First Day: Matthew Stops Boswell
Nov 4 2005, by Martin Bronstein   
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2005 SquashTalk LLC

[Men's Draw]      [Women's Draw]

MATTHEW SHOWS BOSWELL THAT TIMES HAVE CHANGED

Nick Matthew had the reserves to recover from any score deficits in his first round match. Photo ©2005 Debra Tessier

When Stu Boswell was world number six, Nick Matthew was still a young hacker who could only dream of taking points off the lean Australian. Two years later Matthew is an accomplished player who has been in and out of the top ten and will almost certainly be back there before the year is out.

Today Boswell found that he still has a way to go before he gets back to his former standard, and, as Matthew pointed out after the match, everybody has moved on. They fought an interesting battle in their first round match and when the dust had cleared Matthew had demonstrated that he had too much for Boswell to handle. Not that it was anywhere near a walkover for the Yorkshireman who trailed in every game before winning 3/1. But there was always a feeling that he had reserves which he could call on to get himself out of trouble.

Boswell looked good for whole stretches but would then lose focus giving away valuable points. He may have his physical fitness back but the mental toughness that comes from a grinding life on the pro circuit has yet to be recovered.

Boswell started well to take a 3-0 lead but Matthew dusted off the cobwebs, made up the deficit and led all the way to an 11-9 win. They were playing good, all court squash, with Matthew showing he had a number of ways of killing the ball stone dead, His high backhand cross court slam into the nick is particularly impressive and got him out of trouble several time.

He made an even worse start in the second game, hitting three unforced errors to help Boswell to lead 6-2. A couple of penalty strokes followed by an overhead slam into the nick and a Boswell error put him back on even terms. Boswell did not lay down and matched Matthew drive for drive, drop for drop, winner for winner. There were very few lobs used in this match – the pace was too fast for that time-wasting shot.

Boswell got to game point at 10-7 but simply could not close out the game.

The coaches-Rodney Martin and Lee Beachill. Photos ©2005 Debra Tessier

Matthew would not give up and saved three game balls to level at 10-10, had his first game ball at 11-10 and lost it through his own badly played backhand boast.

Boswell had two more game balls and each was negated by sizzling winners from Matthew who then went on to win the game 16-14. And that was one major difference: Matthew could kill the ball – Boswell still doesn’t have those type of shots in his armoury.

IN the third game Boswell once again took the lead from the first point and although Matthew pulled level at 8-all, he once again hit backhand drop into the tin to stop his own run. Boswell then hit two outright winners to take the game 11-8 in just nine minutes.

Lee Beachill spoke to Nick in the interval and obviously said all the right things because Matthew came out for the fourth with a much greater determination and hit a sizzling run of winners to take a 7-0 lead. Boswell hit some bad shots down the middle of the court resulting in penalty strokes, which suggest fatigue might be setting in, but he kept fighting, cutting the ball for drops shots in between his pacey drives. But at 5-10 he would have had to play well above his standard to save the day. Matthew was in no mood for charity and closed out the match woth a magnificent cross court slam to win 11-7.

Matthew was not pleased with his slow starts:

“I was doing myself no favours by giving him two or three points. It seemed like I had to trail by two points before I could get going,” he told me with his usual bluntness. “I don’t know if Boswell is back to his old self, but we’ve all moved on so he has to still catch up. He still hits the ball and moves as he did, but he did seem a bit slow to the front right.”

POWER MAINTAINS PULL OVER PILLEY

The new John White? Cameron Pilley attempts a cutting contest with Jonathon Power. Photo ©2005 Debra Tessier

In their third meeting Jonathon Power once more beat the emerging Australian Cameron Pilley in straight games, but this time it lasted 43 minutes and Pilley had the pleasure of controlling the rallies three or four times. This was a cutting contest for the most part with Pilley matching Power in the deeply cut shots to all parts of the court. But this was the experienced magician against the newly graduated novice and Power was in charge most of the time. There were times, however, when Pilley more than held his own. His racket work is impressive and he moves very well.

He was at the Australian Institute for five years and is now out on his own to get hardened, according to Rodney Martin. “We hope he’ll come back in the future. From the very start he had superb timing and natural instincts,” he commented. The new John White? “Oh much better technique than John White,” Rodney replied. And I still don’t know if he was pulling my leg.

After his 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 loss Pilley said he was happy with the way he played.
“Power chopped me in the British Open and then beat me in Dayton, I was glad to get more points this time and that I lasted over 30 minutes. He is just so explosive and so fast on to the ball,” he said of Power.

BEACHILL HANDLES EL HINDI

Wael el Hindi was strangely restrained playing against Lee Beachill . Photo ©2005 Debra Tessier

Wael el Hindi told me earlier in the week that he had been training hard for three months and was in fine fettle and 14 pounds lighter. It didn’t help him in his strangely restrained match against Lee Beachill. For some reason the action never rose above warm on the excitement indicator and the rallies rarely got beyond twenty strokes.

Beachill was his usual precise self to take the first game 11-4, seemed to lose his momentum in the second to lose it 11-4 and then recovered in the third to win 11-8 in 19 minutes, the longest game of the match. El Hindi was not accurate enough to really trouble Beachill and has to cut out the silliest of errors before he can challenge the top boys. The fourth game was a procession for Beachill, 11-4 in 11 minutes, which indicated that the Egyptian can only fight occasionally.

Bradley Ball and Shahid finished off the evening in style. Photo ©2005 Debra Tessier

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