Karim Darwish had his complete game on display tonight. photo © 2006 Debra Tessier. more photos

DARWISH STOPS BEACHILL IN OVERTIME

[The Draw]  [WISPA Report]

Tonight the Tournament of Champions came alive with two scintillating men’s quarterfinal matches. And Egyptians featured in both.

In the first stanza, Egyptian Karim Darwish came out on top of Lee Beachill in a superb minuet of squash.  In the second, Egyptian Amr Shabana also put on a fine display, as he shot his way past a very slightly off-kilter Thierry Lincou.  We will now have an all-Egyptian semi final in the top half of the draw. And Shabana has defeated Darwish in their last five meetings.

Darwish versus Beachill was a wonderful display of top quality squash, played superbly down to the last point.  Darwish said after the match, “ I have been working very hard in training to add consistency to my attacking game. It was all there today. I am very happy.” For Darwish, it was his first win over Beachill since 2001.

The match began with an immediate offensive flurry from the smooth Egyptian, Karim Darwish.  Darwish caught Beachill unawares, he looked very much the deer in the headlights as he immediately fell behind and let the first game get away from him.  This would come back to haunt Beachill later, since by failing to force Darwish to work in the first game, he left Darwish with too much of a reserve in the fifth game.

The second started out very much like the first, with Darwish out of the gate with an immediate 4-1 lead.  But suddenly Lee Beachill was able to collect himself and force some order back into his game and the contest.  Beachill eliminated the errors, picked up his reaction time, and increased his accuracy.  Now Darwish was caught short, and Beachill raced through, on the strength of several attacking errors by Darwish and evened it up at 1 each.

Lee Beachill was very good tonight, just not quite good enough. photo © 2006 Debra Tessier. more photos

But Darwish regrouped in the intermission. Now both contestants were firing on all cylinders.

John Power (Jonathon’s father), who was in the audience remarked, “What a wonderful exhibition of squash.  Not played at a very fast pace, but certainly at very high quality, with every possible type of squash on display.”

Beachill was now playing his classic placement squash, not making mistakes and working the court effectively.  Darwish was responding, tracking down virtually everything that Beachill could play. Beachill wanted to attack the front left corner when given the opportunity. Darwish wanted to show that he could pick up anything that Beachill could place there and reply with an offensive shot of his own.

Beachill was playing exceedingly steady positional squash.  Darwish was countering with daring but smooth attacks.  Being cautious when necessary, Darwish attacked with the boast, a smooth drop to the right corner nick and a more severe drop to the left.

With Darwish making few errors in his attacks, Beachill was forced to scramble, and in consequence threw up enough forced-loose balls to give Darwish the openings he needed to kill the rallies, to take a lead and then take the third.

I’m not sure what Malcolm Willstrop said to Lee Beachill during the break, but Lee came out taking everything possible to the front court as soon as game four began.  He initiated a series of exchanges in front that he won.  Beachill built up a quick game four lead, and proceeded to covert that lead into the fourth to force a fifth. 

But had Beachill allowed Darwish to reach the fifth without working hard enough?  Darwish came into the fifth fresh and eager. 

The fifth developed evenly.  Each point was heavily contested. 

The players attacked the back of the court, seeking to force the opponent into a weak return.  Each contestant was now making terrific retrieves, saves and recoveries. 

Meanwhile, Darwish wanted to attack in front and signaled that the fifth game was going to be electric when he won two early points in the fifth with slick corner shots hit off of Beachill drops.  Between Darwish’s attacks, each point was a strategic battle to maneuver the opponent into some kind of an error. But the errors weren’t coming from either side.  The score slowly mounted to 3-3 and the movement was exhausting.

Darwish wanted to attack, but he picked his spots.  It was usually a boast from the right side or a low front court shot.  Beachill, whose strength is his lack of positional mistakes, made two quick errors at 3-3, giving Darwish the advantage at 5-3.  We had now reached the crisis point. Every point was crucial to both players.  Beachill wanted to work Darwish deep into the back corners.  While Darwish wanted to find opportunities to attack and break up the rhythm.  Any Beachill play to the front was countered by dizzying combination of drops, corners and angles by Darwish.  Both players were putting the opponent in danger. Both were retrieving the most difficult of shots.  Rallies were reset down the rail, time and time again.

The scored moved to 8-8. Neither player was surrendering. Darwish appeared to know that a battle down the walls would go in Beachill’s favor — he looked for the opportunities to inject his superb racquet work.

Darwish attacked to the front right and left. At 8-8 Beachill responded to a flurry of attacks with a backhand drive just beyond the reach of Darwish.

It was on the front right corner that Darwish was gaining an advantage. He has a silky smooth feather drop on the right, that he caresses, floating down into the nick, rolling out.  He got one of those at 8-9 to tie it up again. 

The crowd quieted down and watched the two battle to 9-9, 10-10, 11-11, and 12-12. Finally at 12  each,  Darwish was able to complete two consecutive rallies with low drives that Beachill was only able to return back into the tin.  Darwish had won.

“It’s all come together, Darwish said.” “I have been working to complement my attacking game with steady play two.   I was able to do it all today and really play squash.”

CREATIVITY  VERSUS PREPARATION

Thierry Lincou, who won the Canary Wharf Classic a week ten days ago, and was the finalist here at the TOC a year ago, was brought back to earth in a masterful performance by Egypt’s Amr Shabana.

Tonight, Amr Shabana had Jonathon Power, who doesn’t play until tomorrow, in his corner, as his second.

Probably Shabana didn’t need anyone.  His game was consistent, strong, and also creative. Shabana has now shown consistency over such a period of time, that his old label of erratic play, must now be removed.

Lincou’s took an early and brief lead in game one of this match. After that, Shabana unleashed his creative but controlled play, raised it to a high level of focus and performance, and forced Lincou into a largely reactive mode.  At first, it was only dead winners that Lincou couldn’t respond  to, and there were enough of those to give Shabana game one.

In game two, Shabana hit a lot of tin early in the game.  That is death against Thierry Lincou, who is always consistent.  Shabana recovered to play almost error free from 1-5 in the second, but there was too much ground to make up and Lincou had game two.

The Shabana we had seen in game one was again on display in game three. Shabana again applied control, tempered creativity, deception, and some terrific attacking play, to keep Lincou off balance.

But it was in the fourth game that Lincou lost heart.  Shabana’s shots were completely on target. A dead nick, a deceiving boast and a drive with perfect length broke Lincou’s spirit, and from there on, some uncharacteristic errors from Lincou took Shabana to 11-4 in the fourth, and a great night for Egypt.

The crowd was announced as “oversold,” though we counted about 75 empty seats, making for a slightly smaller group than Monday evening; but behind the front wall, in the free standing room, fascinated spectators were packed three and four deep and with the electric contests underway, it was an alive crowd.  Most however, had left by the time the final match of the evening, the women’s match between Vicky Botwright and Isabelle Stoehr, began shortly before 10PM.

That match started hopefully, with Stoehr playing an effective counter game against her much taller opponent. Stoehr took a big 4-0 and 7-4 first game lead but then collapsed in the face of precise length from Botwright, losing the first 10-8 after several errors on the Frenchwoman's part forced the tiebreaker and Botwright forged ahead on a dead winner.

It was a strong ride home from there for Botwright who took advantage of Stoehr's loss of confidence to keep the pressure on and bring the night to a rapid conculsion. [First round women's report and scores.]

Tournament Of Champions, Grand Central, New York
Results, Quarterfinals, Top Half of Draw:
[12 ] Karim Darwish(Egy)  def [8 ] Lee Beachill (Eng)  11-4 9-11 11-9 5-11 11-10 (4-2)
[3] Amr Shabana (Egy) def [5 ] Thierry Lincou (Fra)    11-5 5-11 11-9 11-4