EGYPTIANS GIVE A CLINIC           [TOC DRAW]

EGYPT TO THE FORE

How long will it be before squash is known as The Egyptian Game? The foremost junior tournament, The British Junior Open, has just finished with the Egyptian kids taking 90percent of the titles, totally dominating the finals. And now here in New York, there are 10 Egyptians in the 32 main draw. It almost goes without saying that the top seed is an Egyptian, 20 year old Ramy Ashour, making his come back after a 3-month layoff because of a foot injury.

The 2008 Tournament of Champions opened in Grand Central Station with, naturally an Egyptian, Omar El Borolossy, facing Canadian Matthew Guiffre. El Borolossy is ranked 37 on the way up while Guiffre is 59 on the way down. And as the match progressed that difference became obvious. There was however a glitch, which suggested there could have been an upset; after losing the first game 11-7,  Guiffre came back to win the second after forcing a tie-break. For this period he seemed Borolossy’s equal, handling the pace and the Egyptian’s short game.  But  then the spell was broken and Borolossy steamed through to take the third game 11-6. By the fourth game Guiffre just fell apart hitting error after error as though he wanted to get out of the court as soon as possible. This gave  El Borolossy  a nice easy passage to the second round where he is almost certain to meet the top seed, Ramy Ashour.

AS I have said before,  the better player keeps on keeping on longer than the lesser player. It’s all in the head, as I am sure Sigmund must have said at one point in his career before he discovered the power of sex.

ABBAS GIVES LESSON TO REDA

The second match of the afternoon, as the crowds poured through Vanderbilt Hall on their way to lunch, was an all Egyptian match up. (Do they grow these players on the banks of the Nile?)  Grand old Mohammed Abbas faced the fresh faced Mohammed Reda, an 18 year old who didn’t even both to go to the British Junior Open.  

Reda was a qualifier and shows every sign of making his way up to the top ten in the next few years. He doesn’t have the racket skills or the hours on court that Abbas has and so was dismissed in 35 minutes, but he won enough points to hold his head high.  Reda has a nice, happy disposition on court, which could well disappear when he has spent a year or two in the seniors (I hope not)  and you know that he will learn very quickly  and become yet another Egyptian threat.

CUSKELLY SURVIVES THE DRAMA, HISTRIONICS AND A THOUSAND DECISIONS

Omar Abdel Aziz, unike Reda, is emotional. He must have taken drama lessons from Davide  Bianchetti. Each and every appeal is greeted with arm-waving (he’d be wonderful at semaphore) eye rolling and heaven beseeching. And that’s  before the referee has given his decision.

Ryan Cuskelly, his opponent, is quite the opposite, mostly expressionless and the worst he ever gets is slightly annoyed.  In his very workmanlike way he won the first two games  and was on the way to a straight games victory when he lost the plot a little, allowing Aziz to catch up in the third game and then win it, after a series of appeals and counter appeals. Some matches can go without the players blocking each other once. This match made up for all of those matches.  It seemed that every four strokes, somebody was getting in the way of the other bloke.

APPEALS WITHOUT LET UP

The fourth game went on forever. Well,in squash  a 30 minute game is forever. There were more appeals than the Supreme Court has heard in its entire history. How two player can try to occupy the same square yard so consistently  is one of they mysteries that will never be solved. The fact was it became tedious and unattractive squash and it appeared that Cuskelly was getting tired after having picked up so many drop shots.

He lost that fourth game 11-7 – after leading 4-0, but found the strength to hang in to lead the final game from the beginning, but it was close at times. Some points were decided after seven or eight lets so the progress to final points was agonisingly slow.

Not that the squash was that bad as both players went for winners, although I think Cuskelly would make life  for himself a little easier if he volleyed the ball occasionally, rather than always taking it off the back wall.

At 9-8 for Cuskelly  Aziz could still have won it, but he faltered slightly to put Cuskelly at match ball and then went for a winner only to clang the tin, putting an end to the  115 minutes  of  dissension. It’s matches like this  that make me want to ask for a raise from Ron Beck.

THE COLOMBIAN CIVIL WAR

Bernardo Samper fought through two rounds of qualifying only find the luck of the draw put him in the first round against fellow Columbian Miguel Rodriguez, who has now reached 30 in the world.

Samper played well and certainly was not outclassed by his countryman. They came on court wearing red shirts and white pants and even played a similar game. Samper knows when to go for the kill  and has the skill to make the final shot. Rodriguez however, has been on the pro circuit for three years and in the final analysis he was the better player. Samper never gave up and  even managed to force a tie break in the third game and then made the dreadful error of hitting the tin togive the match point to Rodriguez.

I told Bernardo he played well and he replied:

“I wanted to beat him so badly.  I used to go home from Trinity and beat him in the (Colombian) nationals, but obviously he got better,” he replied. “Yes the pace is harder but you know, it’s hard after  you’ve done four hours of coaching. It’s tough to do the two things at once, coaching and playing. I’d love to go on the circuit full time, but I don’t have the money,” he added.

FIRST ROUND Partial results.
[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) vs Chris Gordon (USA)
[16]Omar El Borolossy (EGY) bt Matthew Guiffre (CAN)11-7, 10-11(0-2) 11-6, 11-2, (54mins)
[6]Wael El Hindi (EGY) vs (Q) Reggie Schonborn (RSA)
[10]Olli Tuominen (FIN) v Julian Illingworth (USA)
[3] David Palmer (AUS)  vs Liam Kenny (IRL)
Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) bt [15] Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY) 11-9,11-8,9-11,7-11, 11-8 (115mins)
[8] Mohammed Abbas (EGY) bt (Q)Mohammed Reda (EGY) 11-5,11-7, 11-8 (35mins)
[14] Miguel Rodriguez (COL) bt Q) Bernardo Samper (COL) 11-9,11-5, 11-10(2-0) (39mins)
[9] Rafael Alarcon  (BRA) vs Yasser El Halaby (EGY)
[5] Stewart Boswell (AUS) vs Q) Amr Mansi (EGY)
[11] M.Azlan Iskander (MAS) vs Q) Maqbool (PAK)
[4] James Willstrop (ENG) vs  Q) John Rooney (IRL)
[13] Jonathan Kemp (ENG) vs Mark Krajcsak(HUN)
[7]  John White (SCO) vs  Q Ritwit Bhattacherya (IND)
[12] Hisham Ashour (EGY) vs  Tarek Momen (EGY)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) vs Shawn Delierre (CAN

 

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