner gave the Egyptian his first match ball,
10/8, and a second one the match, 11/9.
Very close indeed… |
 "Ryan
is like all the Australians, he knows how to play me! He plays
right in the back corners, and volleys a lot, basically, he is
playing my game plan!!!!
"In the first two games, I was pretty comfortable, even in the
third, I was up 4/1, and he started playing very well. Then in
the 5th, I started to panic a bit, I remembered how many matches
I lost 3/2, and as I was up 9/4, I went for too much, and he
started coming back.
"But thank God, I got two great shots in the end…"
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Max Lee
(Hkg) bt Aaron Frankcomb (Aus)
11/6, 6/11, 11/5, 11/4 (42m)
 "That's
a good start!
He's a very steady player, but that's my game too. I was lucky
to be playing on my home courts, it gave me a bit of confidence
to go for my shots when I got the chance.
"I didn't play many loose shots at the front today, which I
often do, so that's a big improvement.
"It will be tough tomorrow against Balbo, he's a very strong
player, but I'm hoping to qualify again ..."
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Amr Swelim
(Egy) bt Roger Ngan (Hkg)
8/11, 11/6, 11/7, 11/0 (32m)
"I flew here a bit too late, so I was a bit slow to start with,
and I must way he surprised me by the intensity of his game.
"So I lost the first game, but after that, I was able to get a
bit more in the match…"
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Steve Coppinger
(Rsa) bt Martin Knight (Nzl)
11/5, 7/11, 11/6, 11/2 (46m)
STEVE IN GREAT SHAPE…
The World Teams did a hell of a lot of good to the South
African. It gave him confidence in his game, his fitness, his
shots. And we could see a bit of all three today against Martin.
Steve was too fast and too accurate for the New Zealander today,
who fell right into Coppinger’s game, unable to push him out of
his comfort zone, except in the second, where he slowed down the
pace a bit, and had more time to adjust nice backhand short
shots.
The rest of the time, Martin was on the back foot, and Steve was
dispatching shots at will, in particular in the backhand
department, finding winning shots both front and back, with so
many mishits from Martin it became rather worrying for the New
Zealander.
Martin seemed a bit slow today, to be honest, and never really
at his ease on the court, as if he was struggling to see the
ball, whereas Steve looked like a fish in the Hong Kong Bay,
relaxed and focused, ready to stay on there the whole day if
needed…
 "I
did travel back home after the Worlds, and had about four days
of terrible hangover [no wonder, I was at the party, and boy did
they celebrate their 6th place, FG]. But I’ve been here for four
days now, I’m nearly 100%....
"Apart from a little patch in the second where he slowed down
the pace, and where I didn’t have the hunger to win the rallies,
I thought I played rather well… I tried and keep the pace up, to
apply pressure, and that gave me more opportunities to attack…"
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Chris
Simpson (Eng) bt Leo Au (Hkg)
6/11, 11/4, 11/1, 11/7 (33m)
CHRIS GETTING BETTER,
LEO GETTING TIRED…
Young Leo, 19, was looking pretty good in the first game,
finding some great drop shots, running like a rabbit all over
the court, especially as a nervous Chris was going too short far
too early, and finding more tins than he would have liked…
But in the middle of the second, 6/4 Chris to be precise, there
was a massive rally, and we are talking MASSIVE, so many shots,
so many attacks, counter drops, retrieving from hell, it had to
be of some importance later.
And it was. Chris won it, and it seemed to give him confidence
and relax him, while poor Leo must have felt that all that work
for not even wining the rally, how much chances do I have to win
kind of thought process…
That was the turning point really, and Chris never really looked
the loser from that point on…
 "Last
week in India, I didn’t play well, I really had trouble
adjusting to the very warm conditions there, and I lost a lot of
confidence there. So today, I was really nervous, up to that
rally in the second, which gave me the confidence I needed.
"But he is a tough little player, if you keep on top of him,
it’s alright, but the minute you relax… Even at 7/1 in the
fourth, I was rather comfortable, but lost my focus for a while,
and he just kept returning everything…. Very dangerous player…
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"I was able to put a bit of pressure on him in the first game
only, because after that, we had long rallies, and I just got
tired. I lost a bit of concentration, and I gave him far too
much opportunities…"
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Nicolas Mueller
(Sui)
bt Campbell Grayson (Nzl)
11/7, 11/9, 11/5 (33m)
ATTACKING AT WILL
It was not to be New Zealand's day today, as after Martin’s
defeat against Steve, it was not to be a walk in the park for
Campbell…
Basically, Nicolas, fresh back from Egypt, and ready to fight
against the world, just attacked, attacked, and attacked.
Campbell didn’t do anything wrong, he was even way ahead in the
second, but just couldn’t weather the
storm, and grew more and more frustrated, to the point of
sending the ball right to the ceiling after losing the second
game – a ball that stuck to the plaster board up before falling
down again in the middle of the third…
The Swiss boy was just too fast and accurate today, and took
only 33 minutes to oust the New Zealander. Impressive
performance really.
 "I’ve
now finished school, and I’m playing full time, I can train more
intensively, in particular in areas I didn’t work enough before,
like strengthening, I’ve done a lot of ghosting, and I’m feeling
pretty good.
"Also, the two weeks I just spent in Egypt made a big
difference, I saw how different they play squash over there, and
when I came back home, I was very keen, and train harder that
I’ve ever done I think.
"And I was quite happy with the way I struck the ball today,
around 90% of my shots were won at the front, I start enjoying
my squash again, whereas there was a long period where I just
didn’t like the way I played at all….
"It’s so good to look at the top players, the way the play, to
get used to the pace they play, and visualise the way squash
should be played…"
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Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
bt Mathieu Castagnet (Fra)
11/9, 11/5, 11/8 (48m)
"In the first two
games I played really well, I was up 10/2 in the first, and
something like 8/1 in the second, and I lost a bit of focus, he
started playing very well, and came back.
"So as the first two games were pretty close, the third was a
bit tense…
"Tomorrow I’m playing Nicolas, we’ll see how it goes…"
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Mohd Nafiizwan
Adnan (Mas) bt Scott Arnold (Aus)
12/10, 11/7, 10/12, 13/11 (72m)
CLOSE FROM CLOSE
One of those matches, where you wouldn’t want a loser, as they
both deserve to win, and Scott certainly deserved a decider,
especially after leading 5/2, then 9/5, and having 4 game balls.
But two strange decisions – one on match ball, plus a few
unforced errors at crucial times, and you have a very happy Wan
playing Renan tomorrow to try and qualify for the HK main draw
for the first time…
"In the first two games I was very
patient, I was able to go past him, but at the start of the
third, all the hard work I produced started to take its toll, I
lost of a bit of concentration, and he started to play a really
good game.
So at the end of the fourth, I just told myself to play like I
was playing in the first two games, being patient, and wait for
the opportunity before attacking…"
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