RAMY.
FULL STOP.
CHANGE PARAGRAPH
 What to say about this match but bravo
Ramy…
David’s lack of physical preparation unravelled a red carpet for the 19
year old Egyptian Marvel tonight. We were expecting a play in five acts,
it was more a one-act Monologue…
David started strong though, and it looked like we had a match on our
hands, but at 5/5, the rallies got shorter, David was quickly out of touch
and in 10 minutes, Ramy was up 11/7.
And the Egyptian went on with the same free game, free movement around the
court. His racquet seemed to have a life of its own, finding the nicks,
finding the perfect length, the boasts all died rolling, so did nearly
everything he attempted…
David doesn’t like to be led score wise, it makes him play safer than he
normally would. And as the points strung away from the Australian racquet,
I honestly didn’t see him coming back in the match. I thought of Cairo,
and the final of the World Open, and his fabulous comeback, but in that
case, he was making Greg work very very hard each rally, and capitalised
on that pressure in the fifth.
Today, David was unable to put his opponent under any kind of pressure,
and Ramy just revelled in the freedom. In 18 minutes, he was up 2/0. In 23
minutes, he was 2/0 and 7/2 up. David tried to dig in and hang in there,
but the Ashour bulldozer was not to be stopped…
Ramy just soared above this final. His aura just took over the glass
court, and all the spectators, or most of them, fell under the charm of
this Wizard of a teenager.
And how not to… The rest of the world has…..
 "I
expected him to be a bit tired tonight after last night's match, more than
me because I can manage the court better than him I think, I move maybe a
bit less than he does.
"I’m so glad to have won this tournament, it was such a dream of mine,
such a big name, Pace Canadian Classic, such a big tournament…I was so
excited in the third game, and I starting counting from 11 backwards, you
know, 10 points to victory, 9, 8….
"I want to thank my brother Hisham, who taught me so much, who has been
coaching me and helping me during this tournament, and also Damien, the
physio, who is helping us with the preparation and everything, and we
don’t talk about those guys behind the scenes enough…
"I grew up wanting to be like the top ten guys, I grew up wanting to be
somebody different,, somebody special, that’s why I’m trying to make my
own game…
"See you next year…"
 |
EN BREF #6
 "It
was one of those days. I was maybe a bit off, but Jeez, he didn’t do much
wrong out there…
"I tried to vary the pace, I tried to slow it down, it didn’t work that
well, so I changed again, tried and speed it up, didn’t work either. I
changed as much as I could, but it didn’t make much difference…
"I haven’t done too much work since Saudi, I went back to Australia, and
didn’t have much squash until I arrived here, I tried to have a few games
with Ramy, I thought it was going to get me up to pace again, but it
didn’t do any good, as he just shred me to pieces tonight!!!
"Still it gives me confidence, because I’ve put my family first at the
moment, and I didn’t put the necessary work in, and still, I end up in the
final. Throughout the tournament, I could get by, but against players like
Shabana or Ramy, I need to put in the work to be able to compete.
"After Chicago, I’ll go back and work hard for two months, and hopefully
will be able to win some of the tournaments coming up.
"Tonight, all credit to Ramy, he was too good, just too good…"
"My bro is on fire. The kid
is on fire. He is looking forward to being number one, and I’m going to
try and catch up as much I can…"
 |
Action started with an upset in the all-Egyptian clash between Karim
Darwish and Wael El Hindi, followed by Ramy Ashour making it
two Egyptian semi-finalists as he edged past Azlan Iskandar in five.