TODAY at the Kuwait PSA Cup
Framboise reports, Steve clicks away
...
Sun 10th, Round Two, Bottom
Last sixteen decided ...
None of yesterday's "qualifiers" were able to follow up their
mostly marathon first round wins to prevent their seeded
opponents progressing to the third round, although Saurav Ghosal
came mighty close.
Today we witnessed the demise of two seeds, and the narrow
escape of a third ...
It was a bit of a weird one that one I felt. First, both players
were nervous, and Cameron really didn’t start well, led 6/2 to
finally get his head and shots more into gear to reach 6/8, 7/9.
An error gave Tarek his first game ball, 10/7, game 11/8.
Cameron didn’t show up at all in the second, 5/1 then 10/2 he
was led. Suddenly, he started to let go of the arm, found some
nice corners, and put Tarek under a heck of a pressure, 6/10.
But the Egyptian just finds one of his low kill cross court, and
11/6.
The third is even weirder. Tarek up 4/0, and we think, ok, match
over. Tarek’s length just drops, Cameron plays fast, accurate
and cleverly, gets back to 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, even gets two
points lead 9/7, but Tarek sense the 4th coming, finds some
lovely shots, 9/9 we are, and again a nice low kill crosscourt
to finish, 11/9 match to the Momenator…
"I
decided in the third that no, I didn’t want to play a fourth!
"I haven’t been feeling confident these past weeks, because I
suffered an injury in Qatar, and was told to save my legs as
much as I can, so I just play tournaments, and get home to rest.
No hard training, so not that good fitness wise, and only solo
training.
"So, not that confident with my shots. But I just need to get
through this tournament and Malaysia, and then I’ll have some
serious time off to train before the British Open.
"But the good news is that I felt ok body wise, no pain at all
today. I’m also very pleased with the outcome, beating Cameron
is a good result for me, he is a very tough competitor, so a 3/0
win is really a great result."
MATHIEU AUX ANGES
Look it up, it means that the Frenchman is not too unhappy….
Mathieu
is extremely physical and can last at mid pace till the cows
come home really. And the first game, that was 19m, the longest
of the match, probably damaged Tom more than it did the
Frenchman.
They were pretty close in that game, at 9/9, it was anybody’s,
but it’s Tom that draws first blood.
The second is probably the turning point of the match. Tom is
dominating, pushing the Frenchman hard in the four corners,
leading 8/6. But Mathieu comes back, 8/8, and score five points
in a row to take the 16m game 11/8.
Tom came back, and maybe he couldn’t physically, but just played
at Mathieu’s pace for the rest of that third, allowing the
Frenchman to have enough time to counter attack Tom’s backhand
great drop shots and finding some lovely shots of his own.
And maybe that’s the key of the match, Mathieu’s retrieval
exceptional quality today, in particular on Tom’s backhand drop
shots that normally do a lot of damage.
Panic station in the third I could feel from Tom. Obviously, he
was expecting a hard match against Mathieu (their last encounter
ended 12/10 in the 5th in 70m in a hard court in HK), but when
the Frenchman came back from 3/1 to 3/3 to then overtake him and
lead all the way till the end, Tom just couldn’t find his
squash.
A few mishits, a few taxis, a few errors, and you have Mathieu
taking the 3rd, 11/6 in 12m.
The fourth, well, I don’t think in his wildest dreams Mathieu
imagined it, he lead 6/0! Tom pushed and pushed, never giving
up, and we had some lovely fought rallies there, but just too
much gap, Mathieu wins his best match ever, 11/3 in 14m.
"We
started at a rather fast pace, and I thought that I would have
trouble keeping this up if it lasted too long…!
"In the second, I came back from 8/6, and I feel I really won
those points, won that game. And maybe it hurt him mentally.
"I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep the pace as high, plus I
was not accurate enough. So I slowed the pace right down, just
trying to keep it glued and tight, nothing fancy really, but
accurate, and when I was in trouble, I would just lob, which I
find is not that easy to do on a glass court.
"But all credit to Tom, even 10/4 in the 4th, match ball, I
still didn’t know if I was going to win, because he is pushing
so hard, on every shot. And it’s like when you play Adrian
Waller, such a good and fair player.
"I
had the experience of my match against him in HK, where I ended
up losing 12/10 in the 5th despite having several match balls.
So this time I knew I had to push all the way through.
"We can safely say that it’s my best performance ever…."
Darwish back in
business
Steve reports After
being forced to withdraw from the North American Open at the
quarter-final stage with a recurring calf injury, Karim Darwish
was back in action and pretty much his usual efficient early
round self as he advanced at the expense of Zac Alexander.
Darwish, finalist here last time out, was well in control in the
early stages of the match, zipping to a 5-0 lead in the opening
game and converting it 11-4 with his Australian opponent
struggling to get a foothold in the match.
It was a similar story at the start of the second, Darwish
moving smoothly into a 7-2 lead.
Alexander started to get more into it, extending the rallies and
hitting some lovely crosscourt kills from the middle of the
court, but it was too late, for this game anyway, as Darwish
doubled his lead 11-6 on an Alexander tin followed by a stroke.
But Zac was more into his stride now, and started the third
well, taking the lead at the midway point, firing in some more
of those trademark kills, and stayong a point or two ahead until
he pegged a game back 11-8 with another crisp kill.
That was his last one though as Darwish was back in control from
the outset of the third, moving to a 9-1 advantage before
closing it out 11-3 as he pushed Zac's counter-drop deep leaving
the Aussie stranded at the front where they exchanged
handshakes.
"Sometimes
at two-nil up you feel almost too comfortable and let your
concentration slip a bit," explained Darwish afterwards, "and
that's what happened.
"The first two were quite comfortable but in the third he hit
some good, if risky, shots and my level slipped.
"You can't expect to win any match three-nil these days, even
first rounds, but I managed to get it back in the fourth and
played like I did in the first two.
"The calf isn't 100% but I had to play this event," added Karim,
"then there's two more tournaments before the end of the season
when I can get a proper break."
No
offence to my compatriot Grégoire Marche, AKA The Acrobat, AKA
Little Greg, AKA Monsieur Marche, but James was one floor above
today…
It took the Ponte Man a game to take the measure of that young
player that he never played yet, but once he had that opener in
the bag, James just relaxed and found his pace beautifully.
Little Greg didn’t much wrong, yes, a few errors here and there,
but a superb first game, at 9/9, he’s got all his chances, but
not too much experience on the glass against somebody that was
practically born on it, a few opportunities not transformed, and
it’s James that takes it, 11/9.
After that, the Frenchman kept on retrieving and running a heck
of a lot, but James was controlling more or less every rally,
and the games became shorter, 13, 12 and 7, and Little Greg
scored less points, 9, 5, 5.
"No particular reason why I served on the left at the start of
the 3rd, it’s just that we are in the habit of serving on the
right, but people have got backhand and forehand, it doesn’t
make sense! So, just to switch it around a bit maybe.
"I
never played Greg, but I saw him play obviously, he is a young
player, he’s been improving a lot, he is an exciting prospect
for France, and he played well.
"At the start of the match, we’ll all been travelling a lot, so
trying to see the ball, trying to get used to the court, and I
was maybe a tiny slow ff the blocks, and he played well. We all
talk about that first match for a reason, it’s in some respect
the hardest match of the tournament….
"Court conditions are warm, but I don’t mind that much either
way, I’m pretty confident I can do good on those warm courts,
it’s all those matches in the French leagues in those pretty hot
court that primed me for it! I guess that a court that takes it
in short is ideal, but I don’t mind either way."
"Well,
with the fatigue I felt from the travelling and all, I’m not too
unhappy with the performance. I miss probably a few attacking
shots in the first game, to have a chance to maybe clinch it and
put a bit more pressure on him. And I knew I shouldn’t let him
control the T, but easier said than done!
"But after that, he was too fast, and I was not precise enough.
But there is some positive there…"
I
guess Mohamed is hungry after having some injury time and
dropping quite drastically in the ranking (from 23 to 48), but
there is more than that. He played an incredible squash tonight,
really asking the right questions to Mohamed, who got quickly
unsettled by the quality of his compatriot’s game.
I was myself really surprised by the variety, the quality, the
accuracy and the angle/soft hands that Ali Anwar Reda found
today. It was a squash of the highest quality, and Mohamed
really struggled in the first game to see where the ball was
going.
The second was Mohamed’s adrenalin talking 6/0, 10/3. Then blood
injury for AA Reda, comes back on court, he is ready to walk out
as Mohamed has set up a superb opportunity at the front,
unmissable… Tin! And the World number 5 loses the next points,
to finally find his focus again, 11/7.
Looked
like we were heading for the same score than in their previous
and only PSA encounter, 3/1. But a bit of “you block me I block
you”, discussions with the refs, being warned, 4 strokes being
given from 7/7 in the 4th, and a moment where they start
chatting to each other, and Mohamed who seems to lose his focus.
It’s all happening on there….
Then we are about to start the 5th, as we hear a prayer being
chanted outside. And just like magic, they both agree that they
won’t play until the prayer is over, and just the fact that they
talk to each other, and agree, the tension just disappear, as by
magic. Priceless.
The fifth is a classic, Ali A Reda going 2/0, then Mohamed
scoring 5 points in a row, 5/3, 6/4, and now it’s Ali that
strings the points away, 5 points! 9/6! A no let, match ball,
10/6.
And two things happen I feel. One, Ali A Reda stops playing the
game he’s played to take him to that point, become too
conservative, freezing ever so slightly under pressure, lack of
experience at that level probably, and Mohamed decides that
hitting as hard as John White is the option. And it works…. He
claws back to a tie-break, then sets himself up with 2 match
points. The second one will be the one.
What a match, people what a match!
"At
the start of the match, I was fine physically, I had a good warm
up, it’s just that I was nervous, not so much about playing him,
with all the due respect, but because I took a month off
competition to get some hard training, and it was my first match
in a month.
"He played really well in the first, and in the second, I think
I played really well too, making it fast for him. The third, he
used a bit of psychology, and tried and managed to get into my
head, he knows me since I’m very young, and he’s got the weapons
to really get into my head. He has all the right to do it, and
it got me out of the match completely.
"In the 5th, I had a good lead, but suddenly, I got from being
6/3 up to being 10/6 down! So at that point, match ball down, I
realised that I was getting more and more nervous, so I decided
to hit the ball harder and harder, and to make the time between
the serves as quickly as possible, to prevent me from thinking.
And I think that surprised him a bit, and he started making
errors.
"Yes,
we were having a few discussions on there, but I think we’ll
have dinner tonight, and everything will be fine!
"He is 23, I’m 22, he is a player that I’m going to play a lot
for the rest of my career, and it’s good that we’re having great
battles. Not for us, but for the crowd, for you guys!
"He is down to 48 in the world at the moment, because of
injuries, but there is NO WAY he is that low, and I hope he is
going to come up back where he belongs really soon, because he
is a very good and clever player.
"Well, the good news of this match is, I had a very hard match
against him in the Worlds in Qatar, and I then had an amazing
tournament. So I guess this is a good omen for the rest of the
event…..
[2] Nick Matthew(Eng) 3-0
Adrian Grant (Eng)
11/7, 11/8, 11/9 (58m)
Matthew edges home
Following
that epic between two Egyptians just into their twenties, came
an equally tough match between two Englishmen just into their
thirties. Second seed Nick Matthew went into his match against
Adrian Grant with a 10-1 advantage in previous PSA meetings,
Grant's only win coming over a decade ago in 2002.
But the left-hander made Matthew work hard, very hard, for his
straight-games win, the world number two getting the better of
the endgame each time.
Grant more than held his own up to 7-5 in the first, before a
run of points put Matthew in charge.
Grant
led in the second, 6-3 and 8-5 and looked to be playing with
real belief that an upset could be on the cards - as evidenced
by some altercations with the referees, by both players it must
be said. Helped by some careless tins from Grant Matthew took
six points in a row to go two ahead.
The third was point for point all the way to 9-all but again it
was Matthew who won the crucial points, an error from Grant and
a winning boast completing the 11/7, 11/8, 11/9 win. It may have
only been three games, but they took just short of an hour,
after which Matthew will be somewhat relieved and Grant will
feel hard done by not to at least get a game.
"It’s
hard to play Adrian because we go way too far back, I can’t
remember when, and we played far too many times!
"It’s hard to have that killer instinct with one of your best
mates, we were being each other’s ref for a game and a half,
calling things down, but you always know that there will be a
point where you will stop to be nice to each other, not cheat,
but being less polite!
"Plus, we are about to team out for the Commonwealth Doubles, we
are going to train a lot for that, spend a lot of time together,
and live again some memorable moments we’ll remember for the
rest of our lives…
"It was not the prettiest of performance, but then again, the
court is much bouncier than we’ve been playing on recently,
maybe TOC, but not that humid, so nowadays courts seem to be
more on the cold side. So it makes a big difference.
"I feel that 3/0 is a harsh score for Adrian, he played the
right game, was very aggressive, very positive, and when he
plays like that, he can be a danger to anybody, we saw it
against James in Qatar. He is the most amazing athlete I know,
and he doesn’t do this aggressive style enough, except again me!
He always plays that right game against me!!!"
BENG HEE ON FIRE, ALI NOT SO MUCH So
many unforced errors from the Botswanan tonight, so many. I
counted 13, while BH was much more conservative in that
department, 6.
That made a huge difference, not only point wise, but from a
psychological point of view, as it proved that 1. Ali was
choosing the short cut of going for a bit too much instead of
going for long rallies, and 2. That BH was succeeding to
frustrate/unsettle him with his variety of shots.
But let’s not take ANYTHING away from the Malaysian here. He
played out of his skin, found some delicate long drop shots,
volley drops, superb drives and lobs, and a few flicks here and
there that really did a lot of damage.
A few too many lets, a few circulation problems especially at
the start of the match, but it got better as we got into the
business side of things.
A really good win for the 33 year old Malaysian who proves that
there is absolutely nothing wrong with his legs and hands….
"Hey,
I won! I haven’t won a match for 9 months! And you haven’t
spoken to me for 9 months either!
"I think that I was lucky to get to play Alister as he is just
coming back from injury, he hasn’t had a real competitive match
for a while, and he made a lot of errors tonight. I know exactly
what he is going through.
"After my first round, I should have lost, then I won, so, it
sort of got the pressure off me, as I’m famous for my
self-destructing ability.
"Yes, just got married, just moved into our first apartment,
lots of things to do, to paint, etc! It’s nice I have to say in
our “later” life to be able to not being that alone all the
time, and to have the support of a loved one when you lose.
"OK, only problem now is that I have to share my prize money
with her, but hey…."
Ryan
Cuskelly, one of the two up and coming Australians with Zac
Alexander who managed to sneak a game out of Karim earlier
during the day, played the perfect tactic against laid back
Daryl today, as he really took the game to him, playing at a
very fast pace, targeting the front corners, and finding some
beautiful nicks along the way.
Daryl was a bit overwhelmed to start with, but the new father of
little Noah (not Nolan, that’s Greg G) has wrote the book and
got the Tshirt, and quickly was able to “sponge” the power in,
and counterdrop/counterattack beautifully.
If the first was very close indeed, much more than the score
indicates it, 11/5 in 16m, the second was all about Daryl
finding his rhythm, and frustrating the young man more and more.
Mind you, he was helped by three extremely surprising ‘no let’
calls that would have frustrated the heck out of me too!
That, and the way Daryl was turning the tables on him made the
Australian lose his focus and find the tin far too many times,
losing his way and head. An excellent opening match for the
Englishman indeed, he’ll keep all his strength for tomorrow.
"It’s
my first PSA match for a while, I only had one match so far this
year, it was in Sweden against Tarek, a massive battle, but I
was not fit enough.
"Well, these past few months, a lot of changes…. Good changes,
but my fitness is not as good as I wish it would be, it’s
getting there, and so is my squash.
"Ryan is good, he was dominating me for the first half of the
first game, my length was not good enough and he was playing
very well, taking the ball very early.
"To be honest, I thought the score in that first game, 11/5, is
not a fair score, feels more like 11/9, 12/10.
"After that, my length got better, and I’m really happy with a
3/0 win. Means that I have legs for tomorrow against Nick.
"Well, yes, having a baby is an strong incentive, I just had him
on the phone before the match, he had his pet talk and said,
“Daddy, I need my food, I’m a growing boy, I need you to put
food on the table please ..."
"Sometimes
at two-nil up you feel almost too comfortable and let your
concentration slip a bit," explained Darwish afterwards, "and
that's what happened. 
