SquashTalk>Columns>Team Kneipp > Liverpool '08 Open Preview> Bottom Half

Is this James Willstrop's Week? (Photo © 2005 Debra Tessier)

The other 16 players that make up the Liverpool 08 Open, and their first round matches are:

3rd Quarter

[12] Stewart Boswell (AUS) v Qualifier:
Boswell is currently ranked 16. I’m not going to talk about his form/return from injury because if you’re interested in squash enough to read our article, then you already know about it. Boswell now needs to get down to the serious business of getting back into the top 8, and top 4. To do that he has to start making some quarter finals and semi finals. Since his return he has only had one victory over a top 10 player, beating Beachill in last year’s British Open, a figure he needs to improve.

[7] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Qualifier:
Gaultier’s ranking for this tournament is 10. He has been ranked around 10 for most of the past 3 years. Please refer to the notes on Nick Matthew in the Top Half preview for what we think of Gaultier’s ranking.

[10] Ong Beng Hee (MAS) v Renan Lavigne (FRA):
Bengy, ranked 14, is moving back in the right direction. In Bermuda he beat Anthony Ricketts in the 2nd round and described it as his best victory ever.

That’s because even when he was ranked 7 in the world he didn't have a victory over a top 4 player, something he has now managed with his victory over Ricketts. That victory should bring with it a boost in confidence and therefore an improved game.

Lavigne is ranked 31, but has been ranked in the high teens before. He was in the position on Saturday of being able to win the European Team Championships for France if he was able to beat Lee Beachill, a bit of a tall order, and too much to ask of him. It will be interesting to see if that experience has left him disappointed, tired, motivated or if he just continues on as normal. My money is on business as usual.

These guys haven’t played in a PSA match before. It’ll be a big surprise if Lavigne wins this (and quite a set back to Bengy's return to the top).

[3] Thierry Lincou (FRA) v Qualifier:
Lincou is ranked 4 for this tournament. For the last five tournaments that he played he lost to either Amr Shabana or Anthony Ricketts. He would have been very pleased to see that they are holidaying this week, and even happier to see his bogey player Nicol also not attending.

Quarterfinalist:
It’s going to be difficult for Bengy and Boswell to prevent this being a Gaelic quarterfinal, but Boswell versus Bengy in the quarters wouldn’t be impossible. This is easily being the toughest quarter. Boswell is a bit unlucky to have to get past an in-form Gaultier, and both Bengy and Lincou would have preferred to meet someone else in the 2nd round. This quarter should produce some fireworks and good squash. Semi finalist prediction – you can’t go past Lincou, but he’s certainly not a certainty.

Bottom Quarter

Can Joe Kneipp Rebound in Liverpool (Photo © 2005 Debra Tessier)

[16] Peter Barker (ENG) v Joseph Kneipp (AUS):
Team Kneipp was expecting to have to qualify for this event. 2001 was the last time we played in a qualification tournament, and will quite happily never do it again, thank you very much. For that to happen this has to be a good tournament, with many ranking points ,which means no more first round losses, a bird-flu-like squash disease sweeping through the Team Kneipp camp at the moment.

Barker is ranked 24, compared to our 29, so on paper it shoudl be close.
Barker is a few places away from his career best, but I think we’ll see him in the top 20 very soon. He has just returned from a victorious debut with the English team, winning the European Team Championships.

The last tournament that I saw Barker play in England he was pretty sick - blocked up, snotty and flu-ey, yet he still caused upsets, so even if he’s tired and run-down from all of the squash in Vienna it probably won’t matter.

Our only PSA encounter was in 2004, which I won, but Barker’s squash has come on considerably since then. We’ve had a couple of league matches against each other recently. He won Eredivisie (Dutch league) and I won Bundesliga (German league), although I believe he wasn’t 100% fit in Deutschland.

[8] Karim Darwish (EGY) v Qualifier:
Darwish is currently ranked 11, the ranking neighbourhood that he has settled in for the past three years. Please see Gregory Gaultier’s write up as to what our opinion is on this.

[14] Shahid Zaman (PAK) v Joey Barrington (ENG):
Zaman is ranked 22 and Barrington 30, so on paper this should be a good match. It doesn’t always work like that though. What’s more likely to make it a good match is Barrington likes long attritional matches and Shahid prefers to go for winners. These two met in the final of a medium sized tournament in Pakistan, with Shahid winning in four. The current generation of Pakistani players are notorious for playing well at their home tournaments, and not very well everywhere else, meaning Barrington could easily go into this match as favourite.

[2] James Willstrop (ENG) v Qualifier:
Willstrop is currently ranked 3, which is one off his best. It’s not a huge ranking jump for Willstrop to regain the #2 ranking spot, but there’s daylight between his current ranking and #1. He’ll need to win a couple of big tournaments to close that gap (something he’s capable of mind you).

Shabana’s absence gives Willstrop the boost in this tournament to the number two seed.

Quarterfinalist;

So what do we predict for a quarterfinal match up from this group? No one has ever accused us of being neutral, unbiased (some would even say accurate for that matter), so let’s go with Kneipp screaming though this quarter on his way to final glory. Sure, more pragmatic squash fans would say it will almost certainly be an exciting quarter final between Darwish and Willstrop, but until those fans pry my fat little fingers off the keyboard, I’m sticking with my story.

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