[TOC DRAW]

A LEISURELY EVENING OF SQUASH. BLOOD PRESSURE FALLING. PULSE JUST DISCERNABLE

James Willstrop of England barely got out of first gear to earn his win agains John Rooney of Ireland. photo: ©2008 Debra Tessier. More photos

Sometimes, despite rubbing bits of wood together furiously, nothing catches fire. Well tonight we kept rubbing squash players together and hardly got a spark. These were good players too, a couple of top tenners  but the opposition failed to get stuck in and so  neither Gregory Gaultier of France nor James Willstrop of England, number three and six in the world respectively, were pushed to get out of first gear. Indeed, there were times when it felt they hadn’t even started their engines.

John Rooney, the Irish number one has actually beaten Willstrop in the past, but tonight was just too controlled and polite. He had decided to play at medium pace which allowed Willstrop all the time he needed to use his very considerable racket skills to hit some sublime winners. And Willstrop can do it at the most unexpected time – for instance, when the ball is right on the wall, he can crack it across court for a winner.

Rooney also has racket skills but, with a few exceptions, kept them hidden  as he tried to contain the Willstrop box of tricks. Maybe he was just a bit too wary and gave Willstrop too much respect. The fact is that Rooney, ranked 86 in the world, rarely gets the chance to play on the big stage – a glass court in front of 500 people, whereas Willstrop has been doing it for almost ten years.

So Willstrop, still smiling from helping England win the world championships in December, took a straightforward win in 30 minutes.

AUDACIOUS DELIERRE  SHOWS HIS SKILLS. LOSES IN THREE

Gregory Gaultier's body twists one way, his head the other and the racket will topspin the ball  somewhere else as he tries to confuse Shawn Delierre . photo: ©2008 Debra Tessier. More photos

Shawn Delierre of Canada was a bit more adventurous when he played Gaultier, smacking his serves into the nick with a consistency that does away with the accusation of luck. DeLierre, from French Canada, was intent on showing the full Vanderbilt Hall his racket skills and he hit his share of winners. Both players were friends of Jonathon Power and their influence could be seen in some delightful exchanges, But as I said at the start,  there were  no fireworks although there was a lot of admire. Gaultier  seems to add tricks to his repertoire at each outing and he must now be regarded as the master of disguise and deception. His body will twist one way, his head the other and the racket will topspin the ball  somewhere else. Good fun. He won in 40 minutes. Tomorrow he will have another opportunity to partake in a shot fest as he faces Hisham Ashour. At least with Hisham there will be some emotion.

JOHN WHITE HAS A  24  MINUTE WARM UP

There was some nice squash between John White and the young Indian player Ritwik Bhattacharya, but again, it was a three game decision for the wily old White. In fact the two players seemed positively friendly to each other. Come back Anthony Hill wherever you are.

Sorry to be so positively boring tonight but I can promise you that  my colleagues on the cramped press table all agreed that  things simply did not get going tonight.  Nobody played badly and there were skills galore, but the excitement just did not appear. In fact the only excitement was the appearance of author Tom Wolfe, one of my heroes.

Tomorrow is another day, the second round and that’s when things start to get a little more serious. Bear with me….

FIRST ROUND  Full 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) bt Yasser El Halaby (EGY) 11-8, 11-5, 8-11, 11-5 (43mins)
[5] Stewart Boswell (AUS) bt Q) Amr Mansi (EGY) 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, (42mins)
[11] M.Azlan Iskander (MAS) bt ( Q) Maqbool (PAK) 11-6, 11-5, 11-1 (27mins)
[4] James Willstrop (ENG)  bt (Q) John Rooney (IRL) 11-4, 11-2, 11-7 (30mins
[13] Jonathan Kemp (ENG) bt Mark Krajcsak(HUN) 8-11, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9, 11-3 (54mins)
[7]  John White (SCO) bt  (Q) Ritwit Bhattacherya (IND) 11-4, 11-3, 11-8 (24 mins)
[12] Hisham Ashour (EGY) bt  Tarek Momen (EGY) 5-11,11-5,11-10(5-3),9-11, 11-4 (46 minutes)
[2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt Shawn Delierre (CAN) 11-9, 11-8, 11-7  (40mins)

Shawn Delierre and Gregory Gaultier in their entertaining first round match. photos: ©2008 Debra Tessier.

Qualifier Ritwit Bhattacherya from India and John White finished off the relatively short evening of squash in Grand Central. photos: ©2008 Debra Tessier.

James Willstrop and John Rooney in their 1st round match. ©2008 Debra Tessier.

Stewart Boswell and qualifier Amr Mansi played the longest match of the evening at 42 minutes for the only 4 game match. ©2008 Debra Tessier.

 

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