Tournament of Champions Squash at Grand Central in NYC

AND RAMY ADVANCES [TOC DRAW]

ILLINGWORTH DOES IT AGAIN

Julian Illingworth tonight earned his stripes as a genuine prospect for the upper echelons of the game with a stylish, fighting victory over the world number 17 Olli Tuominen of Finland. Whereas last year when he won his first round match, he looked like an apprentice who had stumbled into the president’s office, tonight he strode the court as though he had every right to be there. From the beginning he attacked and was not going to be drawn into the Finn’s attritional, hit-the-ball-all-night-and-day game. Sixty percent of the action was down the left wall and Illingworth was very much at home there, whether deft drops or tight soaring lobs to the back.

Tuominen seemed at a loss and had no strategy to counter Illingworth’s constant attack, and spent a lot of time on his back foot. The packed hall was solidly behind the American number one and Illingworth gave them something to holler about. He won the first game 11-9 and led the second game with some superb play and wonderful reaction shots. He got to game ball at 10-8 and fell victim to Tuominen’ fine hold followed by a backhand cross court flick. The next rally was huge- absolutely massive - and must have gone on for 60 shots as they moved each other all over the court. It was a hold-your-breath moment, everybody in the Vanderbilt hall willing Illingworth to hit the final winner to give him that two game lead, instead he put his shot in the tin to make the score 10-10. Huge groans.

But Illingworth persisted and got to game ball again at 12-11. Another massive rally and again a huge oooh! of pain from the spectators as he tinned the ball with a backhand. Another game ball at 13 –12 and Tuominen’s ball hit a lucky nick at the back. Finally, Illingworth worked Tuominen out of position and Tuominen’s appeal for a let was denied and Illingworth got the game 15-13 for a two game lead.

But that second game had emptied his tank; he got back on court late saying he needed to put on a second pair of socks because his feet were blistering. But he simply wasn’t ready for battle and could hardly move as Tuominen took the third game 11-2. AS they left the court over the speakers came Sinatra singing “Ive got you under my skin” which as good a blister music as I’ve ever heard.

It looked like the glory days were over for Illingworth and at 7-4 down he still wasn’t the same player as he was in the first games. But he played himself in gradually, continuing to go for his winners, continuing to work that left wall and climbed back to 8-8.

Some of the refereeing, even with the 3-ref system, was atrocious and on two occasions the players overruled the ref by giving a point that the referee had denied. Illingworth was now back in charge and with victory in sight he hit three beautiful winners to take the game 11-8 and give the crowd something to cheer about. I was doing the post-match interviews and I can tell you, it was Illingworth night in Grand Central Station.

In the interview he said he was so tired after the second game (it had taken 28 minutes to play) he could hardly stand up and no, the blisters did not hamper him.

He has a day to recover (tomorrow is the second half of the first round) and will then face Wael el Hindi in the second round.

Don’t be surprised if he pulls off another upset.

RAMY WINS BUT GORDON LEAVES WITH HONOUR

It must be pretty intimidating when you are ranked 74 in the world and you hear that you have been drawn to play the world number two and present wunderkind of the squash world. Chris Gordon of the US admitted as much but still managed to play well enough to amass 16 points over the 39 minutes it took Ramy Ashour to win in straight games.

Ashour entered the court looking anything but confident, his eyes lowered and not the usual ebullient athlete that we have come to expect. There were rumours that his foot injury was still not cured and Ashour admitted that before the match he had doubts about it. But once the match started, that lightning arm, the flashing racket and extraordinary speed of his brain was soon evident. Gordon took the first two points on Ashour errors, much to the delight of the crowd , but then Ashour ran off eight points in a row to lead 8-3. These were mainly short rallies and unless Gordon hit tight good length, Ashour was sending the ball towards the nick somewhere and usually finding it. Gordon was playing well. If there were nerves he didn’t show it and his persistence paid off in the form of another four errors off Ashour’s new Head racket. (There had been rumours that despite signing with Head he was still playing with his old racket, of another manufacturer).

So the score was 9-6 and Gordon was growing in confidence. After all, Ashour had not played a match in three months – he could be really rusty. Sadly Gordon hit the tin with a backhand and Ashour hit a perfect forehand drop to take the game 11-6.

Gordon was failing to find good length much of the time which has to be put down to nerves – and pressure and from 3-3 Ashour cruised to 8-4, and then closed out the game with his trademark forehand kill, performed with an easy swish of the racket. A wonderful shot. Should be bronzed.

The third game was notable for two lost balls, the second when Ashour held match ball at 10-3. This worked in Gordon’s favour as he managed to pick up two more points before the inevitable Ashour winner to secure the game 11-5.

Ashour said he had been worried about his ankle but he felt it was OK and then got a plug in for his new racket before saying – natch – that Gordon played well. As for the American hero, he put his own performance at seven on a scale of 1-10.

FIRST ROUND Partial results.
[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt Chris Gordon (USA)11-6, 11-5, 11-5 (39mins)
[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) bt (Q) Reggie Schonborn (RSA) 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 (37mins)
Julian Illingworth (USA) bt [10]Olli Tuominen (FIN) 11-9, 11-10 (5-3) 2-11, 11-8 (62mins)
[3] David Palmer (AUS) bt Liam Kenny (IRL) 11-7, 11-5, 11-5 (37mins)
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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