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TODAY at the ToC, Wed 27th Jan, Day EIGHT
Framboise
reports from New York, Steve from Whitley Bay |
The Legends are Back |
Semi-Finals
[6] James Willstrop (Eng) bt [1] Karim Darwish (Egy)
11/6,
11/5, 11/8 (38m)
[5] Ramy Ashour (Egy) bt [4] Nick Matthew (Eng)
11/8, 6/11, 11/2, 11/3 (58m)
Malcolm on Wednesday
Willstrop & Ashour into the final
Looking at the seedings you might have thought 'oh the top seed is bound to
beat the sixth', but look at today's world rankings and you'll see
that Karim Darwish is #5 and James Willstrop is #7. Add to that the
Englishman's five straight wins over Darwish since 2007 and it
didn't look so straightforward. And so it proved on the night as
Willstrop dominated, apart from a spell after he slipped early in
the third.
The second semi-final was between the fourth and fifth seeds ...
except that Nick Matthew and Ramy Ashour are the men in form, and
they fought out that fantastic final in Saudi just a few short weeks
ago, which propelled them to #2 and #1 in the world. Here the
Egyptian had won the last three meetings, and he made it four in a
row with another dazzling display which left the Grand Central crowd
gasping.
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[6] James
Willstrop
(Eng) bt [1] Karim Darwish (Egy)
11/6,
11/5, 11/8 (38m)
Willstrop eases into final
 James Willstrop turned in a sparkling performance to dispatch top
seed Karim Darwish in the first semi-final at Grand Central.
Totally dominant in the first two games, Willstrop slipped in the
back corner early in the third, and a few errors allowed Darwish to
take the lead, but Willstrop regained his composure, levelled at
8-all and went on to claim his place in the final of the first major
of 2010.
Darwish never seemed to capture his best form, but Willstrop had a
lot to do with that; "The key tonight was my accuracy, which was
much better than it has been all week," said a delighted victor.
 I
know I can be a bit too self critical, but even me cannot not see
that this was a good performance. I felt there tonight...
When I slipped at the start of the 3rd game, that shows how much the
game is in the head. I had to scrape it out, virtually, tell myself,
ok, you've slept, there is nothing that you can do right now, so,
mentally, sweeping the idea off my brain.
And it's not that Karim was not playing or anything, all credit to
him, he never let go and went of fighting. We all know how lethal
his shots are, and I had to keep very accurate. Maybe he was not
performing at his best, I'm not sure, maybe the pressure I kept on
him constantly had something to do with it too...
It's good to win against Shabana and Karim in straight games. It was
a good performance today, although I can only be happy for 10m, as
it means absolutely nohing for tomorrow...
About tomorrow, a lot of excitement, and happiness. Very happy to
get to play with so many of my friends around, Vanessa, Mick,
Malcolm, David Pearson, David, Stafford, all the people from England
Squash that are here to support us, and all the people back home
that are part of the team that got me there.
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I just felt empty mentally. Physically, I'm fine. Just a complete
lack of confidence, I couldn't play my shots, I was always behind
him. I don't have other words than, I was completely empty.
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I didn't do any justice today, and he was just too good tonight. I
was never in the race. Physically, I was never there, and normally,
my physicality is normally my biggest strength.
He just overwhelmed me with his pace, I felt leadenfooted today, I
guess that I arrived on this tournament a bit "undercooked"!
Ramy is just on a roll today, his pace is like no other, and so are
his angles...
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[5] Ramy
Ashour
(Egy) bt [4] Nick Matthew (Eng)
11/8, 6/11, 11/2, 11/3 (58m)
RAMY FLYING
AWAY...
This was a rather weird match I thought. First, Ramy that seems in a
complete zone, zooming away till 8/2 then 9/4, although I found his
movement to the front a bit slow - to the point a few of his pick
ups will be replayed as lets - to see him suddlenly slow down right
down, and allow Nick to surge back to 8/9. Ramy, switching on the
Magic, finds two superb winners, and takes the game.
 As
he is late to come back, the central ref goes and enquieres what's
going on. Ramy shortly comes back, his ankle heavily strapped. Nick,
not exactly blind, picks up the pace, and the momentum he got for
the end of the first game just keeps on rolling. The Englishman
takes the second rather easily, 11/6.
But that's where it becomes really strange in my eyes. It's like, I
don't know, Nick became lethargic for the next 2 games. I guess it
has got a lot to do with the way Ramy's pace was going, but hey, I
saw Nick in India and Saudi, I know what he can do against Ramy, and
tonight, he just wouldn't inignate the engine.
I remember Thierry one day, here actually in the TOC, after being
2/0 against Peter Barker - and eventually winning the match - said,
'the last time I played against Peter was at the Europeans, and it
was a hurrific match, Peter beat me 3/0 on a very warm court, and it
was so hard, and painful. I just didn't want to go through all that
pain again."
So methinks, unconsciously, did Nick relenquished to go through all
that pain, disapointement, to give everything he had, for "nothing"?
I was there in Saudi, I saw what he went through to be honest, and I
woudln't be surprised if his body said, you want me to do that
again???? Are you out of your mind????
Or it could be more simply what Nick said, that physically, he was
not strong enough today....
 I
found something new about my game during the last points of my match
with Greg today, and I wanted to make sure I could do it again. So
today, I didn't train, I just stayed quiet, and had lunch, and then
I came here.
In the first game, everything was fine until the last two points, I
was up 8/2, 9/4 I think, and I felt something in my ankle. So during
the break, I had it strapped, but I guess it took me a game to get
used to the feel of that in my movement.
Nick played well, but I guess it was more a mental battle than
anything else, I was able to stay focused today, not like I can do
sometimes, letting my mind round around like, I just played the
biggest match of my career like a week ago against that man... I
just kept it together well...
He'll stay number one until the end of the year....
Matany (part of Egyptian Team) |
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Malcolm
on Wednesday
With four of the world's top six players in action there was
much to look forward to on semi-finals night at Grand Central
Terminal. As has been the case all week there was not a seat to
be had.
ith
live TV coverage going as far afield as Africa, Egypt and South
America, top seed Karim Darwish, World no.1 for much of 2009 and
James Willstrop, well established again after an ankle operation
in May, were first on court.
Willstrop had dismissed World Champion Amr Shabana impressively
3/0, whilst Darwish beat off a strong challenge from David
Palmer 3/1 in their quarter-finals.
Darwish often starts well, but it was Willstrop who took early
comfort, looking highly focused. He kept the Egyptian pinned in
areas where Darwish couldn't do much damage and for two games he
dominated his opponent, who couldn't find any answer as
Willstrop went 2/0 up.
Early in the third Willstrop slipped in axactly the same place
that he had in his second round match and this clearly unsettled
hi, as for a few rallied he moved tentatively. However although
Darwish built a substantial lead, Willstrop recovered his
composure, drew level at 8-all and won the game and the match
11/8.
It was another impressive display by Willstrop, controlled and
tactically astute, and although Darwish may have appeared
lacklustre, that was the product of his opponent's performance.
World
number one Ramy Ashour had to fight hard in an outstanding
matych to get the better of Gregory Gaultier in their
quarter-final and it looked certain he would be extended by Nick
Matthew.
He began sharply, as he always does, leading 8/2 as Matthew
struggled to find rhythm. However from 9/4 Matthew won four
rallies in a row to get back to 9/8. It was Ashour thoughwho
clinched it 11/8.
Matthew resumed from where he left off, and led the second 6/2.
A brief recovery from Ashour took the score to 9/6 before
Matthew settled it with a fine forehand volley drop at 10/6.
Battle was now engaged, or so it appeared, but surprisingly in
the third Ashour went to 6/0 in no time, aided by three
uncharacteristic errors from Matthew. From then on until the end
of the match it was one way Egyptian traffic as Matthew
continued to make errors and Ashour continued to hit outrageous
winners.
There never looked like being a way back for the Englishman,
11/2, 11/3 and that was that.
Despite the three referees not having much to do, they managed
to come up with two astounding decisions towards the end of the
fourth. At 6/2 Matthew hit a ball straight at Ashour without
him, Ashour that is, having the faintest idea where the ball was
and therefore being in no position to play a shot, let alone a
winner. I thought 'no let' but the trio came u6p with 'stroke to
Ashour'. Not surprisingly the crowd groaned loudly.
Then at 8/2 Ramy had a ball called down, which was a mile up.
Matthew won the rally, Ramy was rightly given a let on appeal
and neither player was happy. How do three feferees get it so
wrong?
Ashour will be delighted with his performances against Gaultier
and Matthew and the latter will be wondering after a convincing
second, what went wrong?
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