Round 2 Day 1: Bianchetti's Big Win

by Dan Kneipp, Team Kneipp report index
All content © 2003 Squashtalk

Dec 16, 2003

Davide Bianchetti Pulls Off Upset of the Year

[30] Davide Bianchetti (ITA) bt [1] Peter Nicol (ENG) 11-15, 12-15, 15-7, 15-4, 15-10 (67m)

Normally we try to focus the Team Kneipp articles on what goes on behind the scenes, trying to avoid simply writing about match results and how someone won. The only time that I'll write result-based articles is at tournaments that Martin Bronstein or Colin McQuillan don't attend, like Qatar. None of the usual reporters are here in Lahore so I intended to cover some of the games. The problem is I am still Joe's coach and trainer and that naturally takes precedence.

We had a 3pm training hit scheduled for today. I had not planned to watch any of today's matches and was going to write about the security involved here (we are being protected by an army of men that would defeat New Zealand's armed forces). On the way to our training hit we had shared the van with Davide Bianchetti as he went to play his 2nd round match against world #1 Peter Nicol. I got back from hitting and found that he had beaten Nicol in five, creating the greatest upset of the year. I hadn't seen the match, but had to find out what went happened.

John White had watched the first three games of this match so I tracked him down and asked him to tell me how the match went. Despite having long and arduous negotiations with his temporary manager (McWhitey senior flew in from Alligator Creek just for the business dealings --- three beers ended up being the asking price), I got McWhitey's version of the match.

To give you a bit of background on Bianchetti he is the number one Italian player and has spent the last five years ranked in the 40s and 50s. For the last 3 months he has finally broken the 30s, sitting at #35 for December's ranking. He has had wins in PSA tournaments over Gaultier, Rodney Durbach, Renan Lavigne, Stefan Castelyn and Nick Taylor.

The only time he has played Peter Nicol in PSA was last year at the World Open in Antwerp, also in the 2nd round. The Italian lost that encounter 15-8, 15-4, 15-13. He has beaten McWhitey in the Europeans Team Championships and beaten Palmer before (this year in Bundesliga against an injured Palmer, and before that when Palmer's ranking was in the 20s or 30s), but he hasn?t beaten them in a PSA match when there is more at stake.

Bianchetti is no chump with a racquet. He can be a bit of a head-case and can self explode on court, but he has a great squash arsenal. He is tall and long limbed and uses his reach to great advantage. He is a very relaxed, funny and enjoyable bloke to be around. McWhitey spotted him in the restaurant at the table across from us as we were discussing the upset. He shouted out to him "What happened? " Bianchetti deadpanned "I don't know! Neither of us turned up for the match so it was a forfeit. My name was down first on the list so I won." Not many guys can just have the best victory of their career and joke about it like that.

The Match
Nicol looked in control as normal in the first game. Bianchetti was making too many mistakes, but Nicol was moving the ball around well and doing his usual impressive court coverage. Apparently though his interest and concentration wasn't as impressive as usual. 15-11 to Nicol

Nicol was down 10-6 in the 2nd. At 10-8 there was an enormously long rally in which both players had to work incredibly hard, with Bianchetti probably doing more. After the rally the Italian was bent over with his hands on his knees breathing deeply and giving Nicol a look and smile that said "I really didn't need that." It seemed to be a breaking point and Nicol closed the game out from there winning 15-12.

The work that Nicol had to do to win the 2nd game began to show in the 3rd. Bianchetti went up 6-3 and from here it seemed that Nicol was happy to concede the game to have a rest. He went for winners and many of them didn't come off. Apparently he was looking tired and stressed. Bianchetti won comfortably 15-7.

Nicol losing the third game isn't that strange. He'll quite often lose the third game having a rest while the other guy tires himself. What was strange was that he lost the fourth in similar fashion (15-4). Suddenly it became obvious that Nicol wasn't reserving his energy to close the match out, it was that he was spent, and Bianchetti closed out the fifth game to win the match.

I tracked Bianchetti down to get his version of the match. I asked him what the difference was between playing Nicol in the World Open 2002, and the World Open 2003. As you can expect from a bloke like Bianchetti he was considerably humble considering the upset he had just caused. He said it wasn't the same Nicol that he played last year. In 2002 the Englishman was just too good, too fit and a better player. This year Bianchetti saw chinks in the armour and was able to expose it.

Here is how Bianchetti said the match unfolded (with me patching up his Italian-English a little):

"In the first two games he moved normally, I was playing alright. At about ten - all in both games he won the crucial points. He was playing and moving alright. Maybe not as good as normal.

"In the third and fourth he wasn't moving very well, particularly to the front. I started thinking I could win; I could see he was struggling to change direction, particularly going to his forehand at the front. I tried to move him to the front with no mistakes.

"We played about half games in the third and fourth and he started going for winners and not getting them. He was not trying his hardest.

"In the fifth he tried to play properly again but was still struggling with his movement. He was not in it. It was difficult for him to rally. We were at seven-all in the fifth. He started making mistakes. At thirteen to ten to me I played a drop shot and he asked for a let. It was no let. I thought it was a tough decision. If they said let I wouldn't have argued. I went up 14-10."

I asked Bianchetti if he though about winning. He said, "I didn't think about winning. I had the chance and I didn't want to have to think back later about missing it. I just concentrated."

To win the match the Italian played a drop shot to the forehand. Nicol counter dropped and Davide smashed a crosscourt. Nicol was looking for the drive and the ball sailed past him for a winner.

I asked Bianchetti how he reacted. "I have a lot of respect for Peter and what he has done." he said. "So I didn't feel like shouting and screaming, but I was very happy inside. Maybe he's not playing his best, but I took my chance."

Even though it was undoubtedly Bianchetti's best result, he said he didn't play his best squash.

The match scores are televised live on the internet. When Bianchetti called home to his dad, who is extremely passionate about squash and organises a PSA tournament every year, he had already followed the result on the web. Davide said ten minutes after they talked his dad had called half of the town to tell them the news.

2nd round:
[30] Davide Bianchetti (ITA) bt [1] Peter Nicol (ENG) 11-15, 12-15, 15-7, 15-4, 15-10 (67m)
[10] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt [26] Rodney Durbach (RSA) 15-10, 5-15, 15-11, 10-15, 15-11 (87m)
[7] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [29] James Willstrop (ENG) 15-11, 15-13, 8-15, 7-15, 15-9 (70m)
[21] Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt [13] Mansoor Zaman (PAK) 11-15, 15-10, 15-8, 17-15 (44m)
[3] David Palmer (AUS) bt [28] Moh'd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) 15-8, 15-9, 15-11 (33m)
[9] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt Peter Genever (ENG) 15-6, 15-9, 11-15, 15-7 (54m)
[5] Anthony Ricketts (AUS) bt [31] Wael El Hindi (EGY) 15-5, 15-6, 15-10 (30m)
[20] Mohammed Abbas (EGY) bt [15] Simon Parke (ENG) 5-15, 15-7, 15-7, 15-5 (46m)