The Superseries Finals 2006, a unique tournament

LINCOU STILL GOING STRONG BUT JUST LOSES

Shabana had all the firepower he needed. (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert.)

Thierry Lincou almost did it again tonight on the first night  of the Super Series Finals. He came within three points of beating his opponent after being two games down. Yesterday in Liverpool he pulled off a remarkable win in beating David Palmer and tonight he faced a rampant world champion in Amr Shabana. The Egyptian was startling with his ability to find the nick and used this talent outrageously to take the first two games from Lincou in under 12 minutes of playing time.

Superseries Finals Replicates Successful Formula
On the day after we all traveled from Liverpool to central London, Satinder Bajwa and his team showed once again how successful the Superseries formula (that he just signed on for another three years for) is. Strong crowds, especially for the climatic evening's match between Lee Beachill and Anthony Ricketts, marked the first day of this year's play, most likely Peter Nicol's last appearance on court at Broadgate.

Strong crowds watched day one action from the world's top eight in their "season ending" competition. (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert.)

SHABANA ON FIRE

Shabana let Lincou back into the fray, but put in the winners when he needed them (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert.)

It looked like it was going to be all over in 15 minutes and nobody would have thought any the worse of Lincou who had a bare 24 hours to recover from his 80-minute match with Palmer in Liverpool.  But Lincou is the iron fist in the velvet glove and does not like to lose  at all, never mind in straight games. From the evidence in front of our eyes, there seemed little that he could do to combat the Egyptian's incredible, unnatural, almost unbelievable talent for hitting winners. Shabana came out of the starting gate, hit four winners to go 4-0  before Lincou got a point and then went on to lead 7-2  at which stage  Lincou seemed to lose heart and  made three errors in a row.  Shabana finished the game with a forehand drop and after just six mintues and thirty seconds, had won

The second game  was over even quicker — just over 5 minutes of play and Shabana had the game 11-4 to go two up. It was time for Lincou to produce his Houdini act  and  once again  he used the third game to turn the match around. He was now making Shabana do a bit more work and then started to produce some eye-popping winners of his own to lead 9-8. The next rally ended  with Shabana at the front of the court, having played Lincou right out of position — with the ball and the entire court at his mercy, Lincou hovering behind him , wondering where the ball would go. Shabana decided for a delicate drop and hit the tin. It was a very bad error — almost painful to watch — and Lincou was now at game ball.  He was denied the next point when  the referee called a Shabana boast good when the other 300 people watching thought it was down.  So 10-9 to Lincou and he was so incensed he finished the next rally with a screaming forehand drive that Shabana could only watch.

Matthew kept Palmer under the gun. (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert.)

The fourth game revealed a Lincou I had not seen before. At about 6-all he started to hit thundering kill shots, probably just to show Shabana that he, too, can hit those kinds of winners. The battle was on with a vengeance now as  both players showed that they really wanted this game. Shabana because he was tiring, Lincou because he wanted to stay in the match. There were only a few really long rallies — the rest were exploding all over the court with both players making remarkable  retrievals. At 9-9 Shabana complained to referee Dean Clayton that "the match is getting too physical."

Clayton replied. "It's nice to see you both going for the ball."

It was a retort that left Shabana  speechless — for once — and play resumed.  Perhaps he was so surprised at being out-quipped that it affected his game and he hit two errors to give the game to Lincou  11-9.

The fourth game  was close   but leading 4-3, Lincou seemed to completely go off the boil with three quick erros followed by a mishit sending the ball at himself to put Shabana at 8-5. Lincou pulled himself together to hit two fine winners — the second an audacious  high volley drop into the nick to reach 7-8  but Shabana who was looking tired  resorted to his main ally — the nick. Two outright winners in a row put him at match ball 10-7.  Lincou managed one more point before Shabana hit a forehand drive to  win 11-8 and just deny Lincou a second memorable come-from-behind victory.

This win will put  Shabana at the top of the Fleet Group with  Nick Matthew who beat David Palmer 3/1 in 61 minutes.  Matthew has been off the boil through overwork recently and felt it was about time he had a win and  after losing the first game won the next three games over an opponent who became increasingly irate with the referee's decisions. When those demons surface in Palmer, there is always a danger he will self-destruct.  His coach, Shawn Moxham had flown in to be with him and  his main job was to keep the lid on Palmer's temper between games.   All Matthew had to do was keep cool and keep the ball going and not get involved, which is what he did and earned the victory.

Nicol couldn't keep up with Willstrop today (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert.)

IN THE HARROW GROUP, James Willstrop took a  3/1 victory over Peter Nicol, but this was not the same  Nicol who ruled the roost for so long.  He is much more human these days, more demonstrative and smiles more, but he was hitting  a lot of loose balls. Worse still, he was failing to punish those loose balls that Willstrop inevitably produces when  he volleys and Willstrop loves to volley to keep his opponent on the hop.

There was a stretch when Nicol would not let a ball go past him and where he  controlled the wonderfully talented Willstrop and it earned Nicol a the third game.  But this was a player who was rusty -  or he was suffering from jet lag having just flown back from a very successful fundraiser (which raised a reported $40,000 for the SquashBusters program) the US. Willstrop had no trouble in wresting control away from Nicol in the fourth and it was all over in 8 minutes, 11-5 to give Willstrop a less than memorable victory.

It will be interesting to see if Nicol  gets going when he meets Lee Beachill and Anthony Ricketts. They were both in fighting form tonight and played a seventy minute  match  which Beachill won, 11-6 in the fifth. As Beachill has dropped out of the top ten, he will be wanting to prove a point all this week. He certainly proved it tonight. My bet is Beachill will top the Harrow Group with Ricketts and  Willstrop fighting for second place.

SUPER SERIES FINALS.
FIRST ROUND POOL RESULTS [ Draw ]

FLEET GROUP
NICK MATTHEW (ENG) BT  DAVID PALMER (AUS) 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 11-7 (61 mins)
AMR SHABANA (EGY) BT  THIERRY LINCOU (FRA) 11-3, 11-4, 9-11,  9-11, 11-8 (59mins)

HARROW GROUP
JAMES WILLSTROP (ENG) BT PETER NICOL (ENG)11-8, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5 (46 mins)
LEE BEACHILL (ENG) BT  ANTHONY RICKETTS (AUS) 11-4, 7-11,  4-11, 11-5, 11-6 (70mins)

Palmer couldn't recover his edge in time today, after yesterday's final in Liverpool. (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert.)