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TODAY at the Canadian Classic ...
06/07 Jan, Qualifying:+ |
07-Jan-07:
Qualifying complete
in Toronto...
It's the first major PSA event of the season in Toronto, and
qualifying concluded today at three clubs - Toronto Athletic Club, the
Cambridge Club and Toronto Badminton & Rackets Club.
Framboise was at the TAC, which hosted the majority of the
matches, and Jamie Nicholls at the B&R on a day which saw
most of the local players make an early exit.
US youngster Julian Illingworth
produced the result of the day as he downed qualifying second seed
Bradley Ball in four games ... |
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07-Jan-07,
Qualifying Finals:
Jean-Michel Arcucci
(Fra) bt
Jan Koukal (Cze)
6/11, 11/9, 6/11, 11/4, 11/9 (68m)
plays El Hindi
Tarek Momen (Egy) bt David Phillips (Can)
11/9, 11/7, 11/4 (26m)
plays Ramy Ashour
Dylan Bennett (Ned) bt Chris Simpson (Eng)
11/7, 11/5, 7/11, 6/11, 11/1 (53m)
plays Ricketts
Bernardo Samper (Col) bt Robin Clarke (Can)
10/11(0-2), 11/5, 11/6, 11/7 (46m)
plays Beachill
Shawn DeLierre (Can) bt Chris Gordon (Usa)
11/7, 11/9, 11/4 (42m)
plays Darwish
Omar Elborolossy (Egy) bt Aaron Frankcomb (Aus) 9/11,
11/8, 11/7, 11/2
plays White
Simon Rosner
(Ger) bt Laurent Elriani (Fra)
11/8, 11/10(3-1), 11/6 (47m)
plays Beng Hee
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Bradley Ball (Eng)
11/9, 10/11(0-2), 11/5, 11/5 (53m)
plays Ryding
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QUALIFYING FINALS |
Jean-Michel Arcucci (Fra) bt
Jan Koukal (Cze) 6/11, 11/9, 6/11, 11/4, 11/9 (68m)
plays El Hindi |
SUSPENSE AND ALL…
That was a pretty close encounter, let me tell you, between a “I
love to hit the ball and I can do that 'til the cows come home”
Frenchman Jean Michel Arcucci, and a “little drop shot here, little
boast there, close to the tin hits, and a lot in the tin” Czech
Jan Koukal.
Jan makes me think a bit of Joey Barrington a few years ago. He is
slim, looks a bit like a puppy that would have grown up too fast,
shoulders falling a bit, and of course, a lot of charm...
He shows a lot of potential, and I’m sure he’ll kick himself for a
long time for his seven unforced errors in the second game that
allowed Jean-Mi to come back into the match. Coming back from 2/0
would have been a very high mountain to climb for the Frenchman…
But it all came down to the last few points of the decider. At 6/6,
Jean Mi got a good lead to set up a match point at 10/6. Jan,
suddenly very focused and sharp, took advantage of a drop in the
energy level of his opponent, and started to climb back, saved a
match ball, then 2, 3, 4….
At 10/9, Jan wins the point to force a tie-break, but Jean-Mi
questions the serve. The ref, unsure and having doubts of his own,
gives the Frenchman a let. Jan, his concentration out of the window,
will not see a backhand trickle come up, and finds himself out of
the race within seconds.
He was not happy…
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 "I’m
really disappointed with the ref’s call at 10/9 match ball against
me, when I actually won the point and he gave a let because he
wasn’t sure about my serve. My serve was that high up!
"Today, I tried to played my game, taking the ball early, volleying
a lot and attacking when I had the opportunity as Jean-Mi doesn’t
like twisting and turning. It worked for a while…
"Anyway, there were some good patches, and some bad ones, thanks to
the Christmas break….
 |
 "I’m
so glad I won… At the end, I got a bit nervous, so I started pushing
up the pace, and got myself all tired up… But overall I felt fine
physically, and he suffered probably a bit more than I did in the
end.
"I’m not that mad about those courts, I’m used to concrete and these
fibre resin I find rather slippery. But I was still able to keep him
behind me and to attack to the back, which eventually paid off as he
got tired…
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 FURIOUS
PACE
+
Bradley Ball is keen. Very keen to come back in a major, as
he’s been suffering from knee and back injury for a pretty long time
now, his last appearance in a big event being the US Open back in
November ’05. He’s been coming back pretty well recently, doing more
and more “little” tournaments all over the place, with an excellent
runner up finish in the Canary Island only a few weeks ago in
December. But too keen is sometimes detrimental to a clear and calm
vision….
On the other hand, we had Julian Illingsworth, nothing to
loose, nearly on home soil, fit as a fiddle after his hard summer
training in the UK, and very very confident after his good matches
against LJ and Azlan.
The result is a fire of all guns match, with both players stuck from
the service line, hitting like two lunatics, retrieving superbly,
attacking at every opportunity. This strategy suited Julian pretty
well today, and although it normally suits Bradley as well, it all
went wrong…
The Englishman just tried too hard, made unforced errors, starting
to panick as the points strung away, went for flamboyant return of
serve that would find the tin more often than the nick, which would
increase his frustration, leading into more unforced errors… you
know the story.
Julian played the perfect game, with an average of one unforced
error per game, and was able to hold the pace throughout the 53
minutes. His squash has improved tremendously, and his ranking of 72
will raise rapidly, and if he is able to sustain the enormous amount
of work he’s been doing lately, I think he could raffle a few
feathers very soon… |
"For
the past five years, I’ve been training within the US. But this
summer, I went in the UK, and trained day in day out with the top
guys.
"Then I found that I was getting closer and closer, like my two
last matches against LJ and Azlan, I was leading in the first two
games, but then got tired, so I decided to really concentrate and
work on my fitness.
"And today, when I was at 8/8, 9/8, I kept
telling myself, that’s why you trained, that’s what you worked for,
and to keep pushing.
"Also, this summer helped me improve
technically, like a few sessions with David Pearson, where the
atmosphere was so great, everybody is working hard, no distraction,
no party, just training!"
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 "In the first game, I thought I played
well, I got myself into the game well, I prevented him attacking in
the middle and attacked when I had a
c+hance, but then in the second, I became too aggressive, too eager…
"In the last two Omar started to dominate
me in the rallies, I lost my rhythm, and eventually got tired…
"It’s a shame really, because this court
really suited me as it was very bouncy and he couldn’t take the ball
as early as he normally likes to…
"But I enjoyed the match, I learned a lot
today, and I’m looking forward to play him again sometime…
 "That
was a bit better than yesterday!
"This
morning, I was pretty tense, so I tried
to
relax, but then I relaxed too much! So the first
game I was too
slow, but although I lost the first game on a silly mistake after
coming back from 10/6, I left the court confident that I could win.
"On
some points
Aaron was really guessing my game quite well, I was looking at him,
he was not on the T, he was or here, or there, choosing a side. And
it somehow reassured me, because he actually HAD to guess…
"After
the first game, I became more patient, but the ball got slower, so
it was really difficult for me to end the point… But still, now I’m
in the main draw, I’d like to send a little hello to my son Marawan,
who’ll be happy to see his dad in the main draw…"
 |
 "I
felt rather comfortable throughout today, except
in the first when I was up 7/2 and let him come back to
8/7 by making far too many unforced errors. After that, I was able
to get back into
my game, but it was a pretty close match. …
"I’m so happy to be in the main draw, it’s
only my second time in a major tournament, last year in the TOC, and
this year here. So I’m really excited.. And who am I playing?????"
 "One
of those days where I was just very slow. My legs felt extremely
heavy, and he took full advantage of it, he kept on sending me
to the front, and I was that much
late on it
all the time,
and I eventually got tired…
"It was a good game, Simon is a very nice
guy, and a fair player, so I enjoyed the match.
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Day Two at the B&R
Jamie Nicholls reports
Match one featured a physical mismatch, as the slender Egyptian
Tarek Momen once again took on a much more physical
Canadian, this time in David Phillips.
Phillips opened with a high pace and was able to cut everything off
in the early going, much like yesterday. However, Momen proved
to be a human backboard and seemed content to run everything down,
and eventually wore out Phillips to take a long first game 11-9.
That game proved to be crucial, as Phillips began to let balls into
the back court, at which point, Momen proved that he can attack too
and put on a dazzling display of volley drops and hard-angled boasts
to begin to assert control over the match.
Phillips continued to fight for the T, but is was the Egyptian who
looked too fit and fast as this match wore on, taking the third game
easily to earn a 3-0 victory and a spot in the main draw.
Match two was Sean Delierre
the flashy Canadian vs. Chris Gordon the steady and
composed American.
A very long opening game saw Delierre vary his depth, hitting kills
and then holding to hit length with great precision, both straight
and cross court. Gordon played tough and retrieved well in an
effort to break Delierre’s control of the T, but Sean made very few
errors in this game and was rewarded with an 11-7 victory.
Game two was the closest, with Gordon looking wary from all the hard
turns he made in the first game, he dug in and played some excellent
counter drops and continued to hit accurate straight length.
A
few conversations between the referee and Delierre seemed to give
Gordon enough time to recover and keep fighting. However
Delierre regained his poise and added some brilliant volley drops to
his great flicks, proving too much offense for Gordon to handle.
Game two took its toll on Gordon and he succumbed to a very
confident looking Sean Delierre in Game three to lose a well-played
and fun to watch 3-0 match.
We look forward to tomorrow’s action tomorrow at the B&R with Abbas,
Gaultier, Palmer and Ramy Ashour involved in first round matches. |
Jamie Nicholls & Chris Gordon
(photo Ajay and Amar Gupta)
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06-Jan-07,
Qualifying Round One:
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Jean-Michel Arcucci
(Fra)
bye
Jan Koukal
(Cze) bt Jay Fleishman (Can)
11/3, 11/3, 11/5 (25m)
TAC
Aaron Frankcomb
(Aus) bt Jeff Evans (Usa) 11/3, 11/7, 11/3 (30m)
TAC
Omar Elborolossy (Egy) bt Patrick Bedore
(Can) 11/6, 11/6, 11/7
(30m) TAC
Dylan Bennett (Ned) bt
Tony James (Aus) 11/4, 11/3, 11/9 (25m)
CC
Chris Simpson (Eng) bt Rob McFadzean (Usa) 11/3, 11/1,
11/9 (20m) CC
Bernardo
Samper (Col) bt Ian Power (Can) 11/4, 11/5, 11/6 (29m)
CC
Robin Clarke
(Can) bt Bertrand Tissot (Fra) 11/8, 11/4, 11/4
(32m) TAC
David Philipps
(Can) bt Dan Sibley (Can) 11/4, 11/3, 11/3
(20m) B&R
Tarek Momen (Egy) bt Matt Serediak
11/9, 11/5, 11,
6 (23m) B&R
Chris Gordon
(Usa) bt Andrew McDougall (Can) 10/11(0-2),
11/5, 11/6, 11/8 (43m) B&R
Shawn DeLierre (Can)
bye
Simon Rosner
(Ger) bt Tyler Hamilton (Usa) 11/7, 11/5, 11/6
(29m) TAC
Laurent Elriani (Fra) bt Mohammad Farooq (Can) 11/2, 11/1,
11/5 (20m) TAC
Julian Illingworth (Usa) bt Wade Johnstone
(Aus) 11/2, 11/2, 11/5 (24m)
TAC
Bradley Ball (Eng)
bye |
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"The score looks
pretty easy, but it was not, and Trevor played very well… It
was a very good match to get into the event…
"He’s got some pretty good back backhand drop shots and also
his length is good. But most of all, he gave everything he
had and never gave up…"
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 "I’ve
been a PSA member since September, and I hope to get on the
circuit eventually, I’m in my last year of high school…
"Simon was playing very precise shots, he was able to sustain
a very high pace, forcing me
to
the back and getting good
kills in…
"I thought I played well today, after that, it’s all a
question of experience and getting to play the top players…
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 "I
felt comfortable…
"Patrick was so keen and motivated and was
going for all his shots, so I was absorbing his game more
than playing mine really, and I got a bit lazy, it’s an
Egyptian habit…!
"It’s true, we all do it, we love the comeback…
"But still, it’s good for a first day, and on a personal
level, may I say how proud I am of having two of my
“boys”, Raneem and Omar, who just won their age groups in the
British Junior Open… Well done guys…
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 "That’s
the best I've played for a long time, and it all came down to
me making maybe 2 or 3 tins, which is a big thing for me,
because I like my tins!
"I was expecting it to be a battle, as Wade is at all the
tournaments I play in the US, so I saw him play a lot, but it
was quite extraordinary that we actually never met before…
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 "It’s
always good to get the first match out of the way, and great
to play Omar next round, as that's the logical result.
"I
must say I didn’t expect to be so roughed up by a local, all
credit to him."
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 "I
live in Vancouver, and I’m the squash pro at Sport Central
in Richmond.
"Aaron
is the highest ranked player I’ve ever played.
I think I played the best I could to maximise my
opportunities, but when I had the opening, I didn’t do
enough with it, and I made too many errors.
"So, I’ve just got to train more and keep coming back and
play better…
"Just want to say hello to my wife Ann, who has been sick. I
hope she feels better, and I’ll see her soon….
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Jan Koukal bt Jay Fleishman
11/3, 11/3, 11/5 (25m) |
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 "I
feel like it's still early morning, and I'm not that good in
the morning...
"But it was a good match to start the tournament, I could
have had a worse draw, and I'm looking forward to meeting
Jean-Mi tomorrow...
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 "Jan
is very fit, he also lunges and stretches for the ball so
well.
"He is so quick on the ball, and he's got the ability
to hit the ball hard without spending too much energy...
"I knew that the Christmas break would be hard to get over,
and that today would be a rude awakening, but I'm still
happy with how I played.
"In the third in particular, I got more comfortable. I was
able to stay in the rallies, wait for the opportunity to play
attacking shots, and go for it...
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Robin Clarke bt Bertrand Tissot
11/8, 11/4, 11/4
(32m) TAC
 "I
had to slow my training down due to the arrival of little Liam, four
months now…
"Robin and I have been training together, so we know each others
game pretty well, but normally I can get one game, sometimes two if
he is a bit tired… But he always wins, and it’s normal, that’s the
difference between the world number 160 and the world number 90…
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 "I
had a wisdom tooth removed over Christmas, and it went wrong, so I
couldn’t do anything for two weeks, which is not what you want just
before a major tournament like this one…
"Bertrand and I live in Toronto, and we used to train together twice
a week, so I know his game pretty well… He played very well, but my
short game was right on today, I really made him work around the
court…
"I’m glad to have that one over and done with… Tomorrow will be very
interesting…!"
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Day One at the B&R
Jamie Nicholls reports
David Phillips
bt Daniel Sibley 11/4, 11/3, 11/3
First up was two Canadians, the very
experienced David Phillips and the young and fast improving
Dan Sibley. Sibley, apparently suffering from a very tender
back, worked hard in the early parts of the first game, but was
never able to move Phillips off the T with any consistency.
Phillips took his space and extended Dan to all parts of the court,
which took its toll physically on Sibley. David was too strong in
the mid court, and with Dan not at 100%, this match lasted only 20
minutes, giving Phillips a 3-0 victory.
Tarek Momen bt Matt Serediak 11/9, 11/6, 11/5
Next was another young Canadian
playing on his home court at the B&R, Matt Serediak, doing
battle with former junior star Tarek Momen from Egypt. The
match was a complete contrast of styles – the stealthy Momen covered
the court like a gazelle, and shot from all over the court, while
the physical Serediak used an arsenal of hard, straight lengths and
looked to volley everything.
Each game featured long rallies, with Momen’s dazzling gets
eventually frustrating Serediak into untimely tins, despite being in
control of many rallies. Match to Momen 3-0.
Chris Gordon bt Andrew McDougall
10/12, 11/5, 11/6, 11/8
Last match of the day was a Can-Am
affair as Andrew McDougall, fresh out of juniors from
Calgary, took on Chris Gordon from the USA. This was a more
traditional match-up, as the players played long opening rallies,
feeling each other and the court out, looking for an opportunity to
attack..
In the first game it was the underdog, McDougall who pulled out the
shots when he needed it, taking it in the tie break. Gordon settled
down in the second and continued to retrieve well and play steady
squash, attacking only when necessary. The young Canadian made a few
unforced errors and Gordon proved to be too steady from everywhere
in the court, taking a hard-fought 3-1 victory.
Squash Professional
Badminton & Racquet Club of Toronto
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