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BRAVO LA FRANCE…
 Bien
sûr, bravo à Greg qui a fait le sans faute, contre un Nick en
forme superbe, franchement, un match magnifique, ne vous laissez
pas berner par le score qui semble sévère… Chaque échange était
long, disputé, collé au mur – comme l’a dit Peisson de l’Équipe,
« s’ils jouaient encore plus près du mur, ils joueraient dehors
! », avec des attaques et des récupérations de légendes. Comme
l’a dit James, « Nick et Greg, c’était furieux !!! ».
Bravo à Borja, qui a su aligner son troisième match en 5 jeux
d’affilés (Kemp, Thierry, James) en trois jours, et se taper
deux top 10 en deux jours. Même si James n’est pas à 100%, avec
une cheville douloureuse qui le gênait en particulier à l’avant
droit, il était quand même extrêmement dangereux, et il en a
attaqué et sauvé, des balles, l’Anglais…
Mais Super Borja – oui, je lui ai trouvé son surnom à lui –
avait tellement faim de victoires, et après avoir perdu tant de
match au tie-break du 5ème, des matchs serrés qu’il aurait pu
gagner, il aligne enfin les victoires… Bravo à lui…
Mais surtout, surtout, c’est à vous que je veux dire bravo. A
vous, les spectateurs qui étiez là durant le match Borja/James,
vous qui avez soutenu les deux joueurs, bien qu’aucun n’ait été
français, vous les avez applaudis à tout rompre, vous avez fait
le spectacle, vous les avez aidés à se dépasser, à vous montrez
tout ce qu’ils savaient faire…
Et moi qui voyage dans tous les pays du monde, je peux vous dire
que je n’ai jamais vu une telle audience, si connaisseuse, si
respectueuse, si enthousiaste, sans que l’honneur chauvin s’en
mêle.
Ecoutez ce qu’a dit James après son match…
« Tu sais à quoi je pense, je pense à ce CLOWN de journaliste
qui a écrit il y a peu de temps que le squash était en train de
mourir. J’aurais aimé qu’il soit là, ce soir, parce les français
ont montré ce soir ce que le squash devrait être…
Qu’on ne vienne pas me dire que le squash n’attire pas les
spectateurs, regarde-moi cette foule, et quelle foule…
Quelle atmosphère, ce soir, chapeau les Frogs – bien qu’ils
m’aient perdu mon sac à l’aéroport – parce que, s’ils
n’organisent pas beaucoup de tournois, quand ils le font, ils
font un sacré bon boulot. Rennes en 2004, c’était génial, et là,
c’est fantastique. Alors, la seule chose que j’espère, c’est que
ce tournoi va continuer, encore et encore… »
Vous voyez, je ne vous mens pas. Vous avez été extraordinaire.
Et bravo à l’organisation, qui, même si certaines choses restent
à être améliorées, comme toujours et partout, a fait un sacré
boulot.
Bravo à vous tous. La Mamie est fière, très fière d’être
française aujourd’hui…
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 Je
suis content, parce que la semaine dernière, on a joué ensemble
dans un match exhibition, et il m’a mis une sacrée raclée…
Nick revient très fort, après 8 mois d’absence…
Moi, j’ai eu tellement de haut et de bas cette saison, j’ai
vraiment envie de revenir à mon top, et ici, j’ai tout pour
réussir, j’ai mon staff avec moi, et aussi le public, merci à
eux d’être venu si nombreux…
Le niveau entre les top 8 est tellement moindre, tout dépend de
celui qui joue à son top le jour J….
Je suis ici pour me faire plaisir, parce que c’est quand je suis
comme ça que je joue le mieux…
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[1]
Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt
[4] Nick Matthew (Eng) 11/6, 11/9, 11/7 (55m)
SCHOOL MATERIAL…
Framboise
reports
I must say that Nick Matthew, although he doesn’t agree with me,
played great squash against his mate Greg Gaultier. I always
appreciated Nick’s game before, but his absence seems to have
added a little je ne sais quoi to his style, more brain is maybe
a way to describe it…
Nick was always very patient, but it seems that he has found a
perfect balance between the length and short game. His drives,
like Greg’s, were so close that again Peisson from l’Equipe
laughed, “if they were any closer to the wall, they would be
outside the court!!!!” A master class in technique.
But Nick feels perfectly when to break the rhythm to find the
attack and put his opponent under pressure, and Greg got caught
a few times. And when the Frenchman was able to return, back
Nick went to the discipline and Squash School material… Great
stuff, great great stuff.
Greg was stunning of control too. Both his attitude, still
perfect on court, even under pressure, and his squash, even if
he tinned a few shots in the first game. Don’t get fooled by a
score that may appear a bit dry. Like James stayed after his own
semi later that night, “Nick and Greg, that was furious”. And it
was.
 The
crowd, over a 1,000 paying spectators, plus I would say, 250
guests, appreciated the performance of both players, although
logically supporting their man. And their man was confident,
calm, controlled. It worked for him. I haven’t seen him play
that well for months, and he’ll be proud of his tournament.
He should…
"I was good in
patches, whereas he was consistent throughout the match. I was 3
/ 4 rally up, and then, Greg was 3 / 4 rally up, and I gave him
too many easy points, in particular on my short game.
 "What
made the difference today was that Greg was more mentally tuned
in. This was definitely my first big match of the year, and I
really felt like a beginner player, coming to his first
semi-final!!!!!
"This was a great experience for me, it’s all in the head, as we
all know, and mentally today, I was up and down… I think that
Greg was overall, 1, 2% better than me today, but he was better
for 45 min of the match, and I was better maybe 10 minutes…
That 1, 2 percent can mean a great deal and add up to that 3 or
4 points difference at the end of each game.
"Greg used the momentum of the crowd, which I thought was great
tonight… I really enjoyed the environment, it was great playing
a top three again, and I think it’s good for the tournament that
Greg won today.
"I gave the best I could physically, I’ve learned a lot here,
and I think it will help me a lot in Manchester… that’s
definitely money in the bank…"
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"I’m
happy with that victory, as last week Nick and I played an
exhibition match, and he beat me flat out… After eight months of
absence, Nick is coming back with a vengeance…
"As far as I’m concerned, I had so many ups and downs, I really
want to come back at my top, and here, I’ve got all the elements
to succeed, I’ve got my staff with me, and also the audience,
they came so many, thanks to them…
"The level between the top 8 is so little that it’s up to who is
the best on the day… And Nick, he didn’t come here for the view,
we’ve always had massive battles, and it all comes down to the
one who wants it more…
"I’m here to enjoy my squash, I realised that’s I was at my best
when I was enjoying… Before, I was putting too much pressure on
myself, well, not exactly, in fact, I was playing without really
envy to play… I’ve got the feeling, the pleasure back in my
game…
"Now, everything is really well in place, like I said, I
gradually got stronger and stronger match after match, first
round was average, then I was able to include discipline and
patience into my game…
"I was expecting/hoping to do a good match… That’s done…"
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[6]
Borja Golan (Esp) bt [2] James
Willstrop (Eng)
12/10, 6/11, 12/10, 5/11, 11/8 (71m)
SUPER GOLAN HITS AGAIN…
Once again, I know that James doesn’t want to find excuses, but
we all saw (and Borja too) that he had problems getting in the
right front corner, and that he was often using his other foot
to get balanced upon arrival… But as he still ran and retrieved
a lot, I would say that yes, James was probably at, 75, 80%? I
may be wrong, but that’s what I would estimate.
As Borja stated, even at 60, 70%, James is still World number 3,
and can beat pretty much anybody, and Super Borja played another
stunning astonishing performance to beat his second top 10
player in a row…
The match, completely different from the previous one, which had
long balanced constructed rallies, could be described as a “dog
fight”, in the nicest way possible. It was a volley
crosscourting at will, loads of shorts game, nice lengths, but
nothing seemed constructed, just the spark of the moment, just
what seemed to pass in Borja’s mind, zoom, here, zoom there, up,
down, left, right…. No rules, no structure, just… right here,
right now…
The last game, James was down 9/2, and simply went back to
basics, getting his points in the back, and Borja losing his in
the tin. At 8/9, James, who hadn’t taken a risk for the whole
climbing back, went for it on Borja’s serve, and tinned it.
Exactly like Thierry the day before at 9/9. And like the day
before, it was Borja that got the next point…
One thing to be noticed though. I’ve been travelling a fair bit
for the past five years, and I never ever saw anywhere else such
a large and knowledgeable crowd chanting, clapping, and
supporting the players each their turn, with no national pride
involved. James is English, Borja Spanish, but the crowd was
celebrating squash, saluting their dedication, skills, talent
and sportsmanship, and during that match, I was more than ever
proud to be French…
 "I
think that without a doubt, this is the best tournament, and the
best performance I ever did in my life, and I’ve got a lot of
hopes for tomorrow’s match against Greg.
"When James comes back from 9/3, and I hung in there, it’s
things that you work at, very hard, it’s mental strength…
"Tonight, I tried to keep James under pressure, like I did
yesterday with Thierry, but by playing more in the front than I
did against Thierry, because I knew that James was struggling
with his injury, and that he had problem moving to the front to
get my drop shots.
"But because I knew he was struggling, I think I got at the
front too fast, I was anticipating too much sometimes, and made
a lot of errors there…"
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 "My
ankle can’t be an issue, no excuses, because I’m here, and it’s
now…
"This was a great match, a really good match. Borja has improved
a lot, and I’m happy to have played such a match… He played
well, he played really well…
"I know I can play from behind so at 9/3 in the fifth I just
decided to play safe and kept it to the back. It was working
well, but then I made an error to take it to ten and it's so
tough from there. He did really well to close it out though, the
pressure was definitely on him.
"You know what I think at the moment, I’m thinking about that
CLOWN who said that squash was dying.
"He should have been here tonight, because this was an excellent
display of what squash should be. Don’t tell me squash doesn’t
attract the masses, it does, just look at here, tonight, what a
great crowd.
"And the evening was excellent, first, Nick and Greg, that was
furious, then us, that was pretty close.
"This was a great atmosphere, hats off to the French, they don’t
organise many tournaments, but when they do, they do a pretty
good job of it. Rennes in 2004 was outstanding, and this one,
pretty amazing.
"I just hope that this is going to go on and on… Although they
lost my bag, bloody Frogs…"
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