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[1]
Amr Shabana (Egy) bt [7] James
Willstrop (Eng)
10/12, 11/9, 11/9, 11/7 (75m)
[8] John White (Sco)
bt [4] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
11/9, 7/11, 11/9, 6/11, 13/11 (75m)
[6] Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt [3] Thierry
Lincou (Fra)
11/8, 11/7, 12/10 (48m)
[5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [2] David Palmer (Aus)
11/9, 11/7, 11/7 (53m)
A
real treat at the UCC ...
It's unusual these days to see a quarter-final lineup 'as predicted by
the seedings', but that's the treat that was in store for the
aficionados at the University Club, and they certainly weren't
disappointed ...
Shabana and Willstrop put on another classic ... White maintained
his winning record against Gaultier ... Ramy repeated the HK win over
Thierry that started his run ... Ricketts the top Aussie ...
Framboise reports from Chicago ...
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En Bref #7
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[1] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt
[7] James Willstrop (Eng)
10/12, 11/9, 11/9, 11/7 (75m)
SHABANA YET AGAIN…
It looked pretty good for James in the first game, as in a matter of
minutes, he was up 9/2 then game ball 10/6 against world number one
Amr Shabana. But it would take him five game balls and 21 very VERY
long minutes of hitting and dropping and running after the ball to
finally lead 1/0.
The second was as close as it can be, but after one intense and long
rally after another, at 9/9, Shabana went for the magic, and in less
then 15 seconds, he was walking off court 1/1…
The Prince of Egypt knew darn well that James was bound to be tired,
as he must have watched his mate Abbas battling against him the
night before. So he chose the “non Shabana Way” today, and went for
patience, weight on the ball, and of course, still the panache shots
so damaging for James’ quads, who had to pick up again and again
those stunning winners all over the court…
And in the third, Shabana collected the rewards as James was now
just physically as cooked as a Turkey roast. But as he always does,
he just hung in there, returning everything, not giving away an inch
to his opponent. And it paid off, as he got a second wind at 7/7,
and to tell you the truth, it looked he was going to turn the
tables. 8/8. 9/9. Shabana was getting nervous. And as ever when
under pressure, the Egyptian found the winners. 2/1 up for Shabana.
James was not happy, was getting frustrated with a few unforced
errors, didn’t physically give up, but the mental was not as
positive as it needed to be to produce a miracle. Shabana stepped up
the pace, the Englishman stuck with it, hoping that the Egyptian may
as he used to have a little drop of energy, but a terribly fit and
focused Shabana never showed any sign of slowing down, taking the
fourth and final game 11/7…
 "Not to be
pretentious, but I couldn’t have done anything better today, I gave
it absolutely everything I had, I’m physically exhausted, the three
first games were probably the highest quality of squash I’ve ever
played in my life…
"I’m disappointed of course, but then again, he is the world number
one for a reason, there are a lot of players like me who train very
hard to beat him, but today, he was too good, and he just shrugged
me off…
"I was able to take the first game, I can do that, but I don’t seem
to be able to get the second. And I need the second…!
"I’m just going to keep working, keep trying, and hopefully next
time, he’ll hit a few more tins…"
James Willstrop |
 "It was a crazy match… For the past two
years, all my matches with James have been so hard, and there only
been a couple of points between us.
"What made the difference today? The fact I was a bit fresher than
him going into the match, and I was very aware of that fact…"
Amr Shabana
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[8]
John White (Sco) bt [4] Gregory
Gaultier (Fra)
11/9, 7/11, 11/9, 6/11, 13/11 (75m)
SURPRISINGLY PATIENT WHITEY
As I sometimes do, especially when John White is on court, here are
my counts of the unforced errors for each player during each game,
and in bold, the winner of the game..
1st game Greg : 4 John : 1
2nd game Greg : 0 John : 4
3rd game Greg : 5 John : 3
4th game Greg 0 John : 5
5 game Greg 7 John : 2
Funny isn’t it, how it’s spot on…? The less unforced errors, the
winner…
It was a weird match, with a John White playing Karim Darwish style,
good length, patient, working his opponent, good combination of
shots and some feathery drop shots to end the point. What was going
on? No smashing the ball all around the court? No banging the tin
every other point???
The Frenchman absorbed the new White quite well I thought, and
despite his recent drop of form, got well back in the match to force
a decider, and was well on his way to a semi final at 10/5 match
ball when John got into his “let’s retrieve everything that he
throws at me that doesn’t roll” mode.
And it worked.
The crowd, impressed by the lunacy of the American citizen, started
cheering the underdog. A cross court winner. 10/6. Two tins. 10/8. A
stroke. 10/9. A crosscourt than ends right in the nick. 10/10.
Another tin. Match ball for White. A tin for White. 11/11. A perfect
length straight that dies at the back. Another match ball for White.
And a last tin to give the Old Man a mighty fine unexpected win.
White is alive and well and thrives in Chicago …
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 "It
was annoying going 2/1 up only to take an awful start in the fourth,
and then I did same in the fifth. At 10/5 down I just relaxed, he
hit a few errors, and I went back to the way I played the second and
the third game, and I knew that I had to give everything I had, and
that’s what I did…
"I could see from the start that he was not as relaxed as he
normally is, I kept the pace slow, and realised he was going for a
lot of shots from way back in the court, and clipping a lot of them.
So I thought, better him than me, so I went on playing at a slow
pace…
"I’m glad that my game plan came off, it’s fantastic to beat the
world number three, and at 33 still be able to beat those young
spring chickens…
"I’ll need somebody to play for me tomorrow…"
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[6]
Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt [3] Thierry
Lincou (Fra)
11/8, 11/7, 12/10 (48m)
ATTACKING THIERRY…
This match was really not the one you would have expected between
Flamboyant Ramy and Steady Thierry. Let’s be frank, I actually never
saw my compatriot hitting so many winners in a match, and I’m not
sure I can remember him hitting them at all!
It got to the point where Ramy actually stopped and looked at his
opponent after yet another blasting winner as if to say, what are
you doing man, this is my turf…!
Very simple explanation really. Thierry couldn’t have had any
expectations on this match/tournament. He is out of shape
physically, and his game needs him to be at the top of his form to
get the precision and regularity at the back that allows him to
grind his opponents.
Today, he had no length, no width, had a bit of trouble stretching
sideways to get the straight drives he is normally so good at
getting back, but he was playing (and getting in) shorts shots and
winners beautifully.
Of course Ramy needed more than that to be prevented from going to
the semis. Patiently, he took the measure of his opponent, and
volleyed, and volleyed, and volleyed. What that boy volleyed tonight
is nobody’s business, and he retrieved and he retrieved until
Thierry ran out of both gas and ideas, and then he attacked,
attacked, attacked, and Thierry ran, ran, ran…
We thought that Thierry was going to take the third, as he came back
from 5/9 to get a game ball at 10/9, but no miracle comeback for the
Frenchman tonight. It was a funny match, with an absolutely logical
result. But it was an extremely entertaining one…
 "He made me work hard
at the start, and I started to suffer physically. It’s so hard to
maintain precision and a fast pace against him because he’s so
precise and powerful at the back of the court, and his volleying is
simply phenomenal.
"And when you can’t hold the pace, you end up running after the ball
all the time, and that an impossible situation…
"But overall, happy with my first tournament of the year, I’ll get
better physically. Now, I’m going to concentrate on the next
tournaments, this one was perfect for finding my marks again…"
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 "You can’t just play
basic game against Thierry, he is the King of Basic! So I tried to
vary my game as much as I could. And I was lucky, it worked well
today…"
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[5]
Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [2]
David Palmer (Aus)
11/9, 11/7, 11/7 (53m)
FLYING DAVID
The words “More effort Mr Palmer” were in no way, shape or form
applying to David’s performance tonight against fellow countryman
Anthony Ricketts. David literally threw himself all over the court
to try and get the incessantly moving away from him little black
squash ball bouncing all over the place, but it was not enough to
stop Intense Anthony in Terminator Mode tonight.
The first game could have been anybody’s, 9/9, an uncharacteristic
clipping of the tin for David and a beautiful backhand drop shot to
Anthony, 11/9. The second also was very close but only up to 6/6,
with Ricketts pushing off to take the game in only eight minutes,
11/7.
David regrouped, took a superb start 5/1, and as he did all night,
he attacked beautifully the whole match, but on a court with perfect
conditions for Anthony, the ball kept on coming back with even more
pressure than when it left David’s racquet! Frustration started to
build, racquets started to fly, whereas Anthony, now comfortably up
2/0, was getting more and more relaxed, more and more precise both
at the front and at the back, taking the third and final game in yet
again a seesaw battle of 17 minutes…
Slipping and hurting himself several times during the last two
games, I really started to fear David would injure himself. No, only
pride was hurt, although the Marine was bleeding from several places
as we talked after the match, and he is bound to be bruised tomorrow
for sure…
Anthony is so eager for victory at the moment he is a pleasure to
see on court. He reminds me when he came back after his knee injury
and took the TOC title two years ago. He was hungrier than Thierry
that day and he finds himself in the same spirit today. Let’s hope
he keeps injury free, because boy does he deserve a break…
 "It
was so hot and bouncy on there today, the ball was far too hot, and
the fact that Anthony kept on hitting it like mad during the game
probably didn’t help!!!!!!! Anyway, I prefer a dead court, as I
couldn’t get any reward for my good shots…
"I was not playing too bad at all, but I seemed to clip the tin a
few times…
"The first game was so important, I was up 6/5, and Anthony had a
great run of three funny bounces at the back, so found myself down
9/5 through no fault of my own… One of those things…
"And I think that winning that first game gave him confidence, and
all credit to him, he decided to get all the balls back… And it’s
hard not to get frustrated when you keep on slipping all over the
place..
"Oh well, that’s what you get for not training for two months…"
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 "I’m
very happy with the win, with all the matches we played, I had never
beaten David on the PSA circuit, a lot of 3/2, but I had never won.
So, very happy obviously…
"David was maybe a bit flat, and was making a few too many errors,
but then again, he always seems to do that against me, but ends up
with a win!
"I used to get distracted with different issues happening on and off
court, but it’s one of the things I’ve really worked on, and I’m
glad because I was able to really stay focused on this match…
"I had had such a bad run of injuries during the past months, I
really wanted to prove something last week, and put so much pressure
on myself to try and make the semis or the final, whereas this week
I was much more relaxed and just decided to enjoy my time here in
Chicago…"
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