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Day THREE: Wed 15th Feb:
  
Quarter-Finals:

[7] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt [3] James Willstrop (Eng)
               11/6, 4/11, 10/11(0-2), 11/7, 11/5 (79m)

[4] Peter Nicol (Eng) bt [5] Lee Beachill (Eng)
                11/7, 11/7, 11/4 (43m)

[1] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [8] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
                 11/8, 4/11, 8/11, 11/7, 11/10(4-2) (105m)

[2] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Alex Gough (Wal)
                 11/8, 11/7, 11/2 (37m)

EN BREF Issue #2

WILLSTROP

PLACE YOUR BETS

KARIM A LEVEL ABOVE…

Karim Darwish is a much underrated player I feel. Playing a typical Egyptian game, both accurate in his length and coming up with some irretrievable astonishing drop shots, his fitness was one of the problems he was facing. Now with a support group who advised him wisely, he is much more levelled in his games, and is able to sustain five games whereas he would have started suffering in the fourth a few months back.

And James Willstrop, like his Pontefract mate Lee Beachill, was still battling to recover from the Nationals, a bit flat, still very much willing to fight, thought, as those two played for 77 minutes.

James seemed to have the match well in control after sneaking the third, leading 2/1. The fourth was pretty close really, 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 5/5, 6/6, and something weird happen. He stumbled on his way to pick up a backhand drop shot from Karim, and seemed to lose all his focus, finding himself at 10/7 game ball in a matter of seconds, allowing Karim to level the match at 2/2.

In the fifth, the Egyptian controlled all the rallies, dominated the T superbly, with the Englishman always a bit late to get to the ball, and although James saved two match balls down from 3/10 to 5/10, Karim was far too far ahead to be under any threat, and displayed all match accuracy, patience, flair, fitness and technically faultlessness.

"About an hour ago, I didn’t want to speak with anybody! "Now, I’ve had time to calm down, I feel awful, I’m gutted about losing, I hate losing, but at the end of the day Karim played extremely well, and fully deserved to win. "I’m not sparkling at the moment, I wasn’t last week either, I didn’t play badly, I played reasonably well, but I was quite tired at the end, not much left in the legs. I thought I recovered enough, but I don’t know… "It’s not a disaster, Karim is a quality player, and at times we produced some great squash… I can’t complain, I had a few nice wins, a good time, and you’ve got to learn to live with these losses… "Ive just got to start winning again…"

PETER SO CLEVER…
Framboise reports

Lee was really tired when he started the match, but still, he was playing superbly, and could have easily taken the first game. Peter was pushing a lot, attacking much more than he normally does, imposing a non stop line of fire on his opponent, sending him on a guided tour of the Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf, London.

Not ready to surrender yet, Lee took a very good start in the second, pushed the Boss to retrieve some tremendous drop shots and perfect length straight drives, but a few long and high paced rallies, in particular one at 6/7 for Peter gave him a determinant ascendacy fitness wise. In the third, Lee couldn’t see himself climbing that mountain of having to win three games from a Peter in superb form.

A wonderful atmosphere between the players, both smiling and laughing at each other’s tricks, shots and winners. And when I told Lee what Peter said after the match, that he didn’t feel any remorse on capitalising on his friend exhaustion, he confirmed “Yes, I would do exactly the same to him!”

"I feel absolutely knackered. I actually got worse as time went on… Monday I was not too bad, Tuesday, I started to feel not that great, and today, nothing much left. "Peter played extremely well, he never gave me a chance, and I wasn’t moving well enough to stay with him…. "But three weeks ago, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play at all, so I’m not complaining…"

WHAT A PERFORMANCE…
Framboise reports

A few people were a bit wary of how the confrontation between Intense Anthony and The Kid from France would go. They had a match during the World Teams Final in 2003 that was, how shall I put it, a bit warm….

But time has passed, they both have evolved, changed, matured, and the respect they both show to each other was a pleasure to see. And not that lovely dovey you get in the first game. We are talking 7/5 in the 5th, where they still smiled at each other, with Greg applauding Anthony’s shots and vice versa.

Not a word against the ref. Well, just a few funny lines, a few “what are you doing” from Greg, and a “even you could have got that one” from Anthony when given a no let, but a remarkably well behaved, good spirited encounter.

And what a squash. Gregory not attacking too much because of a little drop of fitness after a forced rest on injury, but extremely accurate in both straight drives and volley drop shots, and an Anthony pushing hard for each rally, each point, fighting hard to make the Frenchman work as hard as possible. Amazing rallies, relentless short and long strategy from Greg, retrieving from hell from Anthony, a fantastic battle.

And what a finish. An Australian on the top of things, match ball 10/7 with Greg so tired in the 5th he can hardly walk. It seems all over. And suddenly The Kid digs in, runs, attack, runs again, and saves one match ball, two match balls, three match balls. The crowd is on their feet, clapping supporting the Frenchman guts, “Come on Greg” can be heard throughout the venue, the noise level is amazing. If you had told me that an English crowd would support a French player over an Australian one, I would have gone to seek professional help….

With the momentum behind him, Greg gets himself a match ball… that ends up in the tin, a backhand drop shot that had Anthony on the run. The Kid will go on saving another match ball that the determined Anthony imposed after yet another loooong rally, but on the 5th one, Anthony’s serve finds the nick and the ball rolls straight across the court…

It’s over.

An absolutely knackered Greg shakes the hand of his opponent. He was so close to get the number one seed out of the tournament. And as we finished the aftermatch interview, Greg stands up and says “I’ve got to go and shake his hand, that was too good a match”.

Yep. What a performance that was.

"I’m absolutely knackered…. My legs still hurt from Sunday’s final… "It was not super squash, because I’m still recovering from my back injury in Chicago, I’ve only been playing squash for 10 days. I starting training again days before the Nationals… That’s why I’m playing slowly, all in control, because I can’t really push, I’m not physically strong enough and would burn myself out in no time… "Yes, I have changed, I am able to stay much more concentrated, not drifting in and out of the game, I’m much more controlled, calmer… "Tonight, although not at 100%, I gave everything I had, so no complaints… "Never mind, I’ll get him in New York…" Gregory Gaultier

LINCOU LASHES GOUGH
Steve Cubbins reports

Welshman Alex Gough couldn't repeat his heroics of Monday night as he went down in three quick games to France's second seed Thierry Lincou in the late-starting final match of the evening.

Lincou was in no mood for an upset, racing to a 7/1 lead in the first game, then sprinting away again as Gough closed to 8/6.

The Frenchman was always in control of the second, and a dispirited Gough put up little resistance in the third.

Lincou now faces his nemesis Peter Nicol in the semis, and will be looking to improve on his record of one win in eleven meetings with the tournament's co-promoter.
 

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