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TODAY
at the Wimbledon Club Squash2 Open |
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14-Mar,
Day TWO, Qualifying Finals:
Four Main Draw places secured as
Hopkin and Soliman take out top seeds ...
The Wimbledon Club Squash Squared Open continued today with
eight qualifying matches, four places in the main draw to be won.
Two of the matches procuced upset results, as UK-based
Aussie Matthew Hopkin beat top seed Peter Creed
in five games - saving two match balls in the third before
completing his comeback - and British Junior Open champion Youssef
Soliman beat second seed Richie Fallows, also in five.
British U21 champion George Parker beat
Spain's Carlos Cornes in straight games, and Josh
Masters added further English interest to the main draw
as he beat young Belgian Jan Van Den Herrewegen, also in three.
Qualifying Finals:
[8]
Matthew Hopkin (Aus) 3-2 [1] Peter Creed (Wal)
5/11, 9/ 11, 12/10, 11/3, 11/9 (40m) plays Le
Roux
Joshua Masters (Eng) 3-0 Jan Van Den Herrewegen
(Bel)
11/6, 11/6, 11/4 (30m)
plays Mustonen
[3] George Parker (Eng) 3-0 [7] Carlos Cornes (Esp)
11/7, 11/6, 11/3 (40m)
plays Coleman
Youssef Soliman (Egy) 3-2 [2] Richie Fallows
(Eng)
10/12, 11/5, 11/5, 4/11, 11/9
plays James
Updated Main Draw |
Photos by
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Joshua Masters (Eng) 3-0
Jan Van Den Herrewegen
(Bel)
11/6, 11/6, 11/4 (30m)
Joshua very
focused
Jan is just back from injury he told me yesterday, and he is a
bit lacking of match fitness.
He tried though, in patches, he gave it some big push and
produced some good rallies indeed, but today, Joshua was in the
zone and found some lethal winners.
He took healthy leads in all three games, 4/1, 8/4 in the first,
4/0, 5/2 in the second, and 6/3 in the third…
I played much
better than yesterday, I managed to get a lead in all the games,
it allowed me to relax.
I think that Jan was off the pace today,
but I’ll take a 3/0 win!
I will have a tough match tomorrow, it’s great to keep my
energy.. So happy to qualify…
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[8]
Matthew Hopkin (Aus) 3-2 [1] Peter Creed (Wal)
5/11, 9/ 11, 12/10, 11/3, 11/9 (40m)
And one broken racquet on the leg …
 We knew that was coming, and few were the people surprised as
Creedy broke his racquet on his right thigh as Mathew won the
match on his first match ball 11/9 in the fifth…
Rewind.
One of those matches you shouldn’t lose. You cannot lose…. Peter
was in control in the first three games, first game easy 11/5
thanks to a few too many errors from Mat, the second is much
closer, at 9/9 it’s anybody’s game, but it goes the Welsh way,
11/9, and a healthy 2/0 up.
 The third is a classic of what you shouldn’t do really, isn’t it
Creedy? 7/1 up, you start relaxing and letting your opponent
back in the match… 8/9! Still, a little error from the
Australian, and it’s match ball 10/8… A stroke, two returns of
serve in the tin – I kid you not – annnd another stroke, 12/10
Mathew…
“You ef… clown” I can hear Peter mumbling in the wings… Bless
him…
Give me a minute, I need my
breath back… Not feeling that good…
I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t be hitting the ball, so that
will do, anything that is better than yesterday will do…
He keeps getting everything back doesn’t he??
I think I was a bit mentally flat in the first two games, but
then I told myself, “if you want to get up the world rankings,
you got to start focusing… So I cut the unforced errors and kept
the rallies going, and I used my speed to get to the ball
instead of using it to defend…
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Youssef Soliman (Egy) 3-2 [2] Richie Fallows
(Eng)
10/12, 11/5, 11/5, 4/11, 11/9
Youssef on Fire, Richie in patches
A stunning match those two offered us today. So fair, so clean,
not a word from Richie, a few comments from Youssef – it didn’t
help him, he admits it himself – but the 5th in particular was a
stunner…
First game, Richie is comfortably up, 5/1 but gets caught up,
7/7, 8/8. Youssef takes the lead 10/8, but thanks to a few
discussions with the ref, the young Egyptian, 19, WR158, lets
Richie back in the match 12/10.
“I was a bit edgy in the 3rd and 4th, I don’t know, I was very
nervous suddenly” told me Richie at the end. “If I had played
then how I played at the end, I probably would have won.” Yes.
Not sure what happened in the next two games, it was like Richie
was not interested in the match, while Youssef was truly on
fire, 11/5, 11/5.
Back mentally in the 4th, Richie takes the game in a few minutes
and we are in for a decider. Honestly, a stunning game, with
soooo many attacking/retrieving/mad ridiculous squash/pace, a
joy.
10/6, with Richie that starts to claw back, at 7/10, he asks for
a contributed injury time – “he run into me, my arm is dead, I
don’t have any feeling in it – so a few minutes of break, and at
9/10, it’s now Youssef who is asking for a blood injury! It’s
all happening let me tell you, another absolutely ridiculous
rally, no let, 11/9 to Youssef.
Truly shame you need a loser out of it, today Youssef takes the
match but that was a toss of a coin |
It was a terrific match.
The first game, I was 10/8 up but I lost concentration by
discussing with the ref.
I know I shouldn’t have but I’m pretty sure I was right.
I played some good squash in the second, and third, but I feel I
lost a bit of focus in the 4th.
And in the 5th I told myself right, you give it everything to
got, if you lose, at least you will have given it all.
And I was 10/6 match ball, and he started sneaking in point
after point, I was so worried…
I’m happy, no, I’m THRILLED to win…
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[3] George Parker (Eng) 3-0 [7] Carlos Cornes (Esp)
11/7,
11/6, 11/3 (40m)
 He
didn’t put me under too much pressure to be fair, he made a lot
of unforced errors.
I didn’t make too many errors on the other hand, and I was
confident in my movement.
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