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Willstrop Upsets Gaultier To Reach Tournament of Champions Final
 England's
James Willstrop (left) upset second-seeded
Frenchman Gregory Gaultier in straight games to set up a clash with
top seed Ramy Ashour, the world No2 from
Egypt, in the final of the Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions at
Grand Central Terminal in New York.
Ashour raised his game to
another higher level of play as he defeated third seed David Palmer
in four games in front of yet another sell-out crowd at the established
PSA Super Series event. The first game was over in a flash – the
20-year-old Egyptian coming out of the starting gate at full throttle,
jumping out to a 4-0 and then an 8-3 lead, before winning the game 11-4.
“I was confident in the
first game,” said the world’s second-ranked player. "But I also knew that
Palmer would be tough.” Indeed, the three-time Tournament of Champions
semi-finalist stepped up his attack in the second game, winning it 11-7 to
even the match.
“I did start to feel
pressured today,” said Ashour. "But my brother Hisham told me between the
second and third game to get all the negative thoughts out of my head – to
play my own game.” Play his own game is exactly what Ashour did in the
third – changing the pace, using the quick attack and moving the ball around
the entire court to blister through the third game 11-3.
But Palmer, a two-time World
Open champion who makes his opponents work hard to win their matches, was
not ready to walk off the court so quickly. After a seesaw exchange of
leads, the match went into a tie break at ten-all. Up 11-10, Ashour hit a
rare tin. Great length by Palmer and some well-placed drop shots gave the
31-year-old Australian his one game ball. But the extraordinarily talented
Egyptian reeled off three nick winners in a row to earn a place in his first
Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions final.
“He just plays so fast,”
Palmer commented after the match. “And there’s not much you can do against
three rolling nicks at the end of a game.”
Ashour added: “I was
desperate to make the final here."
James Willstrop, the
24-year-old fourth seed, defeated Gaultier 11-9, 11-2, 11-1 in three very
quick games. Although Gaultier finished the match, the wrist injury he had
been nursing all week finally became intolerable. Willstrop, who has played
strong confident squash throughout the tournament is looking forward to the
playing the young Ashour.
“Hopefully we can reproduce
the match we played here last year,” said the Englishman, referring to the
2007 Tournament of Champions quarter-final in which he and Ashour played one
of the most spectacular matches in the tournament’s history. “He’s a good
lad and a fair player.”
Ashour is celebrating his 12th
PSA Tour final appearance, while Willstrop is marking his 13th.
Willstrop &
Gaultier To Face Up In New York Semis
 Second-seeded
Frenchman Gregory Gaultier (left) stemmed a brave fight back by Scot
John White to beat the US-based former world number one in five games
to set up a semi-final clash with
England's fourth seed James Willstrop in
the Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions at Grand Central Terminal
in New York.
“Good for the crowd, not so
good for me,” was how Gaultier summed up his quarter-final victory in the
PSA Super Series squash event over White, the 34-year-old PSA Tour
veteran who is juggling his professional playing career while coaching the
Franklin & Marshall College men’s squash team. White had the
standing room only crowd on their feet roaring with appreciation as he
staved off two match balls in the third game with a display of unbridled
determination, stunning shot-making and corner to corner court coverage.
Down 8-10 in the fourth,
White hit a winner after the match’s then-longest rally to close Gaultier’s
lead to one. The 9-10 behind, Gaultier seemed to have numerous match balls
- but the never-say-die veteran picked up four winners off Gaultier’s
racquet, and finally hit a winner of his own to tie the score. A Gaultier
error gave White game ball, but then White tinned to even the score again.
A service return cross court nick winner gave White the edge once more, and
then on game ball, he hit a stunning backhand volley cross court kill to
keep him in the match.
“I got the bit between the
teeth in the fourth game,” said White. “For a moment there, I thought I was
19, but after that long rally to get to 9-10 in the fourth, I realised how
old I am.” White tried to slow the game down in the fifth game to conserve
the little energy he had left, but Frenchman, who started the match with an
easy confidence that was shaken by White’s comeback, picked up the pace to
win the decider 11-7.
Gaultier will next face
fourth seed James Willstrop (right) who eliminated Australian Stewart
Boswell in four games. Willstrop, who has been a Tournament of
Champions fan favourite since 2004 when, as a 20-year-old, he reached the
quarter-finals, played a cautious opening game.
“Stewart can really punish
you in the back of the court - so I wanted to pick my chances carefully,”
the 24-year-old Englishman said after the match. Boswell drew level after
the second game - but Willstrop opened up his attacking game, taking the
ball short and creating more opportunities for his natural shot-making
ability, and won the third and fourth games with relative ease to claim an
11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 victory in 60 minutes.
Top Seed Tested At
Grand Central Terminal
 Top
seed Ramy Ashour (left) was fully tested in his quarter-final match
against fellow Egyptian Wael El Hindi in the Bear Stearns
Tournament of Champions - but he passed with flying colours and a
standing ovation from the sell-out crowd at Grand Central Terminal in
New York.
In their quest to reach the semi-finals of the prestigious PSA Super
Series squash event, the two players went all-out - delighting the
spectators with a display of skilled shot-making that is the trademark of
Egyptian squash.
It was eighth-seeded El
Hindi who took the early lead in the match, using his physical play and his
touch in the front of the court to win the first two games 11-5, 11-7.
Ashour found himself consistently having to move around El Hindi to get to
the ball and he hit a significant number of unforced errors. The
20-year-old world No2 nonetheless returned to the court for the third game
with confidence and turned the match around as he stepped up his pace and
used a quick attack on the ball to keep El Hindi off balance. In the third
and fourth games, Ashour took the lead from the very first point, and never
relinquished it, evening the match at two-all with 11-4, 11-5 game wins.
As Ashour quickened the pace
and the speed of his attack, El Hindi started to visibly tire, but he
stepped up to challenge his higher-ranked opponent in the decider. El Hindi
took an early 4-1 lead, fell behind at 4-5, the evened the score at six-all
and eight-all. But Ashour was not about to leave the court without the win
and closed out the deciding game 11-8 - hitting a stunning volley cross
court nick winner on the final point.
With characteristic
enthusiasm, Ashour shared his delight with the victory. “I wanted to test
myself, to prove that I could be down and come back - and this match was a
great test,” the 20-year-old winner said after the match. “I am going to be
put in a lot of hard situations and I have to figure out how to deal with
that.”
In the first match of the
day, fourth-seeded Australian David Palmer also found himself in an
all-out battle as Mohammed Abbas, the third Egyptian player still in
the draw, came out shooting. The match was a superb display of style,
technique and all court strategy as the two men treated the crowd to the
highest standard of squash they had seen since the tournament began. After
taking the first game 11-8, Abbas fended off two game balls before
succumbing in the tiebreak, 0-2.
The third game saw another
tiebreak; Abbas had a chance to win the game at 11-10, but Palmer nabbed it
to go ahead 2/1 in games. It was a back and forth battle in the fourth but
Palmer held Abbas off to earn his third trip to the Tournament of Champions
semi-finals.
“I haven’t had any match
play for a few weeks, so it was good to have a tougher match today,” said
Palmer, the world No4 from
New South Wales. As for his
chances against Ashour in the semis, Palmer said: ”I feel pretty relaxed.
I am the underdog now and Ramy has the pressure. Just a year ago, he was
chasing the top ranked players and now he is the one being chased.”
Mixed
Fortunes For Ashours At Grand Central Terminal
 Top seed Ramy Ashour
(right)
appears confidently on track in his quest for his first Bear Stearns
Tournament of Champions title after eliminating his Egyptian compatriot
Omar Elborolossy in straight games in second round play at Grand
Central Terminal in
New York.
But there was no joy for his
older brother
Hisham Mohd Ashour,
who went down 3/0 to
France's second seed Gregory Gaultier at the other end of the PSA
Super Series squash event draw.
At just 20 years of age,
Ramy Ashour displays a maturity beyond his years, and clearly had no qualms
about defeating the 32-year-old Elborolossy. Allowing his opponent just two
points in each of the first and third games, Ashour left the capacity crowd
wanting more of his dynamic court play and creative shot making.
Ashour junior will meet
countryman Wael El Hindi in the quarterfinals. The sixth-seeded El
Hindi eliminated Julian Illingworth, the highest-ever ranking US
men’s player, much to the disappointment of the highly partisan crowd who
only rarely get to see an American in second round play of a PSA Super
Series event.
“I am really impressed with
the work Julian has done to improve his game,” said El Hindi after the
match. Having spent the last year on the men’s pro tour after graduating
from Yale University,
Illingworth is still learning some rookie lessons. “I could have played
better,” he said after the match. “Wael has a different style of play - he’s
very scrappy and there’s lots of talk on the court.”
The third Egyptian still
left in the draw, eighth seed Mohammed Abbas will face off in the
quarterfinals against two-time world champion David Palmer. Abbas
eliminated Colombia’s
Miguel Angel Rodriguez in three games and Australia’s Ryan
Cuskelly met the same fate against countryman Palmer, the third seed.
Australia’s Stewart
Boswell also advanced, defeating Brazil’s Rafael F Alarcon in
four games. Alarcon played an attacking game early in the match, but after
jumping out to early leads in the first two games, was unable to hang on to
a winning margin. The third was a seesaw battle; behind at 7-8, Alarcon
snatched the game win at 11-9 after Boswell was assessed a conduct stroke
for bouncing his racquet off the floor in frustration.
But the biggest turnaround
of the match occurred when Alarcon squandered five game balls in the fourth,
losing a 3-1 tiebreak after being ahead 10-6. “When I was down game ball, I
actually relaxed and focused on playing out each point,” Boswell said after
the match. Looking ahead to facing his next round opponent -
England's fourth seed
James Willstrop, who eliminated Malaysia’s
Mohd Azlan Iskandar
in three games - the Australian commented wryly: “I’ll need to get better
in the next two days.”
The final quarterfinal
match-up features Gregory Gaultier against seventh seed John White
(right),
the only former Tournament of Champions finalist left in the field.
White,
runner-up in 2004, ended up with a battle on his hands against Englishman
Jonathon
Kemp (right background). The Australian-born White, who plays for
Scotland and now also
coaches the Franklin & Marshall College squash team, had a multi-tasking
weekend. Over 24 hours, White won his first round Tournament of Champions
match, coached the F&M college team to victory in two rounds of match play
in a tournament at Yale University, and returned to New York City to play
Kemp.
The Scot got off to a great
start in the evening’s last match, taking a 2/0 game lead. But in the third
game White started shooting too early, resulting in several errors and
giving Kemp the opportunity to even the match at two-all.
“I realised that I was doing exactly what I tell my players not to do,” said
White about the third and fourth game losses. Taking the advice of fellow
player David Palmer to slow the ball down and wait for the right opportunity
to play his shots, White took a 10-5 lead in the deciding game, winning it
11-7.
Seeds
Advance To Second Round
At Grand Central Terminal
Even though there were no
upsets in the concluding matches of the first round of play in the Bear
Stearns Tournament of Champions, it was a significant day for several
players in the PSA Super Series squash championship renowned for its
legacy of illustrious titleholders and its venue in historic Grand
Central Terminal in
New York.
Squash fans were especially
thrilled to find a dramatic photo of the glittering glass court under the
chandeliers in Grand Central on the front page of the Metro Section of the
vaunted New York Times newspaper. And the busiest man at the tournament may
have been top seed Ramy Ashour. With a day off after winning his
first round match, the energetic and charismatic 20-year-old Egyptian was
onsite for all of the afternoon session, coaching fellow players and doing
TV commentary.
Unseeded Yasser El Halaby
had a sizeable cheering section as he took on
Brazil’s
Rafael F Alarcon
in the day’s first match. A graduate of
Princeton University, where
he won four national intercollegiate titles, and an assistant pro at the
Harvard Club, El Halaby had supporters from both institutions in the stands.
His fans roared with delight when he evened the match at one-all after
taking the second game 11-5. But even with his countryman, world No2 Ramy
Ashour, coaching him, El Halaby succumbed to the South American
11-8, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5.
Next on court was
19-year-old Khawaja Adil Maqbool, making his Tournament of Champions
debut against 11th seed Mohd Azlan Iskandar of
Malaysia. Iskandar wasted
no time in his advance to the second round as he defeated Adil Maqbool in
three games. Despite the loss, the Dubai-based youngster was thrilled
nonetheless.
“I stepped on court and I thought about the great players who
have won this tournament. It was beautiful to be out on that court.”
Hungary’s Mark Krajcsak
also made his Tournament of Champions debut. It looked for awhile as though
it might have been a winning one as he took a 2/0 lead in games and was up
7-4 in the fourth against thirteenth seed Jonathon Kemp. But the
Englishman got his game on track just in time to secure an
8-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-3
victory.
“I just lost focus in the
fourth game,” Krajcsak said. “And the points slipped away so quickly.” He
received a different analysis from none other than Ramy Ashour, who had
watched the match and was happy to share his insights. “Kemp started
attacking more in the fourth game, and you didn’t respond,” commented the
young Egyptian who is so clearly passionate about the sport. “But don’t
worry. You’ll do better next time.”
In the final match of the
day session, twelfth seed Hisham Ashour - Ramy's older brother - had
his hands full with Tarek Momen, a fellow Egyptian who was also
making his first Tournament of Champions appearance. The confident
19-year-old came out shooting. “His shots were like a knife through butter,”
said Ashour senior. ”He’d hit a drop shot and it would nick; he’d hit a
deep rail and it would nick.” After trading games, Ashour stepped up with
authority to win the deciding game 11-4.
The evening session marked
the return of two players who had missed last year’s championship,
Australia’s Stewart
Boswell and France’s Gregory Gaultier. Boswell, who defeated
Egypt’s Amr Mansi in four games, acknowledged the Tournament of
Champions appeal to the players. “I really missed not being able to play
here last year,” said Boswell. “And now that I am back, this is the one
tournament that I will never miss for the rest of my career. The atmosphere
is unlike any other. Even for the first round of play, the stands are full
and the fans really show how much they appreciate what we do on court.”
 Second seed Gaultier
(left), who
dismissed Canada’s
Shawn Delierre 3/0, was similarly pleased to be back on court in Grand
Central. “This one of the best venues,” said the reigning British Open
champion. ”I like the crowds and I like how busy it is. It’s
spectacular.”
Fifth-seed James
Willstrop, a Tournament of Champions fan favourite, treated the crowd to
a display of elegant squash as he despatched
Ireland’s John Rooney
with an ease that the Englishman confessed was surprising. “I have been
having trouble in my first round matches recently, so I was expecting that
his one would be similar,” Willstrop said. ”But I ended up feeling quite
fluent out on the court tonight.”
India’s Ritwik
Bhattacharya was the last of the tournament’s new faces on court. He
faced seventh seed John White, who made very short work of the
evening’s final match, winning 3/0 in 24 minutes. It was a particularly
impressive performance considering that White is doing double duty as the
squash coach at Franklin & Marshall College while still playing the
PSA Tour. Despite losing, Bhattacharya was undaunted. “I will be back next
year and I will be better,” he declared.
Illingworth Topples Tuominen In
Grand Central Upset
 Julian Illingworth,
the three-time US National Champion, delighted a vocal and partisan capacity
crowd in Grand Central Terminal in New York when he upset world No17
Olli Tuominen in four games of determined squash in the opening round
of play in the Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions.
"I liked the match up with
Olli going into tonight’s match," said the 23-year-old from
New York who made history in
last year’s Tournament of Champions when he became the first American to
make it to the second round. “I knew he wasn’t going to outshoot me.”
Although the 28-year-old
Finn stormed to a 9-4 lead in the first game, Illingworth was unfazed,
winning the game 11-9. In the second game, Illingworth led most of the way
until Tuominen snatched the lead at 11-10. But again the American held fast
and won the tiebreak 5-3. Visibly tired in the third, he took the gamble of
letting the game go at 2-11. The gamble paid off; he won the fourth game
11-8.
As Illingworth put ice packs
on his sore legs after the match, he compared this win to his historic 2007
performance. “Last year I was lucky,” he said referring to his having made
it into the main draw as a lucky loser and then playing a qualifier in the
first round. “This year, playing the 10th seed, I really earned the
victory.”
Illingworth will next play
Egypt’s Wael El
Hindi, the fifth seed who ended the evening’s matches with authority,
defeating qualifier Regardt Schonborn of South Africa in straight
games. El Hindi’s fellow countryman Ramy Ashour, the tournament’s
top seed, making his first appearance on court after injuries derailed him
at year end, delighted the spectators with his trademark shot-making as he
swept past the hometown wild card entrant Christopher Gordon
11-6, 11-5, 11-5.
Omar Elborolossy
and Mohammed Abbas also moved into the next round, but 15th seed
Omar Abdel Aziz was sent packing by Australian qualifier Ryan
Cuskelly in a 115-minute marathon match. Surprisingly, the experienced
Egyptian did not take advantage of his opponent’s badly cramping legs in the
fifth game, keeping the ball in play deep in the court instead of making
Cuskelly move to the corners.
After the match, the
20-year-old from New
South Wales almost couldn’t believe his good fortune: “Just being able to
play here in the Tournament of Champions for the first time is unbelievable.
This atmosphere is so amazing – it is what we play squash for,” said
Cuskelly after his
11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-8 victory. “I feel really lucky to have come out
with a win.”
Cuskelly’s second round
opponent will be compatriot David Palmer, the third seed and two-time
World Champion who cruised to a 3-0 victory over Ireland’s Liam Kenny.
In the contest between the tournament’s two Colombian players, it was the
younger 22-year-old Miguel Angel Rodriguez who prevailed in straight
games over 25-year-old qualifier Bernardo Samper.
Qualifiers From Seven Countries Head For Grand Central Terminal
Players from seven countries
prevailed in the qualifying finals of the Bear Stearns Tournament of
Champions at the New York Athletic Club to earn places in the
main draw of the established PSA Super Series squash event at
Grand Central Terminal in
New York.
Youth prevailed in one of
the most hotly-contested matches as 19-year-old
Khawaja Adil Maqbool
staved off four match balls en-route to defeating 34-year-old Englishman
Clive Leach (the assistant pro at the New York Athletic Club) in five
games. On an unseasonably warm winter day which made the courts unusually
hot, and facing an opponent with a home court advantage, the Dubai-based
teenager kept his cool to eke out a 5-11, 11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-10 (3-1)
victory in 66 minutes.
Leach, who had to start the
fourth game with a conduct stroke against him for failing to return to the
court on time, won the game to even the match at two-all. The veteran
looked on course to make it into the main draw when he carved out a 10-7
lead in the deciding game - but his young opponent proved fearless and tied
the score. Leach had one more match ball, but the Pakistani reeled off the
next three points to earn his first trip to the glass court in Grand Central
Terminal.
“He was getting to all my
winners,” commented Zambian Patrick Chifunda wryly after losing his
69-minute battle with former
Trinity College player
Bernardo Samper, who drew his Colombian countryman Miguel Angel
Rodriguez in the main draw.
Mohd Ali Anwar Reda
became the
seventh Egyptian in the main draw when he survived the longest match of the
day and defeated Badr Abdel Aziz of
Sweden in five games after
being on court for 74 minutes. In another five-game match, India’s
Ritwik Bhattacharya dashed the hopes of young American Gilly Lane
and will play US-based seventh seed John White, of Scotland, on
Friday evening.
The withdrawal of
Egypt's world No1 Amr
Shabana from the event (suffering with acute tendonitis in his wrist)
has led to compatriot Ramy Ashour being elevated to top seed. The
20-year-old world No2 from Cairo is making his PSA Tour comeback
after sustaining a foot injury in November. England's US Open champion
Nick Matthew is also a last-minute casualty. The world No5 from
Sheffield is undergoing treatment for a ligament tear in his right shoulder.
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