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

[3] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt [9] Lee Beachill (Eng)
     11/4, 11/8, 11/3 (45m)

Greg Rounds it off

In the final match of the evening new French number one Gregory Gaultier completed a straight-games win over an out-of-sorts Lee Beachill to set up a meeting with Anthony Ricketts to complete the quarter-final lineup.

"I’ve been feeling absolutely shocking since I arrived at this tournament. I’ve been ill since Saudi, and I haven’t been able to shake it off, which is a real pain, and there was not one moment of this match I actually felt OK.

"I don’t have any trouble every hitting the ball, and maybe against somebody with less experience that Greg, I could have pulled it off, but at the moment, Greg feels so confident, and when he feels under pressure, he just goes and lengthens the rallies.

"I needed some more opportunities to attack the ball, like when we were very close in the second, 7/5, but he didn’t give me any chance…"

"I felt from the start that Lee was not at his best at all, I could see it in his face…

"So, I concentrated on my match, I played well, just tried and get used to the court… I didn’t do anything special, I didn’t make too many errors, and I took my marks for tomorrow’s match…"

[12] Azlan Iskandar (Mas) bt [1] Amr Shabana (Egy)
    11/10(2-0), 11/5, 7/11, 11/9 (48m)

GUILTY AS CHARGED…

Yes. Like I fear Shabana did, I took this match for granted. Well, we were one match from the end of the day, I knew I had to choose a match that could be one-sided to catch up on my writing. And I thought that although Azlan has improved tremendously in the last six months, he was not tall enough to overcome the Prince of Egypt.

I was wrong.

So I was working away during the first game, but I could hear the score, 10/6 game ball for Iskandar. I paused my writing. Amr started clawing back to equalise 10/10. Not too much damage I thought. But suddenly I hear 12/10, and by the time I finished my paragraph, in what felt like a few seconds later Azlan was up 2/0 against the uncontested world number one.

Dropped everything the French woman, and rushed to my seat. Surely, Amr was having a little drop in concentration. And the third confirmed my feeling. The Egyptian just flew way in front 8/2, then 10/4 to finish 11/7.

But that was just a little rest Azlan needed, and he came back in the fourth with a vengeance. And that’s when I understood how he took the first game. He took it fair and square. He was so sharp, his shots were like flashes straight to the front corners, he was so fast around the court, his fitness impeccable, and his mental perfectly in place…

Shabana shook a bit at 8/5, let his opponent come back at 8/8. 9/9. Guess on whom the pressure was….Two tins. Goodnight.

And you know the funniest. I was not the only one who didn’t for a minute believe he could win. After the match, Azlan asked me “Who am I playing tomorrow? Ramy? And do you know at what time?”...

I rest my case…
 

"That was alright…

"I dropped the pace a bit in the third, but I can’t say I’m not pleased with this result, beating the world number one in four games…

"I worked my b… off over Christmas, because I knew that everybody else would probably slow down and take it a bit easy… So I worked very hard with Peter Genever with whom I’ve been working very closely for eight months now… So I arrived here fresh and happy…

"When I saw him coming back in the first when I was up 10/6, I kept on reminding myself how I got up to 10/6. I had suddenly become a bit loose, so I used my speed to my advantage and closed it out…

"Today, it’s like everything I’ve worked for and trained hard for just came to fruition … But then again, today was a good day, tomorrow is another story, and that’s what I’ll remember when I get on court tomorrow…"

[2] David Palmer (Aus) bt [16] Graham Ryding (Can)
     11/3, 11/9, 10/11(2-4), 11/6  (67m)

GRAHAM DOES WELL

I honestly do not think that the only Canadian left in the draw had huge expectations of this match, but he sure gave us a fantastic show today, after a bit of a shaky start due mostly to an extremely fast moving and very early taking David Palmer…

Graham could have taken the second I guess, as they were racquet to racquet at 7/7, 8/8, and they played some stunning rallies there I tell you, with some “awesome retrieving” - as a little boy sitting next to me shouted - from Graham, but David’s superb backhand drop shots didn’t give him a chance.

And I guess it’s pride and sheer determination that pushed the Canadian to seize a monumental third game in 24 very long minutes, under the o so well deserved acclamations of his town. What a stunning demonstration of guts that was, let me tell you guys, along with some pretty good retrieving and attacking shots…

But David was not to be stopped on his way to the 7th Pace final, and although Graham kept in touch 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, he just couldn’t give it the last push to force a decider.

But he has done his duty. And so did David tonight…

"I thought that he played very well at the end of the fourth, he found some pretty good shots there, and he stayed aggressive until the end…

"At the moment, I’m studying full time, a normal family life, plus I try to maintain my ranking. I’ve been able to train pretty hard over Christmas, for about three weeks, so there were times I didn’t feel as good as I feel this week, but I do feel good at the moment…

"And it was nice to find some good form in front of a home crowd…"

Graham Ryding

"I was disappointed to lose the third, but it’s all credit to Graham, he was hanging in there… But I’ve been doing that a lot lately, dropping the third…

"I played extremely well in the first game, and it was so easy, but then I couldn’t hold the same tempo for the rest of the match ...

"It’s more a mental thing than anything, I feel fine physically. And there was not too much damage done, only dropping one game… I’m now in a good position to play a tough game tomorrow against Stewart…"
 
David Palmer

[6] Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt [14] Mohamed Abbas (Egy)
       11/4, 11/5, 7/11, 11/6 (55m)

RAMY PUTS THE CLOCK RIGHT…

Last time these two played, the “Big Brother” Abbas won 3/1, and Ramy Ashour was eager to establish a ranking order within the Egyptian world. Abbas wanted to confirm his result, and looked, I’m sorry to say, a bit weary in the first two games, as if he didn’t dare playing his natural game…

And the rallies were so different from the first Egyptian match, long, intense, straight, up and down the wall, patient… And zoom a winner, and zoom a nick, of course, they ARE Egyptian after all…

Abbas forgot his worries at 2/0, it couldn’t get much worse, now, could it. So he went for everything, relaxed, and came back to 2/1. But as he’s got a tendency to do I’m afraid, when he is winning, he starts thinking. And I told him not to do that, that men shouldn’t try and think, that it gets them in all sort of trouble, but…

Joke apart, Abbas starting doubting again in the fourth, Ramy felt it, went for the jugular, strung a few flamboyant points, and secured a place in the quarters ...

"Abbas is like my big brother, we play a lot back home, we know each other’s game….

"In the first two games, I was playing really well, and was doing everything I should. Then, I don’t know why, I started thinking and decided I had to change something. Funny, the third game passed so fast, I can’t remember what happened at all, I can only remember the games I won.

"So, in the third, maybe a little loss of focus, and also, he played very well, played the right shots at the right time…

"But I’m really happy to play against him today, we hadn’t played since Pakistan where he beat me 3/1. Today, I won 3/1, so Inch’ Allah, I’ll keep doing the right thing and I’ll keep on winning…"

"You know when you are just waiting to win, and not doing anything for it…

"I was just waiting for him to make the error, I was sending the ball to the back, that’s all what I was doing, I was not making it happen…

"So after losing the second, I thought, I’ve got nothing to lose, and starting taking everything early. But then again, I starting thinking the minute I came back into the match that I could win, and I made the error again…

"I was so tense, I don’t know where all that pressure comes from, normally, I’m all calm inside, but today, I was so tense…

This was definitely not my best squash, and not a good start of the year... "
  

[5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt
[15] Ong Beng Hee (Mas)     11/4, 11/2, 11/3 (32m)

Ricketts Races through

The final match of the afternoon session bucked the trend of five-setters as Anthony Ricketts underlined his return to form with a solid straight-games win over the Asian Games champion ...

"Since the end of July, I’ve been unable to train due to several injuries, knee, elbow, and with my game, I need to be fit, I need to train, especially with squash being as competitive as it is at the moment.

"And that’s what I’ve been able to do since Pakistan, I’ve put the work in, I feel good, I’m glad that my physio has been able to sort me out, and as long as I stay injury free, I expect the results to follow.

"I’m confident because I’ve done the work…"

"I was mentally switched off, I felt very sleepy. It was that bad I had to laugh at myself at the end…

"Still Anthony played very well, and didn’t give me a chance…

"Hopefully, this is the first and the last one of the year…"

[13] Wael El Hindi (Egy) bt Hisham Ashour (Egy)
  8/11, 3/11, 11/9, 11/10(2-0), 11/9 (54m)

BATTLE OF THE FRONT COURT…
Framboise reports

They do it in purpose you know. They KNOW we are on a tight schedule. And what do they do… In Hisham's case, we take the first two easily to give it all away because our head is not all there yet, and in Wael’s case, we wait until the alarm goes flashing red, exit, exit, to start playing squash…

Hisham Ashour looked good, looked very good in this tournament you know. The boy is coming of age, his brain cells are nearly all in place, and today, had he not started thinking about the ref, the side wall ref (yes, here, we have a third ref), this and that, we would have made it to the quarters of a Super Series event for the first time in his career.

But leading 2/0 and 9/7 in the third, the shoulders relaxed a bit, the concentration decreased slightly, Wael felt the imperceptible change, and gave it a last push. The last two games were mammoth, nothing between them, impressive - but not long - rallies, just a seesaw battle, a festival of winners and nicks…

Today Wael woke up just in time. Nick may have too yesterday, had he not been been injured. But beware world. You had a Ramy Ashour to deal with. You’ll soon have a Hisham Ashour too.

If he keeps his focus on court, that is…

"I’m not even tired, I’ve never felt better, I feel super fit, I just … lost.

"But it not going to happen again, it took me a long time to get there, and I’m going to stay…"

"I started too slow, I was lazy, my body was too slow, I started late and he played a lot to the front, and I was not alert, and with Hisham, he attacks everything, he has no pressure, so you’ve got to be alert all the time…

"From the second, I played safe, safe, safe. Even when I could see the opportunity to play a drop shot, I would be worried, I didn’t want to make the error, because he was there to take it!

"So I started to play very tight, because he doesn’t like that. From the moment I started to get closer score wise, he became a bit nervous, he doesn’t like to be under pressure…

"Playing safe is the key… So I’m just going to keep it going, and see where it’s going to take me…"

[8] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt  [10] John White (Sco)
     10/11(0-2), 11/8, 10/11(1-3), 11/5, 11/9 (69m)

KARIM IN THE END…
Framboise reports

Another monumental encounter. Another “I’m going to throw myself on the floor to pick up the ball while you are volleying my drop shot nick” match.

Winners and flashy shots all the over the place for Whitey, delicate drop shots and close to sudden death retrieving for Karim, each reading the other one’s game surprisingly well I thought..

The Egyptian kept his head throughout, the Scot hit the self-destruct button only a few times, but unfortunately one time was in the fifth at 7/7.

Karim didn’t like the way he played today. I really don’t see why. He was superb of calm and precision. And John… was patient for nearly the whole match… And a long five setter is not too bad a result for the first tournament of the year…

"I played very badly today, I was flat, not sure why, maybe the jetlag…

"I tried to move him around to get the control, but my shots were loose and when you play loose shots against John, he punishes you…

"But you’ve got days like that where you have to win even when you play badly…"

Power at the Theatre ...

[11] Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt 
[4] James Willstrop (Eng)
   10/11(3-5), 11/4, 11/10(2-0), 8/11, 11/8 (91m)     

FULL STRETCH…
Framboise reports

What a start to the day. What a show those two gave us today. I don’t have much time to dwell on this, as we’ve got a very long day ahead of us, and we are soooo behind schedule, thanks to three five-setters in a row, suffice to say that in the first, Stewart was way ahead 10-7, and that James forced a tie-break to finally win it 15-13.

In the second, Stewart was imperial, and you could feel that James was a bit slow on the ball. The third was exactly the opposite to the first, James way in front at 10-7, ended up losing 10-12 to come back straight in the fourth, 8/4 then 11/8.

He looked good, Stewart a bit down, but in the fifth the Australian took a very good start, 9/5, and it looked all dead for the Pontefract Wonder who still believed he could make it. 6/9. 7/9.

Backhand drop shot tin. And a huge scream for James that tears the court. Match ball. A low drive that seems easy enough to reach. No let.

Those two spilled their guts out. And what gentlemen we had. At the start of the third, Stewart asks for a let, gets a stroke, and reverses the decision. Like that happens every day.

This match would have been a fantastic final. Thanks guys…

"We just played a very good match of squash, a bloody fair one too, I was a bit worried that the crowd didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as we did, they were a bit quiet…

"We gave it everything we had, we killed ourselves out there, and I cannot complain about anything really, apart from the fact that I’m fed up of losing, that I want to win, and that I hate losing. Have you noticed that losing feels 20 times worse than the feeling of winning???

"Oh well, I get to live another day, and it’s not that bad, I’m thinking about Nick, at least I can run around and play…"

"I feel a bit tired…

"I felt that the whole match was a bit up and down, that James was attacking very well in patches, but then, at some times, I was able to sustain the high pace and keep him moving a bit more than I’ve been doing lately…

"Mind you, I guess it must have been a good tournament to catch him, just at the start of the year, where he is maybe not at his sharpest…

"Things went a bit my way today, I feel that I got a few lucky calls, like on the match ball, or at the start of the third, so, a bit lucky, and also, I win by three points…"

Stewart with coach Mike Johnston