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[1]
Amr Shabana (Egy) bt
[15] Mohammed Abbas (Egy)
11/7, 11/7, 11/6 (28m)
[4] James Willstrop (Eng) bt
[5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus)
8/11, 12/10, 11/5, 11/10(3-1) (58m)
[7] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt
[3] Thierry Lincou (Fra)
11/9, 11/7, 12/10 (56m)
[2] David Palmer (Aus) bt
[6] Nick Matthew (Eng)
15/13, 11/7, 6/11, 11/7 (52m)
Shabana & Willstrop,
Gaultier & Palmer to meet again
Framboise reports from Sunset Beach
Quick Summary from Steve Cubbins
The semi-finals opened up with two contrasting matches as Amr
Shabana and James Willstrop set up a repeat of their
semi-final meeting two months ago in Hong Kong, and concluded
with David Palmer and Gregory Gaultier making a
date for a World Open final repeat performance.
Shabana never looked in trouble against an out-of-sorts Mohammed Abbas, who failed to capture his devastating form of yesterday,
finding the conditions, the court, and of course his
opponent, too much to deal with.
The following match was, by contrast, a real battle from start
to finish. With the added bonus of a guaranteed Super Series
Finals place for the winner both Willstrop and Anthony
Ricketts were fully committed and turned on the best show of the
tournament so far.
Next up was the all-French affair as world numbers three and
four Thierry Lincou and Gregory Gaultier did battle, and this
time it was the turn of the youngster to win. The conditions
were always likely to favour Gaultier's shotmaking over Lincou's
steadiness, and so it proved.
The final match of the evening saw World Champion David
Palmer come through against Nick Matthew to set up a
repeat of August's World Open final against Gaultier. |
En Bref: Issue #1
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[1]
Amr Shabana (Egy) bt [15]
Mohammed Abbas (Egy)
11/7, 11/7, 11/6 (28m)
SHABANA STILL UNBEATEN
 The
Prince of Egypt has yet to lose a game in this event, and has
been in a devastating form. I also guess that today, he had a
point to prove after his not so astonishing performance against
his mate during the last World Open in Cairo.
So no training mode like in Egypt for this one, instead, a
gruelling patient mode, eight errors for him only for the whole
match (when we know how self destructive Amr can be), and a very
focused performance from the World number one.
On such a cold court it must be extremely difficult to get your
length right, and Abbas couldn’t be as tight as he is normally.
Although he was able to surprise his day in day out sparring
partner and keep close score wise at each start of the games,
Gentleman Abbas couldn’t really threaten his out of this world
opponent today.
It was not one of those flamboyant matches with winners fusing
from the four corners, but more of a relentless pressure and
taking the opportunity as soon as possible, and at that game,
Shabana is definitely top dog…
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 "I’ve
been training with Mohamed every day for the past 10, 11 years,
there is no surprise.
"It’s always the same when two Egyptian
players play against each other, it’s who plays the tighter and
better.
"Normally, I don’t know why, I don’t perform well in the Middle
East, maybe too much pressure, so hopefully this time, I’ve
already made it to the semi-final, and In-sha-Allah, I’ll win
this tournament.
"Today, it was my turn to play well, I’m glad…"
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 "I wanted to win today, but he knew the court better than I did,
and I was too lazy on court, I just recovered his shots, I was
not playing my own game, just hitting the ball to the back.
"And as he was going short all the time, I didn’t have a chance
to play really, a bad day …"
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[4]
James Willstrop (Eng) bt
[5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus)
8/11, 12/10, 11/5, 13/11 (58m)
MEENEY MINEY MO…
When people asked me what my predictions were for this match, I
was totally response-less. Not a clue had I. But one thing I
knew, they both needed a good result badly, especially Anthony,
whose chances of participating to the Super Series Finals
depending on the outcome of this match…
 Yet
again, we are going to have to talk about the conditions, and
it’s obvious that James is far more at his ease on a cold court
than Anthony would be. It’s that reason why he won the Qatar
Classic last year, as it’s one of the coldest courts on the PSA
tour, well, up until this one, of course!
But still, as Intense Anthony has enriched his game with some
surprising gems of short shots like trickles and sliding shots
that follow the tin all the way plus a good volley crosscourt
deception that finishes in the nick mid court, he was able to
win some surprisingly short rallies.
Talk about changes, Young Willstrop has been showing signs of
passion recently, and has been a bit more feisty and fiery
towards the ref, his opponent and himself. No, not saying it’s
bad at all. I personally don’t mind a bit of oomph into sport,
and as long as it serves his game, why not? It’ll be up to him
to keep it under control and to his advantage…
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 "It's
so cold I didn't want the ball to go past me too much, I'd have
to take it early and try to hold the 'T'.
I'd certainly have preferred the conditions here last year, but
James hit some great shots, especially some winning returns of
serve off serves I thought were quite good, but that shows a
great skill level from him.
"It's disappointing to lose, it was a big match for me, I wanted
to get back on track before Christmas after a fairly poor run of
results.
"I knew I needed to win to guarantee a Super Series Finals
place, and my gut feel is that the quarters here wasn't quite
enough. I'd have loved to defend that title, but we'll just have
to see how it goes."
 "For
my past few matches, I have been showing a few more signs of
aggression, of outward aggression, I probably need to work and
that and keep quiet a bit more. But maybe it’s a sign that I
want to win more…
"Anthony and I train a lot together, there is a lot of respect
between us, and it’s so difficult, especially on such a cold
court… I do love these conditions, but when it’s that cold, it’s
very hard to get any fluid kind of rallies, so we play at a
furious pace, that was some brutal squash
"Although there were some words on the court, there is
absolutely no problem with Anthony but squash is played in a
confined space, and we are all professionals playing for our
money, for our lives… He is probably one of the most aggressive
players on the circuit, he shows a lot of passion and enthusiasm
for the game.
"After my bad experience in Cairo, I don’t think I really
stopped playing well, it’s just been a quiet moment, and I guess
that both Anthony and I needed results, I’m glad that I’m the
one that got through, it’s such a confidence boost.
"I will see tomorrow if I can take out the world number one."
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[7]
Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt
[3] Thierry Lincou (Fra)
11/9, 11/7, 12/10 (56m)
GREG’S TURN…
After a long spell of Thierry’s domination on the French scene,
the battle between my two compatriots had to balance out.
After a victory in February during the French Nationals, Thierry
won the French final of the English Open, to let the Kid take
him out the US Open and take it all back in yet another all
French final in Pakistan. So the logic was it was Greg’s turn.
 Those
court conditions were always going to suit Gaultier the
Shotmaker more than Lincou the retriever. Still, the three games
were extremely close, up to 8/7 or 9/7 each time, but Greg was
in front for the two first games, forcing Thierry to play catch
up which on such conditions, is not helping to build up
confidence…
Down 2/0, the former world champion dug in and succeeded to get
in front, simply by finding some stunning tight length, but
could never create a comfortable gap. He eventually got his
first game balls of the match at 10/7, but two strokes and three
backhand drop shots later, Greg was walking out a straight game
victory in the pocket.
It was a very good match I thought, Thierry didn’t do anything
wrong, quite the contrary, I found he was attacking, precise and
played the right tactic. But Greg has such an advantage in those
conditions, his shots are even more sizzling and damaging as
they normally are, and it’s strictly impossible to retrieve
them, however hard Thierry tried.
A well deserved victory for the young Frenchman, who looks more
and more confident, secure and strong in his belief that he will
soon get to the number one spot. “Somebody stop me”, he seems to
say. Well, not sure that anybody can…
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 "Greg
really likes those conditions, it suits his game, and on such a
cold court, it’s very hard to retrieve. It was very close, very
close indeed, but he was just a bit better than I was. I could
never get ahead, even when I was leading, and I couldn’t get the
third, that he won with three superb backhand winners.
"He counter attacked me very well at the front, he seized all
the opportunities that presented themselves, he may have had a
bit more luck that I had, and he used the court conditions to
perfection."
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  "I
feel sorry for him, it’s hard to play against each other. I know
what it is to lose against him, last time we played he beat me,
today I beat him, so in a way I’m happy to have won the match,
but on the other hand I’m sorry to have beaten my best mate.
"I’ve been working hard for years, especially on the mental side
of things, and I feel that this year is my breakthrough year.
I’ve been preparing 10 times more than I did before, and it’s
not just me, it’s also the people, the team that is behind, so
it’s not just me that wins, it’s the whole team…"
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[2]
David Palmer (Aus) bt
[6] Nick Matthew (Eng)
15/13, 11/7, 6/11, 11/7 (52m)
 DAVID
LOOKS GOOD
The Marine doesn’t look as devastating as the Prince of Egypt,
as he’s lost one game per match so far, but when you think that
he hasn’t prepared that much for the event, he is not doing too
bad is he. And maybe that’s why, because he is relaxed, no
pressure, no expectation… That’s normally when the results come…
Nick didn’t look too bad himself, thank you very much, and had
he taken the first that he conceded only 5-3 in the tie-break,
the outcome could have been dramatically different. But still, I
can’t explain, but David seemed comfortable out there, in
control and even when Nick roll him into flour in the third, he
didn’t look that worried and seemed to just reassessed, tuned a
few screws, and from 2/2 in the fourth, never looked back
really.
A bit like in the French encounter, Nick did everything right,
but the early volleying ending by soft and delicate feathery
drop shots that David despatched all way through took their toll
eventually. Still, some stunning rallies, great tight squash,
and a perfect ending of a very very VERY cold evening…
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 "I’m
delighted with the way I played today. I had no expectations
when I came to this tournament, I had the worst preparation
ever.
"I stayed the past three weeks in Australia only playing solo,
but this year I’ve put my family first, and that’s my choice.
"So, I’m taking one match at a time, trying to be competitive.
Nick was really up for it tonight, and we played at a brutal
pace. Nick and I have a similar game, he doesn’t have a typical
English game, he’s got an Australian style, and takes a lot off
the volley, so I was talking with Shaun on the phone before the
match, and he told me the one that controls the T will win the
match, so I was trying to drive him off the T, also my volleys
went in rather well tonight.
"My length dropped a bit in the third, but I picked it up and
worked through it. The court was so dead, and Nick and I really
shot out very fast rallies.
"All credit to the players who played tonight, I was surprised
how well they all moved despite the conditions. I watched the
match between James and Anthony a bit earlier on, and I was
thinking how on earth am I going to be able to play at such a
pace in that cold. But once you get on there, you just get on
with it…
"I’m really happy to get through …"
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 "It’s
so dead out there, when you get to counter drop, normally you
can take the ball early and even get a stroke if the other one
doesn’t move fast enough, but tonight, although we would be
standing right behind each other, you sometimes couldn’t even
pick the ball up!
"David anticipates the volley and takes the ball very early with
a soft arm and plays feathery drop shots. I do volley as well,
but I put a bit more pace in the ball, whereas David has two
options, hit or soft…
"Not that it’s an excuse, but he had two more games on the glass
court than me, as this was my first match tonight, but I must
say that at the end of the first game, I was not sure what game
or options to adopt or what my next move was going to be…
"I thought I played well, even if David would always be hard to
beat in those conditions, but I was not disappointed with the
way I played, and I’m looking forward playing him again when we
can have some longer rallies…."
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