QUARTERS:

Ramy Ashour bt Azlan Iskandar
  9/11, 11/6, 10/12, 11/9, 11/6 (63m)
Anthony Ricketts bt Gregory Gaultier
  11/5, 16/14, 11/9 (55m)

Wael El Hindi bt Karim Darwish
  4/11, 11/5, 11/9, 6/11, 12/10 (78m)
David Palmer bt Stewart Boswell
  11/7, 11/3, 12/10 (52m)

En Bref, Issue #4

[13] Wael El Hindi (Egy) bt
[8] Karim Darwish (Egy)   
      4/11, 11/5, 11/9, 6/11, 11/10(2-0) (80m)

GRUELLING…

What a battle yet again to start this quarter finals session. 80 minutes of an all Egyptian, patient, intense, focused encounter between two players who know each other very well, and for a very long time…

It was not a flamboyant winners all over the court, nicks and dazzling rallies. No. Karim and Wael are not that style. Yes, very precise and irretrievable drops shots, but not the Shabana style.

Like yesterday, Wael was slow to start with and didn’t make much of an impression in the first, but had the belief he could win this one, like he did unexpectedly in the first round in the Worlds in Cairo. So he just kept counterattacking and retrieving to take the games two and three.

Karim is no pushover, and the world number eight put the pressure on his compatriot. The nicks started flying, Karim shot ahead 7/2, Wael dug in but a bit too late and couldn’t avoid a decider, in which he took a flying start 7/3.

We thought it was all over, but Karim hadn’t hit his last shot. Slowly, calmly, he imposed his game again, capitalised on Wael's fear of hitting tins, and climbed back to 8/8…

“They are so close” whispered one of the young volunteers…

After that, it was a game of dice really. Karim had match ball, couldn’t concretise. Wael had one. He could.

To think it all came down to those three last points…

"Man, we are all getting fitter and fitter, this game is getting harder and harder... There is no difference between the players, it’s just a mind/mind game nowadays…

"I’ve been working so hard this past year, this summer, even at Christmas (by the way, thanks Jonah, for the hard work and the good food…), I feel fit, and I think that it’s all coming into place…

"I enjoyed every rally, I could feel the crowd enjoying it, so I wanted to do as much as I could….

"I just hope I can do it again tomorrow…"

[6] Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt
[12] Azlan Iskandar (Mas)
      9/11, 11/6, 10/11(0-2), 11/9, 11/6 (63m)

AZLAN CONFIRMS

You may wonder how on earth he can confirm anything as he lost.

He has, trust me. I’ve seen the Malaysian play for a while now, on court and competition style, and I was never that impressed. He was a solid player, great physique, but all over the place, too many errors, and you couldn’t see what he was trying to do, I couldn’t make him out on court…

I can now.

If I tell you that during this match, he not only matched Ramy’s fabulous shots, but he overtook him again and again? His counterattacks are astonishing, he shoots winners from all corners, he is so fast, he is so fit….

I was sitting next to James Willstrop at the time, and I should have recorded his comments for a report but it all came down to one - “Ridiculous Squash”.

It was. Not one up and down rally though, very short, intense and furious rallies. And it took four games and 3/3 to make the Malaysian finally physically crack up. His heart was still on court, but his legs had left the building. Ramy was ready for the kill…

But what we saw tonight was the emergence/confirmation of a new kid in town. I know that Azlan was looking for who he was as a squash player. He has found himself in Toronto.

"I decided to play well today especially after what happened to Shabana, who was not happy after his defeat yesterday…

"I know that if you underestimate a player for just a second, anything can happen…

"I could see he was tired in the fifth, but I just kept on concentrating on my game, I didn’t want to know if he was tired or not, I just know I had to keep on pushing, and that’s what I did, I pushed myself as hard as I could….

"I’m not that tired, my muscles are a bit sore, of course, but I’m very happy I’m able to breathe quite easily after that match, it’s very important for me…

"I thought I managed well, it was a top game of squash…"

"That’s what happens when you are looking for cheap strokes… I should have put more weight in the ball, and make the ball go a bit further away from him. That’s what he did, and it made the court bigger for me…

"Ramy is an unbelievable squash player, I have the utmost respect for him, Shabana, all the top players, but at the end of the day, somebody has got to come out a winner. But today, the best man won, my congratulations to him…

"This tournament is not a turning point. It is a good result. Now, to beat the top players again on a regular basis, I’ve got a lot of work to do, and back to the drawing board…"

[2] David Palmer (Aus) bt [11] Stewart Boswell (Aus)
      11/7, 11/3, 11/10(2-0) (52m)

CLIMBING UP THE WALL

It was an easy one to make, I admit, but quite relevant to the situation I must say.

David’s relentless precise length/ delicate backhand volley drop shots frustrated an aching Bozza again and again, forcing him to run endlessly, and on occasion, to climb the glass wall on this stunning theatre…

And it has to be said that I didn’t recognised Stewart from his game yesterday against James where he was so aggressive, fast and precise, attacking at every opportunity. Today, for the first two games, he seemed very slow and passive, all credit to David's precision and game plan I guess.

Bozza reappeared in his full glory in the third, and then we had a great match, fast pace, beautiful retrieving and spectacular rallies. Too little too late for this one, but at least Stewart will have the feeling that he gave it all he had.

For David, he must be delighted to see all the top guys falling like flies, he is fit, he is very motivated, he has lost only two games from the beginning of the week. And he is looking better and better…..

"David played very well, he dominated the T…

"Stewart was very sluggish in the first two games, he was waiting for the ball more than looking for it…

"He got in the match in the third, but he needed that game…"

"Stewart was frustrated in the first two games, he was not moving too well, I could see that from the start. I was happy with my tempo, I kept mixing it up, slow rallies, fast rallies, that was my game plan to start with, as I thought he might well be stiff from his match yesterday, I tried to twist and turn him, trying to expose that he was tired, and it worked to perfection…

"In the third, he was extremely tired probably, and came back giving it everything he had, forced the pace, and I probably got him back into it by trying to match his pace. It’s only when I started slowing down again that I was able to take control. I played very well up to 10/6, but yet again, was unable to close it out…

Still, very happy to win in three…

[5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [3] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
    11/5, 11/10(6-4), 11/9 (55m) 

ANTHONY IS BACK…

”I didn’t exactly set the world on fire recently” joked Australian Ricketts a few weeks ago. Well, he did tonight…

Anthony was never a shot maker, let’s face it. But he’s got something as important, if not more. He’s got the physic potential, and he’s got the absolute determination that goes with it.

As he’s been injured recently, knee, elbow, he was out of it. Out of his routine. Out of his fitness. Might as well take his racquet away and throw it in the Thames…

But he’s got all of it back, I tell you. And tonight, his game plan was o so simple: kill Greg out. Pure and straight.. All the rallies, ALL THE RALLIES, lasted so long, I cannot remember a match with such constant lengthy rallies…

Greg, maybe with a bit more pressure on that he normally has, well, he is the top guy now, he is the one the others want to destroy, made far too many errors in the 14 minute first game, I counted six. Totally uncharacteristic.

The second was a classic really. 24 minutes of digging in the floor with their shoes to try and make the other one fall into an invisible trap. And the Frenchman will never forgive himself to have let six game balls go, from 10/6 to 16/14… Mind you, it’s not like he did anything wrong. He played quite well actually. But all he threw at Anthony would come back, and again, and again…

Now 0/2, Greg looked beaten, he looked on his knees. Points escaped from his racquet, 6/0 for Anthony. Pride made him raise his head again. “I may lose this one, but I’m going to make your life as difficult as possible,” he seemed to say, “you want it, you’ll have to come and tear if off my racquet…”

And he started to string the points together, ignored the match balls that were building, 10/6, 10/7, 10/8, 10/9. The Canadian crowd, still massive despite the late hour (it was way past 11pm), absolutely loved it. Was the little Frenchman going to turn the tables? Back hand drop shot tin. Greg Gaultier was out of the tournament.

Intense Anthony is back.
  

"Like I told you yesterday, I can’t beat those guys if I’m not working. Now that I’ve done the work physically, I think I’ve got a pretty good chance to win the matches that go the distance, the endurance matches…

"Last year, from summer to Pakistan, I couldn’t train. Now I have, and I start to feel mentally that I can win those matches again, and I enjoy the competitiveness of it, whereas for a while, I did not feel comfortable anymore…

"This match was very important for me, because it was like the first big test against one of the top guys, he has had so many good results, he’s proven that he is one of the best in the world, and it was my first match since the hard training I’ve produced…

"This is typically the kind of match I was expecting to win a few months back, and that I’m happy to have a chance to win again now I’ve done the hard work…"

"U would have loved tonight. Squash is the best sport. Ramy and Azlan were brilliant. Ricketts match was such quality and intense. Both matches great to watch. Big crowd grand theatre. They loved it. Squash is harder than ever."

That is a professional's view of the quarter-finals and sums up much of what is admirable about the sport. Every men's PSA throws up matches of incredible skill and intensity; every tournament produces shock results and no championship winner is predictable. How good is all that?

The older end of the tour, John White, Thierry Lincou, David Palmer, will be missed when they finally reach the end of their careers, but Ramy Ashour and Gregory Gaultier and now, it seems, Azlan Iskandar, are already established at the younger end and there are plenty in their middle twenties with a lot more to offer a healthy scent.

When 11 scoring was introduced, welcome though it was, no-one could have possibly forecast the good it has done. Whoever was responsible - thanks a million.

ROUND TWO:

Azlan Iskandar bt Amr Shabana
    12/10, 11/5, 7/11, 11/9 (48m)
Ramy Ashour bt Mohammed Abbas
    11/4, 11/5, 7/11, 11/6 (55m)
Gregory Gaultier bt Lee Beachill
     11/4, 11/8, 11/3 (45m)
Anthony Ricketts bt Ong Beng Hee
   11/4, 11/2, 11/3 (32m)

Karim Darwish bt John White
   10/12, 11/8, 11/13, 11/5, 11/9 (69m)
Wael El Hindi bt Hisham Ashour
   8/11, 3/11, 11/9, 12/10, 11/9 (54m)
Stewart Boswell bt James Willstrop
   13/15, 11/4, 12/10, 8/11, 11/8 (91m)
David Palmer bt Graham Ryding
    11/3, 11/9, 14/12, 11/6  (67m)

Pace Reports - Liz Shaughnessy