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photos by Adam Kilian |
Czech National Championships 2007
20-22 April, Prague |
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Men's Final:
(1) Jan Koukal bt (2) Martin Štěpán
11/7, 13/11, 11/6 (33m)
3rd/4th:
(4) Pavel Sládeček bt (6) Petr Martin
11/5, 11/9, 6/11, 8/11, 11/4 (53m)
Women's Final: (4) Lucie Fialová bt (2) Zuzana Vacková
9/2, 9/10, 5/9, 9/4, 9/2 (70m)
3rd/4th:
(1) Jana Šmeralová bt (3) Veronika Koukalová
9/0, 9/5, 9/0 (16m) |
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Jan & Lucie take Czech titles
Tomas Forter reports
Today's programme started with the third place matches. The first
match of the day saw Jana Smeralova ,who was very
disappointed after her loss yesterday, beating easily Veronika
Koukalova in 16 minutes. Jana played her normal attacking game
but Veronika did not seem to be very interested in winning the
bronze medal.
The men's match was totally different. Pavel Sladecek
started very fast against Petr Martin and won the first
game surprisingly easily 11/5. The second was much closer
with Pavel just edging it 11/9 at the end. In the third and fourth
Petr slowed the pace down, kept the rallies going and Pavel showed
first signs of slowing down. Petr equalized with 11/6 and 11/8
scores, but at the beginning of the fifth Pavel again started with
very high tempo, surprised Petr and got the early lead 4/1 which
he was able to control till the end.
The programme then included a show of
two popular Czech rock singers performing a few songs and then
playing an exhibition best of three match. The squash was not of
the highest standard but the big crowd appreciated both singers'
efforts on the court!
First time for Lucie
The finals started with the girls' match. Everyone was expecting a
close match and the girls did not disappoint. Lucie Fialova, who
was very confident after yesterday's win against Jana Smeralova,
started against Zuzana Vackova with her typical hard hitting game
and won the first easily 9/2. In the middle of the second Zuzana
got used to the tempo and started to move Lucie to the front of
the court more often which was working very well for her. Zuzana
won very close second game 10/9 after saving two gameballs.
The third was very much the same as the second with Lucie trying
to win with her pace and Zuzana trying to move Lucie around the
court. Zuzana was more successful and got to 2/1 lead with the
score 9/5. Lucie was visibly tired by the end of the third and
most people thought Zuzana would win the fourth and the title.
Probably Zuzana was thinking about winning too much as well and
stopped with the tactics which were working in second and third
games. Suddenly she was afraid to put the ball to the front which
was exactly what Lucie needed.
They played long rallies mostly to the back of the court but Lucie
won most of them at the end with her typical hard hitting and fast
volleying. Lucie levelled the score with a 9/4 win in the fourth.
When she got to an early lead 4/0 in the fifth Zuzana become very
nervous and was not able to apply the needed pressure at the front
of the court. She started to choose the wrong positions to attack
and was making more mistakes. She was able to get two points back,
but Lucie got to 5/2 and after one hand out she won the next four
points and her first senior national title.
Nine times for Jan
Before the men's final Chairman of the Czech Olympic Committee Dr.
Milan Jirasek greeted all the players and spectators and expressed
his feelings that squash deserves to be part of the Olympic games
and promised to help with the game's biggest task for next years.
The men's final provided yet another
match between good friends, team mates, training partners and
the best Czech players - Jan Koukal and Martin Stepan. The final
started with very good squash from both of them. They were
changing points till 4/4 when Jan managed to get a string of five
points to 9/4. Martin was able to get a couple of points back but
after 12 minutes of good quality squash Jan won 11/7.
After a serious first game Martin realized that he would not be
able to beat Jan and switched to an exhibition mode. Jan
agreed and both of them entertained the big crowd with some
amazing rallies full of shots and great retrieving. Martin was
attacking very well but Jan was able to get everything back most
of the time. The score was close all the time. Martin got to
gameball at 10/9. Jan saved with another entertaining rally and
got his gameball at 11/10. Martin saved with a backhand drop shot
into the nick. But the next two points went Jan's way and he got
to a 2/0 lead.
The third game continued in an exhibition style. Jan got the early
lead 3/0 which he was controlling till 9/6. Martin put the return
of the serve into the tin and at 10/6 Jan used his first matchball
to secure his ninth national title in a row. With his nine titles
he equalled Jana Smeralova but unlike Jana he is likely to
continue for many more years.
Overall the championships were a big
success. All the three days matches were very well attended and
the crowd liked the squash. The media coverage was very good as
well. For the first time in Czech republic there will be 30
minutes replays of both finals shown on Czech national TV sports
channel next week. The organisation was very good and we are
looking forward to the next years which should see Czech Nationals
again on the glass court in some attractive place.
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Fialova fells Smeralova in Prague
Tomas Forter reports
Today's action in Prague saw the history of Czech squash rewritten
when Lucie Fialova beat Jana Smeralova in the
semi-finals, ending Jana's unbeaten record in the Nationals since
1997.
Lucie won in a hard fought match. After she lost the first 4/9 she
won the next two 9/3 9/5 and soon got to 8/2 matchball. Jana did not
want to lose, fought well back, got to 7/8 but it was end of it.
Matchball no. 5 was the lucky one for Lucie after 55 minutes.
Tomorrow she will meet second seed Zuzana Vackova who beat
Veronika Koukalova comfortably 9/3 9/6 9/2 in 33 minutes. Zuzana
was a bit challenged in the second game but overall she controlled
the match from the start to finish.
Both men's semis started the same way. The higher seeded player won
in both cases 11/0 (That must be a record which is very difficult to
beat with PSA scoring.) Top seed Jan Koukal progressed to an
easy 11/0 11/3 11/4 win against Pavel Sladecek in 20 minutes,
but second seed Martin Stepan had to earn his place in
tomorrow's finals against young Petr Martin.
Petr started the second very well with Martin unable to keep the
tempo from the first and levelled with 11/6 score. The next two
games were close all the way, both with the same score 11/9 for
Martin. He booked his place in final against his team mate after an
11/0 6/11 11/9 11/9 win in 42 minutes.
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Jan Koukal |
Men's Semifinals
(1) Jan Koukal – (4) Pavel Sládeček
11/0 11/3 11/4
(2) Martin Štěpán – (6) Petr Martin jun.
11/0 6/11 11/9 11/9
Quarterfinals
(1) Jan Koukal – (8) Jakub Kosinka
11/6 11/4 11/3
(4) Pavel Sládeček – (5) Miloš Pokorný
11/7 11/9 9/11 11/3
(6) Petr Martin jun. – (3) Ondřej Ertl
8/11 11/6 11/7 11/9
(2) Martin Štěpán – (7) Petr Veselý
11/4 11/2 11/5
Women's Semifinals
(4) Lucie Fialová – (1) Jana Šmeralová
4/9 9/3 9/5 9/7
(2) Zuzana Vacková – (3) Veronika Koukalová
9/3 9/6 9/2
Quarterfinals
(1) Jana Šmeralová – Klára Janošková
9/6 9/5 10/8
(4) Lucie Fialová – (5) Hana Vágnerová
9/5 9/2 9/3
(3) Veronika Koukalová – (6) Anna Klimundová 9/1 9/4 9/4
(2) Zuzana Vacková – Helena Vladyková
9/2 9/3 9/0
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photos by Adam Kilian |
Koukal & Smeralova
aim for 9&10
Tomas Forter reports from Prague
 The
2007 Czech Nationals are under way in Prague, at the Squash Bowling
Centrum and on the glass court in the Chodov Shopping Mall, one of
Prague's biggest and busiest malls.
The top 32 men and women from the Czech rankings are competing for
titles, the titleholders being Jan Koukal (8 times in a row)
and Jana Smeralova (9 times in the row).
Jan is a clear favourite for the men's event - he hasn't lost to a
Czech player for years - but in the women's tournament the situation
is much more open with Jana being strongly challenged by Zuzana
Vackova and Lucie Fialova.
The first day's play saw the men's top eight seeds and all but one
of the women's progress to the quarter-finals. Quarters and semis
are played on Saturday with the finals on Sunday.
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MEN:
1st round
(1) Jan Koukal – Martin Dzúr
11/3 11/6 11/3
Milan Hladík – Ladislav Burián
13/11 11/4 11/2
Lukáš Kratochvíl – Petr Steiner
11/4 11/7 11/3
(8) Jakub Kosinka – Aleš Král
11/9 11/6 11/3
(5) Miloš Pokorný – Roman Švec
11/8 11/5 11/5
Martin Honek – Dominik Šácha
11/3 6/11 11/7 11/8
Lukáš Jelínek – Jaroslav Čech
9/11 11/6 11/7 6/11 11/7
(4) Pavel Sládeček – Patrik Žák
11/7 11/2 11/9
(3) Ondřej Ertl – David Honek
11/4 11/6 11/7
Jaroslav Příhoda – Jan Břeň
10/12 11/8 11/9 11/8
Jakub Stupka – Jan Veselý
11/8 11/9 11/7
(6) Petr Martin jun. – Jaroslav Kaleta 11/3 11/3 11/7
(7) Petr Veselý – Stanislav Jurčík
11/4 11/4 11/4
František Komora – Petr Martin
12/10 11/9 11/9
Tomáš Bajgar – Patrik Neuwirth
11/7 11/9 11/5
(2) Martin Štěpán – Jan Lempart
11/3 11/4 11/1
2nd round
(1) Jan Koukal – Milan Hladík
11/6 11/8 11/0
(8) Jakub Kosinka – Lukáš Kratochvíl 10/12 11/1 11/7 11/7
(5) Miloš Pokorný – Martin Honek
11/3 11/5 11/9
(4) Pavel Sládeček – Lukáš Jelínek
11/7 11/5 8/11 11/7
(3) Ondřej Ertl – Jaroslav Příhoda
11/3 11/8 11/4
(6) Petr Martin jun. – Jakub Stupka 11/7
5/11 11/4 11/4
(7) Petr Veselý – František Komora 4/11
11/9 11/7 12/10
(2) Martin Štěpán – Tomáš Bajgar
11/6 11/8 10/12 11/5
WOMEN:
1st round
(1) Jana Šmeralová – Barbora Klimšová w.o.
Kristýna Vykouřilová – Soňa Brabcová 6/9
9/6 8/10 9/3 9/4
Klára Janošková – Tereza Čtvrtníčková 9/7 8/10
9/7 9/6
(8) Denisa Tichá – Martina Šrámková
9/1 9/0 9/0
(5) Hana Vágnerová – Zorana Pokorná 9/0
9/0 9/3
Jana Jirková – Petra Oličová
9/0 9/4 1/9 7/9 9/3
Adéla Kozáková – Romana Adámková
6/9 9/4 9/7 7/9 10/9
(4) Lucie Fialová – Eva Gallatová
9/4 7/9 9/3 9/4
(3) Veronika Koukalová – Olga Rathouská 9/0 9/1 9/2
Lucie Jirková – Eva Feřteková
9/7 3/9 9/2 2/9 9/7
Magdaléna Lehocká – Renata Svobodová 9/5 9/7 7/9 0/9
9/2
(6) Anna Klimundová – Ludmila Šišková 9/0 9/0
9/1
Helena Vladyková – (7) Nikola Polanská 9/5 9/3
7/9 9/5
Lucie Kyselá – Jana Michenková
9/0 9/5 9/1
Lenka Vlková – Marika Doubravová
9/2 9/6 9/7
(2) Zuzana Vacková – Romana Utratová 9/0
9/2 9/0
2nd round
(1) Jana Šmeralová – Kristýna Vykouřilová 9/0
9/2 9/2
Klára Janošková – (8) Denisa Tichá
9/5 9/7 9/3
(5) Hana Vágnerová – Jana Jirková
9/0 9/0 9/0
(4) Lucie Fialová – Adéla Kozáková
w.o.
(3) Veronika Koukalová – Lucie Jirková
9/5 9/3 9/2
(6) Anna Klimundová – Magdaléna Lehocká 9/1 9/1 9/2
Helena Vladyková – Lucie Kyselá
10/9 9/3 10/8
(2) Zuzana Vacková – Lenka Vlková
9/0 9/0 9/1
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