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ASB Prague Classic 2016
01-04 Dec, Prague, Czech Rep, $5k |
04-Dec,
Final:
Cornes collects in Prague
Tomas Forter reports
Carlos Cornes won his third PSA title today at ASB Prague
Squash Classic 2016.
He continued to dominate the way he did yesterday in his
semifinal in the first game to win 11/4 in 8 minutes. Evan
started the second game much better. He forced Carlos to several
mistakes and got a 5/1 then 7/3 and then 10/7 leads. Carlos did
not want to lose that game and saved all four gameballs
including one at 11/10 to win 13/11. When he raced to 7/1 in the
third it looked like it is over for Evan.
But he did not want to go down without a fight. Carlos maybe
relaxed a bit as well and it allowed Evan to come back to 8/8.
Both players were getting in each other´s way a bit at that time
so we had a few lets. Stroke gave Carlos 9/8 lead and when he
hit two more winners he could raise his hands and celebrate the
title.
He continued the domination of Spanish players in Czech
tournaments this year after Iker Pajares won 5k PSA Prague open
in June and Borja Golan won European championships in September.
 Carlos
Cornes: Happy with the title. Started the match playing
really well and then in the second he came on court firing and
he made me do a few errors. I managed to take the second and
from there build a bit of confidence. In the begining of the
third he lost his concentration and quickly I found myself 7/1
up in like 2 minutes. So started to think too much about winning
instead of playing to win.
Lucky to take it in the third and really happy with my
performance through all week. I want to thank Tomas and Czech
squash association for putting up such an event. Also a massive
thanks to all people who helps me back home, coaches, friends
and family. Without them this won´t be possible.
Evan Williams: It was not my day today. I couldn´t find
my length and width. Carlos shut the court down and was too
good. Obviously disappointed with the result but I have another
tournament next week to play. So hopefully I can finish the year
off better.
Tournament was run really well. Everything we needed was cated
for. Hotel is close, food is good, good crowds. Well done,
Tomas.
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PHOTO GALLERY
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ASB Prague Classic 2016
01-04 Dec, Prague, Czech Rep, $5k |
Round One
02 Dec |
Quarters
02 Dec |
Semis
03 Dec |
Final
04 Dec |
[1] Carlos Cornes (Esp)
11/4 11/7 15/13 (28 min.
[Q] Petr Martin (Cze) |
[1] Carlos Cornes
10/12 11/6 11/4 12/10 (43 min.)
[7] Emyr Evans |
[1] Carlos Cornes
11/4, 11/5, 11/4 (22m)
[5] Daniel Mekbib |
3rd PSA title for Carlos
[1] Carlos Cornes
11/4 13/11 11/8 (38
[2] Evan Williams |
[7] Emyr Evans (Wal)
11/8 11/4 11/2 (33 min.)
[Q] Jan Ryba (Cze) |
[5] Daniel Mekbib (Cze)
11/3 11/5 11/4 (23 min.)
[wc] David Zeman (Cze) |
[5] Daniel Mekbib
13/15 13/11 4/11 13/11 11/8 (63 min.)
[3] Lance Beddoes |
[3] Lance Beddoes (Nzl)
11/9 8/11 11/7 11/7 (34 min.)
Robert Dadds (Eng) |
[Q] Sebastian Bonmalais (Fra)
11/4 10/12 11/4 12/10 (48 min.)
[4] Martin Svec (Cze) |
[4] Martin Svec
11/9 4/11 8/11 12/10 11/8 (63 min.)
Kyle Finch |
[4] Martin Svec 11/9, 11/1, 8/11, 11/7 (43m)
[2] Evan Williams |
Kyle Finch (Eng)
1/4 11/5 12/10 (29 min.)
[6] Connor Sheen (Eng) |
Jakob Dirnberber (Aut)
11/6 7/11 11/4 11/5 (38 min.)
[8] Nick Mulvey (Eng) |
[8] Nick Mulvey
11/3 11/7 11/6 (25 min.)
[2] Evan Williams |
[Q] Taminder Gata-Aura (Eng)
11/8 11/8 11/2 (21 min.)
[2] Evan Williams (Nzl) |
Qualifying, 01-Dec:
Finals:
Sebastian Bonmalais (Fra) 3-0 Viktor Byrus (Cze)
12/10, 11/6, 11/9 (32m)
Taminder Gata-Aura (Eng) 3-0 Matous Sochurek (Cze)
11/6, 11/5, 11/4 (15m)
Petr Martin (Cze) 3-0 Charalampos Leontarakis (Gre)
11/8, 11/7, 11/2 (19m)
Jan Ryba (Cze) 3-0 Lewis Doughty (Eng)
11/5, 11/2, 11/7 (30m)
Round One:
Sebastian Bonmalais (Fra) 3-0 Marek Koutnik (Cze)
11/2, 11/3, 11/6
Viktor Byrus (Cze) 3-0 Vojtech Ryba (Cze)
11/5, 11/5, 11/3
Matous Sochurek (Cze) 3-0 Benjamin Bergal (Cze)
11/5, 11/5, 11/3
Taminder Gata-Aura (Eng) 3-0 Filip Kocarek (Cze)
11/6, 11/4, 11/6
Charalampos Leontarakis (Gre) 3-0 Dominik Dubsky (Cze) 11/8,
11/3, 11/7
Petr Martin (Cze) 3-0 Jakub Solnicky (Cze)
11/8, 14/12, 11/7
Lewis Doughty (Eng) 3-0 Ondrej Vorlicek (Cze)
11/9, 11/8, 11/8
Jan Ryba (Cze) 3-0 Matej Hrncirik (Svk)
11/8, 11/8, 11/7
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03-Dec, RSemis:
Tomas Forter reports
Carlos Cornes showed why is he no. 1 seed in the tournament and
world no. 79 today. He put in excellent performance and
destroyed Daniel Mekbib in just 22 minutes.
Daniel was perhaps a little slower after his yesterday´s hard
match against Lance Beddoes and was opening the court a bit too
much. Carlos was able to use these openings perfectly with low
kills and perfect dying straight drives. Daniel tried hard but
it was Carlos´ day today.
Carlos Cornes: This is the ideal squash in my mind. When I see
myself playing well it is like today. Maybe Daniel´s yesterday´s
match helped it. Happy to get through in 3 and short match.
Ready and fresh for tomorrow.
Daniel Mekbib: I got chopped pretty badly. I played well but he
was too good for me. Happy with my overall performance in this
tournament. Hope to continue playing well until my next
tournament in Bratislava.
Second semifinal was more contested. First game was close.
Martin got to 9/7 after several mistakes from Evan but Evan won
the next 4 points to take the game. Second was over in just 5
minut, 11/1 for Evan, Martin not there at all. After match
started to look similar to first semifinal Martin managed to
save some pride.
He dug deep and was able to win the third but Evan was too good
in the fourth. From 4/5 he got to 10/6 and although Martin saved
one matchball he was not able to do more and Evan deservedly
booked his place in tomorrow´s final against Carlos.
Evan Williams: I knew Martin had two hard matches yesterday so I
tried to make it as hard as possible. I thought I did pretty
well today except for a lapse of concentration in the third.
Looking forward to playing Carlos tomorrow. It should be a good
match.
Martin Švec: It was not my day today. I am happy I got back into
the match after very bad second game. Unfortunately it was not
enough today. Overall I am happy with my tournament. I am
looking forward to my next PSA event in Iran in two days. Good
luck to Evan in the final.
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02-Dec, Round
One/Quarters:
Tomas Forter reports
Two top seeded players and two Czech players will play in
tomorrow´s
semifinals of ASB Prague Squash Classic.
Top seed Carlos Cornes overcame Emyr Evans in 4 games. He
started very well in the first but relaxed too much and allow
Emyr to get back. He responded well and got to 10/8, Carlos
saved two gameballs but Emyr used the third to win the first
12/10. Carlos started to control the T better and dominated
second and third. The fourth was close again all the way, Emyr
had a gameball at 10/9 but Carlos won next three points to get
into the semis.
Daniel Mekbib and Lance Beddoes played a match of the tournament
so far. High pace and a lot of attacking from both players.
Daniel had two gamebals at 10/8 only to lose 15/13 in the first.
He did exactly the same to Lance in the second. Lance had 10/8
but this time Daniel came back to win 13/11. The third was
dominated by Lance and when he got to 10/7 in the fourth not
many Czech fans hoped Daniel could still come back. But he
showed some real grit and determination to come back to 10/10,
saved one more matchball at 11/10 and won the game 13/11. He
carried the momentum into the decider and led all the way. Lance
saved two matchball at 6/10 but Daniel managed to win at the
end.
Martin Švec delighted home crowd as well with his win against
Kyle Finch and made sure there will be home interest in both
tomorrow´s semifinals. It took him exactly the same amount of
time as Daniel (63 minutes). Martin scored 5 points from 6/9 to
win the first 11/9. Then he got distracted by some referee´s
decisions and was not focused the way it should be. Kyle used
this perfectly and got to 2/1 in games. He even got to 4/0 in
the fourth but Martin dug deep and managed to come back and
equal the match with 12/10 score. In the fifth Martin got a
decisive lead when he scored 4 points from 3/4 to 7/4 and
managed to hold on to his lead till the end.
Evan Williams booked his place in the semis with clinical
performance against Nick Mulvey. He started very well and
controlled the first game easily. Nick improved from the second
and made Evan work harder in the rest of the match but Evan was
just too good for him today.
Carlos Cornes: Happy to win that 4th game. I didn´t know what
to expect, first time we played each other. He is really
talented. Happy with my performance and I hope I can play well
again tomorrow and see what happens.
Daniel Mekbib: Really happy with my performance today against
great player, managed to come back from 1/2 and 7/10 down in the
fourth, he was so dangerous from the back with his backhand
drops, that I had to just keep grinding and it worked out, so
really pleased with the result today and I have to get ready for
tomorrow match against Carlos, who I have never played before.
Martin Švec: What a match! I knew that he won PSA in Kelowna
just a few weeks ago so I knew its gonna be tough match today
and I was right. Very happy to win and make semis in front of my
home crowd which pushed me and helped me to win a match.
Hopefully I have enough energy left for tommorow. Final would be
amazing, czech final would be awesome so I hope that people will
come and support me and Daniel as they did today.
Evan Williams: I thought I played well today, hit my targets at
the back and kept the pace high so I could use the front to my
advantage. The courts are great here and really enjoying my time
on court. Looking forward to my next match. |
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Qualifying in Prague
Tomas Forter reports
Two of 11 Czech players who took part in today´s qualification
made it to the main draw.
Petr Martin managed to beat fellow countryman Jakub Solnicky in
the first round and Greek/Australian Charalampos Leontarakis in
the evening´s final. 2nd seed Jan Ryba beat Slovak Matej
Hrncirik in the first round and Englishman Lewis Doughty in the
final.
They will be joined in the main draw by players seeded no. 1 and
3 in the qualification - Sebastien Bonmalais from France and
English player Taminder Gata-Aura. Bonmalais was kept on court
for more than half an hour by Czech 15 year old junior Viktor
Byrtus in and Gata-Aura despatched another Czech junior Matouš
Sochůrek in just 15 minutes in their respective finals.
Sebastien Bonmalais: I played well today. Viktor is a
good player. He has some good attacking shots. I just had to
keep it in the back corners and let him make some mistakes and
that way it was easier for me. I would like to play Martin Švec
or Evan Williams tomorrow.
Taminder Gata-Aura: Happy to get through to the main
draw. He is an up and coming junior, he will learn a lot from
this match.
Petr Martin: Happy to qualify. Hopefully I will continue
in such a good form tomorrow.
Jan Ryba: I am very glad I made the main draw. I am
satisfied with my game today. I was patient.
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