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TODAY in Nantes Fram
in Nantes Steve in Whitley Bay |
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| 05-Sep 2016, Day ONE Men's Qualifying Round One:
[4] Joel Makin
(Wal) 3-0 Victor Crouin (Fra)
11/3,
13/11, 11/3 (39m)
[8] Chris Fuller (Eng) 3-1 Auguste Dussourd (Fra)
5/11, 14/12, 11/6, 11/3 (49m)
[7]
Christophe André (Fra) 3-0 Lance Beddoes
(Nzl)
11/5, 11/5, 11/7 (32m)
[3]
Piedro Schweertman (Ned) 3-1 Johan Bouquet
(Fra)
15/17, 11/9, 11/9, 11/8 (55m)
Baptiste Masotti (Fra) 3-1 [6] Jan vd Herrewegen (Bel)
3/11, 11/2, 11/4, 11/8 (52m)
[5]
Jaymie Haycocks (Eng) 3-0 Enzo Corligliano (Fra)
11/5, 11/5, 11/6 (24m)
TWO OUT OF SIX
FRENCH SURVIVE
The second edition of the Open International de
Nantes got under way today in "La Maison du Squash", a brand
new club run by Mathieu Fort in the north of Nantes.
A change of last minute, with the withdrawal of Swiss Nicolas
Mueller - AKA My Personal Choocolate Provider - who had to
withdraw.
"Just some hamstring/adductor muscle issue, shouldnt be too bad
I hope", Nicki told me. Let's hope it's nothing bad and that
we'll see him very soon back on court.
Jens Schoor went straight in the main draw, and there
were two byes today,
Ritchie Fallows who'll play Baptiste Masotti,
suprising winner of Jan Van Den Herrewegen in 4 games, and also Mazen Gamal
who logically will face Jaymie Haycocks after the English
had no problem getting rid of young French Local Enzo Corligliano.
Funny to note before the change of draw, Ritchie was supposed to
play Baptiste. When it's your Destiny, you cannot fight it!
For the rest, Joel Makin too strong and solid for a
Victor Crouin, still a bit weak on the back hand - so many
errors from there, Chris Fuller got over a bad start to
finally beat Dangerous Frenchboy Auguste Dussourd, 3/1, while
Christophe André gets a comfortable win over New Zealander
Lance Beddoes 3/0.
That makes two French interest in the Finals, good for the crowd!
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EN BREF #1
Come and Discover Nantes
The Wall of Broken Racquets
Fram's Lunch...
Court going up in
Cité des Congrès |
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[4] Joel Makin
(Wal) 3-0 Victor Crouin (Fra)
11/3,
13/11, 11/3 (39m)
[8] Chris Fuller (Eng) 3-1 Auguste Dussourd (Fra)
5/11, 14/12, 11/6, 11/3 (49m)
First session with two French on board, unfortunately for the
hosts, not much luck there.
 A
good start for Auguste Dussourd, 20 years old and WR143, who
took Chris Fuller, 25, WR98, by surprise really, 11/5 quite
rapidly.
Slowly, the very fair and extremely polite Englishman found his
marks in the second, but easy it never was, Auguste came very
close to go 2/0 up, two game balls 10/9, 11/10, but it’s finally
the English that finds his redrop just in time, 14/12 in the
second.
Although the rallies were long, it looked like Auguste was a bit
more tired than his opponent, and a few errors crept in at
crucial times in the third, and the 4th was a formality really.
Chris Fuller: I’ve been injured, ankle problems, and I
didn’t have much practice, so I’m a bit short match wise, and he
started playing a very deceptive game, hard to read, with a lot
of shots on the edge that went in nicely, putting me under
pressure. It was very tight for a game and a half really, but
then I feel he got a bit tired, while I was moving a bit better,
and his on the edge shots started to find the tin."
As for Joel, he dominated young French hope Victor Crouin, still
a junior, 17 and 202 WR, in the first game, 11/3.
Varying his game in the second, in particular with lovely
boasts, Victor managed to threaten his Welsh opponent, even
getting a game ball of his own, 11/10, but Joel’s regularity and
solid game – experience also – allowed him to take a crucial
second, 13/11, with some good rallies in the third for the young
Frenchman, but with Joel always in control.
Joel Makin: A lot of things that didn’t go up in the
first started to reach their targets, and he stepped up in the
second, reducing the unforced errors, and making it harder. My
length dropped a bit too, and I gave him too many opportunities
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[7] Christophe André
(Fra) 3-0 Lance Beddoes (Nzl)
11/5, 11/5, 11/7 (32m)
André, a quick affair
To best honest, I didn’t get to see much of the match and didn’t
even get a chance to take an action picture! What I saw was a
clean and fair match, both player playing the ball as much as
possible, Lance causing all sort of troubles to the Frenchman by
finding some lovely counterdrops.
Christophe had a his left ankle heavily strapped, he twisted it
about two days ago, and funnily enough, trained with Lance on
the morning of the day the draw was made, Sunday morning, and
told him to go easy on the left front corner, as he was a bit
unsure of his ankle.
Quite funnily enough, he dre w the New Zealander and was cursing
himself – I told him where to play me – he went! But in the end,
the ankle was solid enough, and despite an exhausting visit of
Nantes yesterday (read my en brefs), the Reunion boy wins it in
3 today.
Christophe Andre: Very happy I was able to have two
good months preparation, as I got injured on the left ankle –
the one that is strapped today, it’s a bit of a recurrent injury
– in my last event of the year, so three months with no
competition.
A bit of pressure today, first match, first tournament of the
season, but so far, happy with my game, may it continue
tomorrow… |
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[3] Piedro Schweertman
(Ned) 3-1 Johan Bouquet (Fra)
15/17, 11/9, 11/9, 11/8 (55m)
Very fair and disputed game
for Birthday Boy Piedro
It was a great match to watch, and the best I’ve seen Johan play
I think. He was calm and determined and was moving very well,
very few decisions and a very pleasant match indeed.
The Frenchman just wouldn’t let go and in the first, down 10/8,
he fought 5 game balls to finally take the opener, 17/15 on his
third game ball. The next two games were very disputed and
lefthander Piedro could never relax, Johan always close in the
score, and taking his chances on the volley, producing a very
good squash indeed.
Johan saved game balls in the second, and third, and even a
match ball in the 4th, supported by a fair but vocal French
crowd. A very pleasant match to watch indeed.
Piedro: I take the second which is crucial, a bit like
the first one, very tight, but although I lost it, he had to
work very hard to take it, so it was a good investment in the
end.
He pushed very hard today, I think he pushed even harder because
we are in France. We played each other a lot of times, we know
each other’s game quite well, and it’s probably the best he ever
played against me.
Very happy to win it on my birthday
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Baptiste Masotti (Fra)
3-1
[6] Jan Van Den Herrewegen (Bel)
3/11, 11/2, 11/4, 11/8 (52m)
Weird Match
Going to make it simple, first game, Jan completely dominates
the game, from 3/3 to 11/4 in no time. Then it looks like the
young Belgium hits the wall physically completely bless him,
can’t run, can’t move and Baptiste stringing the points 11/2,
11/4. And we finally have a match in the 4th.
By that time, the contender, 21 year old Masotti, WR125 is
completely confident with his shots while Jan, 22, WR99, has got
to win that game and impose his game mentally as well as score
wise.
Follows a great game of squash, very long rallies, a few
decisions, but Masotti managing to control his fiery temper, is
able to lead if anything by one point. Very close indeed, 3/3,
6/6, 7/7, 10/7, some truly superb and suspense-like squash, but
it’s Masotti in the end on his second match ball, 11/8 in 52m.
Baptiste: I am doing my studies along with my PSA
career, but I just managed to train extremely hard and was
feeling very fit and sharp physically, I lost6 kg and was
feeling pretty good. And in Helsinki, I put a bit too much
pressure on myself, as often the case as well, when you are very
fit, you just rely too much on your physic and just run instead
of playing squash. I lost in the quarters there so I arrived
today with a lot of pressure again.
In the first game, a bit nervous, after that I really relaxed
and played my game, although I thought he looked a bit flat
physically in the second and third, I made sure I reassessed my
game and made him run.
The fourth started to be a big battle really, I think it was a
bit a question of the change of opponent, initially I thought I
was going to play Ritchie, not that I’m afraid of him but Jan
was maybe a bit more accessible. It’s all in the head really.
I want so badly to play on the glass court, I’m going to give my
life on the court tomorrow against Ritchie, I’m really going to
give my life on there. |
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[5] Jaymie Haycocks (Eng) 3-0 Enzo Corligliano (Fra)
11/5, 11/5, 11/6 (24m)
Jaymie in control, nice third game…
A few years difference between those two, Jaymie,
experienced and seen it all really, 32, WR87, against just
turned senior Enzo, local, 19 and 248 in the world.
To be honest, Jaymie controlled the first game from beginning to
end, 10/3, 11/5 in the first, and 5/1, 7/2, 10/4, 11/5 in the
2nd.
The third, well, maybe Jaymie relaxed a bit while Enzo just let
go of the arm and found some pretty lovely feathery nicks. The
French crowd obviously loved it, close last gme, 2/2, 4/4, 5/5,
6/7 even, but Jaymie didn’t want to be dragged into a fourth,
closed up the game and takes it 11/6 on his first attempt.
Jaymie
 I
was pretty much in front of him in the first two games, I kept
him behind and I didn’t give him much to attack with and he made
a few too many unforced errors..
I didn’t know what to expect, but looking at him I thought
speed. And that was a correct observation!
When he found himself two love down, he didn’t have much to lose,
and he probably relaxed a bit, I got a bit dragged into it. My
length fell a bit short, I opened the court a bit more, and he
was able to use his speed against me.
But as I didn’t have many matches for a few months it was good
to have a few hard rallies at the end, it opened the lungs and
tested the movement out, especially as Mazen has got a pretty
open game as well tomorrow, good to test the boasting and drops…
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