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TODAY in Birmingham
Sat 8th, Semi-Finals:
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[4] James
Willstrop (Eng) bt [1] David Palmer (Aus)
11/9, 8/11, 6/11, 11/2, 11/9 (95m)
[3] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt [2] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
3/11, 11/8, 11/9, 6/11, 11/5 (87m) |
Semi-Final roundup
From Malcolm Wilstrop
David Palmer against James Willstrop, Thierry Lincou against
Gregory Gaultier looked a guarantee of a night of entertainment,
competitiveness and quality for the crowd at the Great Hall at
Birmingham University, and no-one left disappointed.
 The
Palmer-Willstrop match reached classic proportions. Whenever
they meet, the matches are played in splendid spirit, Palmer
seems not to get involved with referees and it is easy then to
appreciate his outstanding quality.
Willstrop began in positive vein, as did Palmer, but it was the
Englishman who held the first game together in the later stages
to win it narrowly. Palmer began the second and third well and
although Willstrop recovered the early leads saw Plmer to a 2/1
lead.
Early advantages are important in 11 scoring and in the fourth
it was Willstrop who went well clear. Palmer decided enough was
enough, let it go late on and it was two-all.
The way the match had been played there was no way either would
give way easily and maintaining a high tempo they were nip and
tuck. Willstrop led 9-7 but Palmer, summoning reserves levelled
again.
At 9-all Palmer went for a forehand short angle which, sparingly
used as it had been, would probably have given him match ball.
The crowd gasped as he tinned it and it was Willstrop who had
the match ball. He appeared to win it to many people, but an
appeal against a low ball to the triumvirate of referees
resulted in a let.
 However
on the next rally Willstrop clinched a place in the final 11/9.
Trite it may be, but it was one of those matches where neither
player deserved to lose, 95 minutes of world class squash.
The all-French encounter between that country's best two players
ever promised as much as the first match. It was immediately
obvious that Gregory Gaultier was fractious – he screamed and
gestured at John Massarella and his team without, for the most
part, anyone knowing why.
As everyone knows, Thierry Lincou starts slowly and Gaultier won
the first game easily 11/3. Not that that settled him, and it
was Lincou who, after an hour, led 2/1.
When Gaultier levelled at two games all it seemed likely that he
would go on to win, especially as Lincou had played a telling
five-setter with Lee Beachill the night before.
But strangely it was Gaultier who capitulated in the fifth and
Lincou who made the final.
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[4] James
Willstrop (Eng) bt [1] David Palmer (Aus)
11/9, 8/11, 6/11, 11/2, 11/9 (95m)
Prince Willstrop storms into final
British National champion James Willstrop stormed into the final
of the inaugural Prince English Grand Prix, beating top seed and
world champion David Palmer of Australia 11/9, 8/11, 6/11, 11/2,
11/9 in a 95-minute semi-final thriller in Birmingham.
Palmer, the reigning world champion who struggled to win from
two games down in the first round, was meeting his third
successive English opponent, having beaten British Open champion
Nick Matthew in the quarters.
 Willstrop
got the better of a punishing 25-minute first game which Palmer
for the most part led. Having earned himself a game ball James
manages to serve into the back wall nick as he took the lead.
It was a high-quality match, both players putting on a show of
high-accuracy squash, neither afraid to attack when the
opportunity arose. It led to rally after rally of high-paced
inventive squash that continued for the vast majority of the
hour and a half they were on court.
James seemed to be paying the price for that first game as David
fought back. The Australian took the 17-minute second, pulling
away from 7-all with James starting to look tired for the first
time. The impression was confirmed as David continued to
dominate from the start of the third, taking it in just 9
minutes.
A good start for James in the fourth though, and he was soon
level as David let the last few points slip. A decider it was.
If anything the pace increased in the fifth, where, as in the
first, David led for the first half, but James clawed his way
back in a series of brutal rallies, and started to look the
likely winner.
From 9-8 up it took nine rallies to finish it, but finish it
James did as he became the first finalist ...
 "I
felt nowhere as good as I did yesterday, even in the warm up I
could feel that there was something that was quite not right, I
felt terrible…
"Tonight, I wasn’t as explosive as I normally am, I seem to
struggle with my health at the moment, I had a series of viruses
over the summer and sometimes I feel strong and powerful, and
some days, there’s just nothing there…
"So, I just hang in there… There were times where I felt good,
and I was dominating and overpowering him, and times where I
felt terrible, but I was still matching his pace, until the end
where he pushed one last time, and I just couldn’t stay with it.
"Disappointed, of course, it was very close, it could have been
another final. Shame I couldn’t sneak the first, it maybe could
have made a difference. But we are meant to meet again in the
quarters of the British, and the positive thing I get out of
tonight is that I can’t be worse than I was tonight…
"Still, considering I was at 75% of my potential, it’s not too
bad. I know that if I can get my body and health right, which
I’m struggling to do at the moment, I can beat anybody…"
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"I got a brilliant start, but at
2-1 down he was totally in control and I was on the ropes. You
have to believe you can come back, even against opponents like
David, if you don't believe you can do it you won't do it.
"I had a word with myself, just dug in and tried to be more
accurate and it started to come together, and I ended up winning
it in the fifth.
"It's great for Prince reasons and great for me too - I just
love competing in these events and I hate waking up on the final
day knowing I'm not playing.
"Tonight I’ll just try and chill out, and recover as well as I
can…"
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[3] Thierry
Lincou (Fra) bt [2] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
3/11, 11/8, 11/9, 6/11, 11/5 (87m) |
Thierry wins French tussle
The start of the second semi-final gave little indication of how
the match would develop or finish as Gregory Gaultier took
command against his compatriot.
Malcolm Willstrop came to ask how long James' match was, and
went away concluding that the Frenchmen would need to be on for
about 200 minutes to level things out for tomorrow.
 It
didn't take that long, but it certainly got intense, much more
intense as Thierry, having made a typically slow start in losing
the first game 11/3, started to rediscover that never-say-die
spirit that epitomises the player who ruled the quash world for
all of 2005.
Greg was trying all he had, but Thierry held the upper hand for
the next two games.
It was really tough going from the middle of the third, and when
Thierry got a fortuitous let after tripping over his own feet at
9/8 Greg, who hadn't been in the best of moods all evening, was
not a happy bunny.
Greg came back to lead most of the fourth, and a loud "buuuurp"
from the world number four at 7/6 caused merriment all round
seemed to launch him into a spell of shotmaking that saw him
level the match.
Thierry was back in determined mode in the fifth though, he kept
a slender lead through a passage of intense rallies, but once he
broke clear to lead 7/4 Greg's intensity dissipated and the
finish came quickly.
No, not the 200-minute marathon Malcolm wanted, but both
tonight's winners earned their place in the final the hard way,
that's for sure ...
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"I try to play Greg as if it’s somebody else, but it’s so hard.
He is at the top of his game, he has proven that he can beat
anybody in the world, and he is now a top player.
"We have a long history together, we’ve played each other so
many times…
"I’m not happy about a lot of things tonight, but I’m still
happy to have won ("You can thank the refs too!", interjected
Greg during the interview, to everyone's amusement), and
with the way I played tonight.
"When I played in the Super Series Finals, I was not squash
prepared, and I think I won one or two games out of the four
matches I played, which is not a good record. But during the
summer, I’ve done some squash specifics, I’m now glad to be back
and to play some good squash…."
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Preview:
 Matches
between David Palmer and James Willstrop are usually played
without too much trouble and both players looked in good form
last night, so it will be surprising if the match doesn't live
up to high expectations.
Meetings between players from the same country invariably have
an edge and Gregory Gaultier will be eager to establish his
recently gained ascendancy over elder statesman Thierry Lincou.
Gaultier may have been late to bed last night, but Lincou's
match with Beachill was heavy and may affect today's outcome ... |
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Prince
English Grand Prix - Birmingham 2007
