in the semi finals of the new PSA Challenger 15 championship in the Netherlands.

Entering the match with a 0-6 head-to-head record, things weren’t looking good for the world number 31 when he quickly went down 5-1 in the first game.

The 26-year old from  Aix-en-Provence settled soon after though and managed to contain his higher ranked opponent by slowing down the pace and mixing it beautifully with bursts of high-paced attacking squash.

As a result Castagnet made Anjema do a lot of work, forcing openings to put the ball away, which he took full advantage off throughout the 48-minute match: 11/8, 11/8, 11/3.

In Sunday’s Double AR Rotterdam Open final Castagnet will face

Semi-Finals:

[2] Adrian Grant (Eng) 3-1 [3] Olli Tuominen (Fin)
                 7/11, 11/5, 12/10, 11/3 (62m)

[4] Mathieu Castagnet (Fra) 3-0 [1] Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) 
                11/8, 11/7, 11/3 (48m)
 

Adrian recovers to deny Olli

The head to head between Olli Tuominen and Adrian Grant showed the Finn leading 3-1, but the current rankings suggest that Adrian would start the favourite.

Their styles of play are quiet different, Olli playing at a high tempo and Adrian playing a game of cat and mouse, so before hand no one knew what to expect, and this was definitely the case as both started the match a little nervously with a few long rallies and lets.

However Olli then controlled the next few points, helped by a few errors to take the first.

The second was a complete reversal with Adrian taking control very early and keeping it that way.

The third game reversed again and Olli started strongly maintaining a small lead, making Adrian fight from behind, which is what we know he is good at.

He brought the score back from 9-6 down to 10-10 and took it 12-10.

The fourth was a one sided affair as Adrian kept up his focus and found his range to win the match: 7/11, 11/5, 12/10, 11/3 (62mins).

Big upset for Rotterdam fans

Given the pre-match statistics of the head to head between Laurens Jan Anjema and Mathieu Castagnet of 6-0, it seems that this match was going to be a one sided affair. However watching both players play over the tournament, they both have a very similar style of play, both being highly physical players, and if Mathieu’s last two matches were any indication, he wasn’t going down without a fight.

The first started very physical with LJ taking a quick gap over Mathieu, who seemed a little tired from the days before, but somehow he managed to put enough work into LJ to take 6 points in a row to go 10-6 up. However LJ found some rhythm, but Mathieu won the game.

From the end of the first it seemed that LJ found some rhythm but coming into the second, Mathieu wasn’t having any of this.

Today he really has impressed, instead of going at 100 miles an hour, he changed the pace and played very smart making LJ work and it just seemed there was something not right with LJ, but we don’t know for sure, maybe the work Mathieu made him do.

Throughout the whole game Mathieu maintained a small enough lead and even when LJ made a comeback Mathieu had enough in the tank to keep game; a very smart game from him.

The third was a continuation of the second game where Mathieu controlled play from the start. He kept up a lead and even though LJ gave it everything, Mathieu played a top game today and all credit goes to him for winning and also for finishing in under 60mins; 11/8, 11/8, 11/3 (48mins)
     

SEMIS PREVIEW

First up is Double AR player Adrian Grant against reigning European Champion Olli Tuominen. Grant, ranked #24, won their last encounter (in 2011) in five games, while Tuominen, world #26 , won their three encounters in 2000, 02 and 03.

Then it's home hero LJ Anjema, as the world #18 takes on Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet, ranked at #31. Anjema has won all six of their encounters, all since 2009, but none have been easy with the last two wins taking 75 and 89 minutes to complete.

Anjema will be aiming to reach a 31st PSA final, Grant a 30th, for Tuominen it would be a 20th and for Castagnet a 6th.