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ANYONE CAN
WIN IN SAUDI
by Malcolm
Willstrop, 12-Dec-06 |
Getting ready ... refurbished glassbacks and the new Glass court
going up ...
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 The Saudi
Arabian event is so important that everyone is there and so the
draw, on the presumption that the players are rested since Pakistan
and Boston, is the major factor.
The first thing to say is that there can hardly ever have been a 1st
round (32) match of the quality or significance of the Darwish -
Ashour confrontation. It would do for a final, but to think that
one of them won't reach the last 16 is hard to grasp.
The Abbas/Barker, Aamir Khan/Ong Ben Hee matches are quite tough
enough and there are others which catch the eye.
If things work out as they should the last 16 offers at least two
major encounters Willstrop v Beachill - the younger man still
seeking his first win over his club mate - and Matthew v Boswell.
The putative last 8 reads
Shabana v Ashour or Darwish
Willstrop or Beachill v Ricketts
Gaultier v Lincou
Palmer v Matthew
But rarely these days are all the seedings borne out.
Gaultier's chances are as good as anyone's, but Lincou will surely
be up for the challenge and the Matthew Palmer match cannot be
anything other than heavyweight and pacy.
Ricketts, Beachill and Willstrop are all at Pontefract and it is a
quirk of the draw that sees them in the same quarter. Unless
something rather shattering happens, Pontefract should at least have
a semi finalist, though that will hardly console the two who don't
make it.
And so perhaps to a repeat of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong final
when the prodigious Ashour and Shabana swapped shots in an exchange,
which, bewilderingly skilful as it was, lacked substance. Neither
would have chosen this for their quarter final, but Ashour, carried
along on the tide of youth, will relish it more than the world no 1.
Let no-one pretend they know who will win in Saudi Arabia :
Gaultier, Shabana and Ashour are probably the three form choices,
but, in all sport, especially squash nowadays, form doesn't always
work out, which is, of course, why it fascinates.
Malcolm Willstrop
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