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TODAY in Kuwait: Sun 27th, QUARTERS:
Fram & Steve in Kuwait |
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Kuwait PSA Cup Quarter-Finals:
[5] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt [15] Stewart Boswell (Aus)
8/11, 11/5, 11/2, 11/5
(58m)
[3] James Willstrop (Eng) bt [6] Peter Barker (Eng)
11/9, 11/7, 11/7 (36m)
[2] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt [1] Nick Matthew (Eng)
w/o adductor
injury
[7] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy) bt [10] LJ Anjema
(Ned)
11/8, 11/5,
7/11, 11/7 (52m)
Richard Eaton:
World Champion hopes to rescue season
Egyptian finalist assured as Matthew
limps out of 'dream quarter' ...
After the drama of the first-ever 'FA Cup' style draw
which produced a 'dream quarter-final' featuring top seeds
Nick Matthew and Karim Darwish, the actual quarter-finals of
the $165k Kuwait PSA Cup at the spectacular Green Island
venue failed to live up to those expectations as top seed
and World Champion Nick Matthew was forced to withdraw
through injury.
Our first Kuwait Cup semi-finalist is French, after
Gregory Gaultier recovered from a stuttering start to
beat Stewart Boswell convincingly, 8/11, 11/5, 11/2, 11/5.
The Frenchman made a
good enough start, but lost his way in the middle of the
first game as the Australian recovered from 5/2 down to take
the lead. Gaultier was in control from the start of the
second though, and never relinquished that control, although
a few discussions with the referees suggested he was never
truly settled either.
After the match Boswell revealed that he has decided to call
it a day on his playing career - no fuss, no bother, just a
handwritten note and the Aussie that has been a feature of
the tour for so many years was off ...
 Gaultier
will meet James Willstrop in a repeat of their Hong
Kong Open final of just a few days ago, after the Englishman
continued his run of recent victories over compatriot Peter
Barker.
Willstrop stayed ahead throughout the first two games, but
Barker rallied to take a 6/3 lead in the third.
Willstrop won eight of the next nine points though to run
out the 11/9, 11/7, 11/7 winner in just 36 minutes.
The 'Dream Quarter-Final' was supposed to be next up, but top seed and
world number one Nick Matthew came onto court, still
dressed in his tracksuit, to inform everyone that he had
been struggling with an adductor injury that prevented him
from lunging, that he had working on it and warming up as
close as ten minutes to match time, but had reluctantly
concluded that it was not possible to play.
So number two seed Karim Darwish progressed, to await
the winner of the last quarter-final ... who was fellow
Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy, enjoying a 3/1 win over
Laurens Jan Anjema.
The young Egyptian was in control for the first two games,
but a good 5/1 start for the Dutchman proved too much for
him to pull back. The fourth was a similar story in reverse
with Shorbagy opening up a 6/1 lead which Anjema came close
to pulling back, but 6/7 was as close as it got, Shorbagy
running out the 11/8, 11/5, 7/11, 11/7 winner to guarantee
an Egyptian finalist. |
Richard Eaton:
World Champion hopes to rescue season
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[5] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
bt [15] Stewart Boswell (Aus)
8/11, 11/5, 11/2, 11/5
(58m)
LAST ONE FOR STEWART
“Can you find me over there”, says Bozza as I’m asking him
if he doesn’t mind waiting for me to talk with Greg to chat
with him. Over there, being the exit, where it cold. Mmmm, I
think, that’s weird. Oh well.
 Off
I go and chat with Greg, and when I finish, I go as promise
to meet with Stewart, who looks like he’s been crying. “What
the h”, am I thinking.
“Can I ask you a favour Fram?” “Of course”. “Well, this was
my last match, can you take that piece of paper please”?
And that was it. The Surgeon has retired. I’m stunned. Greg
is too…
For his last match, the Australian played yet again a superb
match. Accurate, moving well on this very cold court, he put
the Frenchman under a lot of pressure, squeezing 7 unforced
errors out of him in the first game.
And after that, although the score seems one-sided, it never
was. Never Greg was able to relax, and Stuart made him fight
for each and every point, as if his life depended on it.
And in a way, it was.
Salut l’Artiste. Tu vas nous manquer, Bozza.
 I
think that 28 is actually when you do reach maturity. My bad
injury at the start of this year helped me to mature a lot,
and I’m happy with my level now, and I’ve improved my
fighting spirit in the process, and hopefully, I’ll be able
to keep on doing as well as I’m doing.
I left my parents when I was 13, to go from the North where
I was living to get to the South, in Aix, in the National
Squash Institute, called “Pole”. I was really lucky I feel
as it’s really the age where you can learn the most. I feel
privileged I was given that chance.
About the match today, I was leading 8/5, and because the
court is very cold, it’s tempting to go short too early. And
that’s what I did. But Stewart was moving pretty well today,
and he caught me out.
Plus it was my first time on this court, I’ve only hit on it
30m with Peter Barker yesterday, and it takes time to get
your marks on there. You need to get used to seeing the
ball, to the colours, how the ball sticks to the wall, if
you have to play fast or slow… And that takes a bit of time.
 After,
I made sure I was volleying a lot, and my game improved.
Bozza is famous for his accuracy and volleying, and I find
that he is moving better than he was after his injuries.
He never lost the racquet skills, but he was not moving as
fluidly as before his injury. It’s so good to see him coming
back to his best level [Greg didn’t know – nobody did – that
it was Bozza’s last match]
Now, on that new draw. I feel like Nick really, that it’s
not fair. To get to the top, Nick, James, Karim, all of us,
had to beat the best to get there.
And we don’t feel it’s fair for others to get to the semis
or the final without beating the best. Getting to the top of
the rankings is not a question of luck or chance. It’s hard
work, you have to deserve it. Now, maybe what could be done,
is that the players are given the opportunity to take the
points they get from that kind of draw, or not. We
understand it’s good for the show, for the Press, but for
the top 4, top 5 players, it’s not good…
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[3] James Willstrop (Eng)
bt [6] Peter Barker (Eng)
11/9, 11/7, 11/7 (36m)
 I
feel quite comfortable on this court. I was actually
thinking how different each match we’ve played with Peter in
the past weeks have been!
Cold courts in Hong Kong, then sapping warm court in the
Harbour, then cold court again here…
 These
are definitely diverse and various conditions to which we’ve
got to adapt.
In the third, he took it back to me, but the pressure on him
was still there, and it forced a few errors out of him. It
was 100m/h stuff on there, and you just had to stay
composed…
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 I
had some trouble with my adductors after the second day in
Rotterdam, but I had physio support there. It seemed to
flair up again in HK, but there again, I had physio support
but it was all about firefighting, trying to make it better
for the day, instead of making it better and finding out
what’s wrong.
I know enough about injuries to know that if you let them
get into you mind, you’ve lost the match, so today, I tried
and prepared as normal, but 10 minutes before the match the
pain was just unbearable. It’s one of the most difficult
decision an athlete can take, but I just couldn’t lunge at
all. And you need to lunge to play that sport!
 I’ve
tried to use all the pieces of equipment we have to make it
better, but I know that if I was to play and it snapped, I
could be off for a very long time. Whether if I’m reasonable
and stop now, my wonderful team in Sheffield can get to the
bottom of it, and we could maybe get it sorted before India.
But to be honest, it’s been on my mind for so long now,
every day, it’s there, when I’m walking, when I’m taking
stairs, it’s mentally exhausting, and it’s quite a relief
now to be able to say, let’s get it sorted.
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Shorbagy was
simply too good for me tonight, he never let me settle and
therefore I couldn't play my game. At the same time, I'm not
feeling particularly good about my own game tonight, it's
quite an unsatisfying sensation if you feel you still have
plenty of energy in your body but haven't been able to use
it.
Not sure how I'll sleep tonight. All in all, there are
plenty of positives to take from this tournament and the
last couple of months so I'll keep trucking along.
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[7] Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egy)
bt [10] LJ Anjema
(Ned)
11/8, 11/5,
7/11, 11/7 (52m)
MOHAMED IN A ZONE
 A
bit like for James in the previous match, you could say that
the Glass court’s got the name Mohamed El Shorbagy printed
on the door…. I mean, glass, court, cold conditions, perfect
combination for the Egyptian.
To be honest, like I told you several times, LJ’s short game
has improved a heck of a lot recently, and he was able to
put Mohamed under a lot of pressure in the 3rd, once he took
his position in front of him.
 But
Mohamed didn’t do much wrong on there, only one error per
game until the 4th, where he got a bit more impatient in
view of the finishing most, making 4 errors in that last
game.
And his patience, mixed with excellent length and his magic
winners eventually got the better of the fighting
determination of the Dutch.
The quality of the game was high tonight, very few lets, LJ
showing yet again how honest he is, declaring yet again a
“not up” when behind two games to one and 6/8 in the fourth.
That takes guts, and the world would be a better place if
everybody was as honest as him…
 When
the draw was done, I was happy not to draw Nick, no
disrespect to LJ, but playing a top 4 or a player outside
the top 4 is a completely different thing.
And I thought that I was given a chance, and I didn’t have
the intention of letting it go.
And tonight, I think I seized it. I played good squash,
probably the best I’ve played on that tournament.
Immediately after I knew that I’ll be playing LJ, I started
thinking about how I played him in Columbia, and I must say
the court suited me very well. On that court, getting a good
length is paramount, as anything loose will be punished
heavily.
It was a fair match, LJ is such a gentleman, it’s always a
great pleasure to play him.
This is my first ever World Series semis, and this is very
special to me. And I’m so happy that my mum is here to share
that moment with me, and I’m so glad she is there to support
me too.
 Tomorrow,
I’m playing Karim. Last time we played was in Malaysia, and
he beat me yet again 3/0. We are very good friends, I have
the utmost respect for him.
We do share rooms a lot and in particular, we did share in
Paderborn when we won the Team Event. And that got us closer
I think.
I never took a game off him, so tomorrow, I’m really going
to try and do my best, and play good squash.
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Quarter-Final Preview
Steve looks at what came out of the hat ...
After the drama of last night’s draw it’s back to on court
action tonight, as the eight players left battle it out for
semi-final places of the eighth World Series event of the
year (strangely the World Open doesn’t count).
 First
up is Gregory Gaultier, the Frenchman who has
contested each of the last three major finals, in Qatar,
Rotterdam and Hong Kong, and he won’t have been unhappy with
his draw given that he holds an 8-1 advantage over
Stewart Boswell, the Australian’s only (dubious) win
coming the first time they met, in a World Teams dead rubber
back in 2001. They haven’t played for almost three years,
although each of the last three lasted an hour or more
before Gaultier claimed his victories.
 Next
two old friends and rivals in an all-English clash. James
Willstrop and Peter Barker smiled ruefully when
Peter pulled James’ number out of the bowl to select his
opponent, and well they might – the pair have played 26
times since meeting in the quarter-finals of the U12
Nationals in 1993, and Willstrop has won all but two of
those. They’ve met five times already this year, Barker
getting his first ever PSA win against Willstrop in Canary
Wharf, but the Yorkshireman has avenged that defeat thrice
since, in Philadelphia, Qatar, and just a few days ago in
Hong Kong.
 Then
we have the ‘dream quarter-final’, seed number one versus
seed number two. The way the draw went, if Karim Darwish
hadn’t picked that number one ball out of the bowl he would
have been looking at a potential semi-final meeting with
Nick Matthew anyway, given that once the first four had
come out that way a #1 v #2 final was impossible.
 Nevertheless,
the look on both of their faces, something along the lines
of “knew it, xxxxx knew it”, was a treat to behold.
(as it happens, based on current world rankings, it would be
Matthew #1, Willstrop #2, so a final between the two
top-ranked players is still possible)
The Englishman holds a 6-4 advantage in their meetings
(4-all if you take away Matthew’s two wins in the 2006 non-PSA
British Grand Prix, but he does have a 2009 Swedish Open
final walkover to add if push comes to shove), but more
significantly he has won three of the last four, including
the recent World Open semi-final in Rotterdam.
 Finally
it’s Egypt’s Mohamed El Shorbagy against Laurens
Jan Anjema. When MC Adrian Davies last night asked the
big Dutchman if they’d ever played before, it was rueful
grin time again as LJ imparted: “Just the once, he beat me
15/13 in the fifth after about 3 hours in the Colombian Open
final a couple of months ago. Hopefully we can have another
good match, but I want to get two more points this time.”
So it looks as though the pattern of having quick matches to
finish the day’s Green Island schedule might be in danger,
but with four matches like these in store no-one’s going to
be complaining about a late night, that’s for sure.
It all starts at 18.00 local time (we’re plus 3 hours
from the UK), so make sure you catch it all, live on
SquashTV, via our game-by-game twitter updates, or catch up
on the reports, quotes and photos at the end. |
En Bref #3
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