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TODAY at the Kuwait PSA Cup Framboise reports, Steve clicks away
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Sat 9th, Round Two, Top
No Joy for yesterday's "qualifiers"
We're down to one court and eight matches court today as the
seeded players in the top half of the draw got to take on some
of yesterday's winners.
In the end none of those"qualifiers" managed to upset their
seeded counterparts, but it wasn't all plain sailing ...
Round Two, Top:
[15] Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) 3-0 Karim Ali Fathi (Egy)
11/6, 11/5, 11/1 (36m)
[8] Peter Barker (Eng) 3-0
Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy)
11/8, 11/3, 11/8 (46m)
[10] Borja Golan (Esp) 3-2
Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
6/11, 8/11, 12/10, 11/6, 11/8 (105m)
[9] Omar Mosaad (Egy) 3-0
Jonathan Kemp (Eng)
11/6, 11/9, 11/9 (28m)
[7] Amr Shabana
(Egy) 3-0 Olli Tuominen (Fin)
11/8, 11/8, 11/5 (35m)
[1] Ramy Ashour (Egy) 3-1
Nicolas Mueller (Sui)
11/7, 8/11, 11/5, 11/2 (47m)
[4] Gregory Gaultier
(Fra) 3-0 Abdullah Al Mezayen (Kuw)
11/9, 11/5, 11/6 (36m)
[16] Simon Rosner (Ger) 3-0
Leo Au (Hkg)
11/5, 11/5, 11/3 (27m)
En Bref: On the Town, Whose Car is that ???
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lots
of photos
in the Gallery
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[15] Laurens Jan Anjema
(Ned) 3-0 Karim Ali Fathi (Egy)
11/6, 11/5, 11/1 (36m)
LJ TOO ACCURATE
 This
is the first LJ win of the year on PSA, and it must have been a
good feeling for the Dutch – the Sarcastic Dutch, as we
nicknamed him on the bus coming to the venue this morning! Bless
him, one of the nicest players on tour.
LJ played extremely cleverly today. He started by imposing a
massive rally to the young 19 years old Egyptian – born in ’93
and 11 years younger that LJ! Karim followed shot by shot but as
he had a lot of squash yesterday – taking the first two games
against RubberBall Miguel Angel Rodriguez, then losing the next
two to finally take the fifth – the legs were bound to feel
heavy after a few visits of the four corners…
I thought that LJ found the perfect balance between pinning his
opponent to the back then taking him short, forcing him to
really cover a heck of a lot of a ground. As Karim is a bit like
me at the moment, struggling to breathe with blocked sinuses, he
really was gasping for air from the middle of each game.
Good effort still from the young patient Egyptian – there is
nothing more dangerous than a patient Egyptian, as I kept on
repeating to Mohamed El Shorbagy for the past five years – who
never fell into the junior trap to go for silly flashy shots,
and still constructed each rally.
 “I
watched him play yesterday against Miguel, I never saw him play
before, and I thought he had a nice technique. And that if I was
playing too slow giving him time on the ball, he would be very
dangerous.
“So, yes, I guess I took him by the throat a bit, but I didn’t
have the choice, because if I didn’t, he would have! I tried to
keep the pace up, and use my experience on the glass court.
“Beating Miguel yesterday was a massive effort for Karim, taking
the first two games, then losing the next two, but still
managing to win!
“It’s good to finally get a win, my first one in 2013. Well, I
have been playing a few league matches as well, I’m playing well
at the moment…”
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[8] Peter Barker (Eng) 3-0
Karim Abdel Gawad (Egy)
11/8, 11/3, 11/8 (46m)
PETER GETTING THERE
Well, after some bad injury times – remember, he had to pull out
of the semis in HK – and quite logically a loss of
confidence/physical/squash strength, Peter is “a work in
progress”. He never relaxed though, against “Baby Shabana” as I
like to call him, Karim Abdel Gawad, who I truly believe has got
a great future, giving him all due respect.
 A
very discrete young man, Karim is, extremely fair and that
hardly argues or say boo to a fly. But that has got that “killer
instinct” ball wise that makes him put the ball where it’s going
to have the maximum impact….
Today, he didn’t have much sting left to be honest, after his
massive match 89m against Joe Lee, one of the many five setters
we had yesterday. But it’s a strange thing, how the more the
match advanced, the more accurate and lethal he became.
Still, Peter always kept an upper hand on the match, and like LJ
the match the match before, found a good balance between attack
and defence, played some lovely redrops and counterattacks as
well.
Karim AG doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of, even the second
game that looks pretty one sided, 11/3, lasted 12m. A good
match, although I ‘m sure Karim would have rather play Peter
after a day of rest…
 “First
of all, let me say that I’m very happy with the first two games,
and also to have taken it 3/0. But I guess my eagerness to win
3/0 made me play not that well in the 3rd.
“When I saw the draw first – no disrespect for Joe – but I
thought I would probably play him, and I played in Qatar, won
3/1, and it was a hard match, expected the same here, and it
was. He is a class act, and no doubt will me top 10 in the
coming months.
“My health is a work in progress. Last week was the first time
in weeks I was pain free, and same today, so that’s good news,
but obviously, my squash has got to catch up a little bit.”
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[10] Borja Golan (Esp) 3-2
Saurav Ghosal (Ind)
6/11, 8/11, 12/10, 11/611/8 (105m)
Borja battles through
Steve reports
If the first two matches were a welcome change from yesterday’s
non-stop diet of five-setters, today’s third match was anything
but quick as Spain’s Borja Golan needed 106 minutes to complete
a comeback from two games down to deny India’s Saurav Ghosal.
 The
first game was a long one, 26 minutes, a good portion of that
taken in reaching 3-all as both seemed willing to play out
patient rallies. Ghosal managed to break out of the pattern,
increasing the pace and causing Golan some problems with his
speedy-as-ever movement. Five points in a row took the Indian to
8-3 and he closed it out 11-6.
Golan seemed to settle in the second, taking a quick 6-1 lead as
he pinned his opponent to the back of the court again, but
Ghosal broke free again and this time took eight points in a
row, holding on to the lead do double his advantage 11-8.
The Spaniard was beginning to grumble, as he does, at himself
and the referees, but he’s a determined character and, sporting
a “Death before DNF” t-shirt, fought his way back once more,
pulling away from 3-all in the third to lead 7-4. He extended
that to 10-8, couldn’t take either but finally won the game
12-10 to start the comeback.
 A
quick 5-0 lead in the fourth seemed to confirm the momentum
swing, but Ghosal wasn’t finished, not by a long way as he
harried and scampered his way back to 6-all, courtesy it has to
be said of some Spanish errors. Golan, still grumbling, cut
those out, and took the next five points to take the match into
a decider.
This time it was Ghosal who made the better start, taking 4-1
and 8-4 leads as he continued to force errors out of his
opponent through his sheer persistence. Golan seemed to accept
that he was going to have to win a rally several times to earn a
point, and proceeded to do so, reasserting the dominance he had
shown for spells of the match.
This was the final momentum shift, six points in a row for the
Spaniard, six points during which he looked increasingly
confident as Ghosal’s impetus dipped in equal measure. There was
no climactic finish as Golan’s lob hit a lucky nick deep on the
sidewall, a quick handshake and after 105 minutes it was all
over.
 “I
so wanted to win that match,” said a relieved Borja. “I gave up
a couple of good leads, but then I managed to come from behind
to win the fifth.
“It was more a mental thing in the end, at 8-4 down I just
pushed and he seemed to drop a little and I took advantage.
“I just need matches now, he’s probably the toughest match you
could have got in the second round, and I hadn’t played on a
glass court since December, so I just hope I can continue to
improve each round.”
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[9] Omar Mosaad (Egy) 3-0
Jonathan Kemp (Eng)
11/6, 11/9, 11/9 (28m)
FAST, DID YOU SAY FAST…?
 As
Steve noticed, you could have almost fited four of the
Mosaad/Kemp matches in the Borja/Saurav match.
As we expected, this match between two lunatics/attackers lasted
very little (28m), was absolutely fast and furious, riddled with
unforced errors – Palme d’Or goes to Kempy, 7 in the second,
bless him, and didn’t take many prisoners.
Very few decisions, a few strokes though, as they both took the
ball very early, but if I compare it with a few other matches
from Mosaad, this one was a doodle!
I guess they both played as fast/mad/hard one than the other,
and it just fitted very well…
I must say I loved it when Mosaad stated in his after interview
that he went back to a basic game, and was more patient in that
last game.
No, Omar, you didn’t go back to a more basic game, you just hit
the ball harder and harder, and as the game lasted 8m for 11/9,
I don’t think it actually qualifies for the “patient”
denomination….
 "The
last time we played – and I won – was in the Grand Prix two
years ago, and it was very very hard, 11/9 in the 5th, and he
was up 8/4….
"So I was thinking about how could I make it more easy on me
today, so I watched his match yesterday against Chris Simpson,
and established a game plan, which worked fine for the first two
games.
"But also, I was lucky in those two games, as he made a lot of
unforced errors, which he didn’t make too many of in the 3rd.
"So I went back to a more basic game and was more patient. And I
tried to stay as focused as possible, as I knew that third game
was very important."
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[7] Amr Shabana (Egy) 3-0 Olli
Tuominen (Fin)
11/8, 11/8, 11/5 (35m)
SIXTY SIX AND COUNTING…
 Did
you realise that we had 66 years of age on that court, 33 each,
and from where I stood, pretty close to the court, it didn’t
look it a bit! Shabs, running to the front as fast as Tarek –
that’s our reference really – and Olli, picking up everything
under the sun, playing at a mad pace!
Olli was not happy yesterday to have had to fight for over 90m
against young Kristian Frost, and he gave it all from the start,
putting himself under rather a lot of pressure, finding even
more tins than Shabana, 5 for 4….
He got a bit more settled from that point on, and kept pretty
well in the match, even down 10/4 in the 2nd, he managed to claw
back to threaten the Egyptian peace of mind, 8/10….
But Shabana was a spring chicken today, and was striking the
ball beautifully and moving like a gazelle. Whatever he did to
reassess his strategy after the American tour, it worked.
 “After
my last tournaments, mainly TOC and Richmond, I realised I had
to do some tying up in my strategy. It’s not the losses, but the
way I lost. And it’s a very small margin between losing and
winning, and I’m trying to fine tune that margin.
“It’s always difficult to play Olli, we started playing like 20,
21 years ago. And I thought I was in control more or less, but
he started to come back, and when he gets a sniff at it, he
becomes very dangerous.
“Now, I’m in the next round, and we’ll see how it goes.”
 “I’m
happier with my performance today than I was yesterday. It was a
better performance. Yes, it would have been nice not to make so
many mistakes in the first game, take it, and maybe make the
game’s a bit longer, but I would have had to play much much much
better to actually beat him! He is hard and quick and after the
first game, didn’t make many mistakes either.”
“I kept up ok, but not well enough…”
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[1] Ramy Ashour (Egy) 3-1
Nicolas Mueller (Sui)
11/7, 8/11, 11/5, 11/2 (47m)
RAMY’S HAVING A BALL
 I
don’t think the world number one realises how much fun he is
having every time he plays Nicolas Mueller. But I can see it on
his face, he is like a kid trying to outplay his mate in the
sand box. Anything you can do I can to better I would say….
Ramy won’t play at all the same squash when he plays Nick or
James. He will try and pin them down at the back, but Nicki?
Naaa, it’s too much fun trying to match/outplay him at his own
game, and just finding that extra counterdrop that will finally
put the Swiss in the wind…
 So
after losing the second after making 3 errors from 8/8, Ramy had
to refocus and try and find the anger/hunger to beat that boy he
is having so much fun with. And he found the way, as he does. A
few months ago, Ramy told me “Nicki plays the ball so fast, it’s
like he is getting into my head and tries and read my mind to
see where I’m going to play the ball. So I’ve got to make sure
he can’t get into my mind”. Priceless…
Nicolas, well, as lucky with his draws as ever, gets the world
number one, after having played a big game yesterday against
Campbell Grayson, coming back from 2/1 down. And as ever, the
Swiss played an superb attacking game, retrieving shots that I
didn’t think anybody could retrieve, reading Ramy’s game
superbly – there again, not an easy task – and enjoying a
stunning counter attack/counter drop game.
The steam run off in the 4th though, picking up Ramy’s nicks and
having had a hard match the night before just became too much
for the young man. But one day, I hope that Nicki stops getting
the draw’s short straw. He certainly deserves to go much higher
in the ranking.
“I consider myself
as a pretty fast player, but what Ramy comes up with, and the
pace he plays at is just absolutely ridiculous.”
 “I
wear that leg warmer for preventing injury, I had a scar tissue
damage, but it could become a fashion! No, it helps, and
whatever helps works for me….
“Yes, the court conditions will affect the way we play, and
recently, we’ve been playing on quite warm courts, so whoever is
the fittest will get away with the win, it’s not just about
skills…
“When you play Nicki, it’s like when you play Simon, you can’t
get in a structure, you can get into a rhythm, but not in the
structure, and you cannot relax. And you’ve got to review
yourself when they get a point, you just can’t just go on,
you’ve got to stop, review what happen, and move on.
“It’s fun to play both Nicki and Simon, finally I get to play
players from my generation, instead of playing people 10 years
older than me. And I’m enjoying it!
“You’ve always been aware that you can lose. You don’t want to,
and you will do whatever it takes for it not to happen, but
you’ve got to be aware it can happen. And when you talk with the
great players like Shabana or the others, they tell you the
minute the Ego takes over your life, and you start thinking of
yourself as world number 1, or world number 2, or this or that,
you are dead. And the first round is as dangerous/difficult as
the quarters or the final.
"There is no easy match. Never.”
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[4] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
3-0 Abdullah Al Mezayen (Kuw)
11/9, 11/5, 11/6 (36m)
GREG ENDS ABDULLAH'S RUN
 To
be honest, this one won’t stay as a classic. Abdullah, far from
being fresh bless him, after clinching a superb victory against
up and coming Steve Coppinger yesterday, just didn’t move that
well, and was not mentally/physically to do that terribly hard
work he would have had to produce to win against a world number
one.
Slightly overweight, studying hard for his university, Abdullah
was not fit enough to back up two enormous win in a row. He
tried, though, especially in the 3rd, when Greg’s length dropped
to virtually nothing and led 4/0, 6/2.
Sensing danger, the Frenchman closed the gap quickly, but was
not very happy – quite rightly – with his performance tonight.
Like most of the players that just came back from Richmond, he
is struggling with the jetlag, and played a match tonight that
would have been the middle of the night for him. And he was not
moving/thinking as well as he normally does.
But as he knows pretty well, this is only the beginning of the
tournament, he will get better and tuned all his weapons out for
the next match the day after tomorrow.
 "You
don’t exactly change your game as you get older, but you try and
add up things to your game, and as I’m far away from perfect,
I’m always trying working on different elements of my game.
"Tonight it was far away from being easy, Abdullah gave it his
best, but he had a massive win yesterday, and it took a lot out
of him. I could see him struggling to move in the second, but he
came back strong in the third. He is an excellent player, he’s
got unbelievable hands, and Kuwait can be proud of him."
"Greg just controlled the game too well tonight, he was
excellent, and I couldn’t do much."
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[16] Simon Rosner (Ger) 3-0
Leo Au (Hkg)
11/5, 11/5, 11/3 (27m)
Rosner romps home
Steve reports
 The
last match of the day was a real ‘little and large’ affair as
Simon Rosner, of of the tallest players on the tour, faced Leo
Au, one of the smallest.
The German sixteenth seed made his physical advantage tell
immediately, powering into an 8-0 lead as he controlled the play
and his opponent.
Au found his way into the match and managed to pull a few points
back, but too late to stop Rosner taking the lead.
There was no letup for the Hong Kong player as Rosner continued
to dominate, running out the 11/5, 11/5, 11/3 winner in under
half an hour.
 “I
don’t like playing late matches,” Rosner revealed, “it’s tough
to keep your concentration levels up when you’re hanging around
all day, so I’m quite happy to push through this first match
quite quickly.
“He seemed a bit tired from yesterday’s tough match, but I
played some good pressure squash and tried to move him around as
much as I could and I managed to do that quite well.
“It’s funny, I didn’t play Ramy at all in PSA, and now it will
be three times in three months!
"He’s in ridiculous form, so I’m looking forward to that match
which will be, like always, entertaining, fun and fair.”
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