Simpson Boosts Home Hopes In London Open
by Howard Harding
3 December 2011 - Chris Simpson kept English title hopes alive in the quarter-finals of the Coronation London Open after surviving a brutal five-game match to upset top seed Aamir Atlas Khan at the squash event at the Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club in north-west London.
The unseeded Guernsey-born 24-year-old found a game plan and stuck to it well to claw his way back into the game after a slow start. A cat and mouse scenario ensued at 10-all, but it was the underdog who came out on top, thanks to some dominant forehand lengths and impeccably tight drops.
Khan's threat level rose and fell throughout the match - the Pakistani attempting spectacular cross-court winners, yet more often playing through spells that were very much attritional-focussed. A more dominant phase saw the 21-year-old from Peshawar cause Simpson some serious problems as he claimed the second game.
But Simpson worked well and came to hold three game balls in the third. With a maturity resembling England's very top players, he patiently waited for his opportunity to close out the game and not panic as his opponent chipped away at the deficit, before coolly dispatching another inch-perfect drop.
In another dominant spell in the fourth game, the Pakistani No1 tried another tack - forcing Simpson to the front more often and avoiding his strong forehand side in favour of the backhand wall. This period saw him level the match at two-all to set up a tense decider.
Simpson sprang to a four-point lead early on in the fifth, but the gap was quickly closed. The players remained within a point of each other until nine-all when the referee called Khan's retrieval a double bounce, to conflicting reactions from both the crowd and players.
Simpson again kept a methodical head throughout the final rally and finished off the match-ball on the first attempt to win 15-13, 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 after 71 minutes.
"I'm over the moon with that win," said a beaming Simpson. "That's probably the best result I've had in a good few years.
"I didn't have the best of starts, but I managed to play into my game plan and stuck with it throughout," added the Harrogate-based world No51. "That was especially important in the last game when I started to get a bit edgy. I knew my drops had to be tight against Aamir, he's so quick around the court.
"I just need to get some sleep now and I'm looking forward to facing Borja tomorrow."
Borja Golan, the No3 seed from Spain, beat 21-year-old Egyptian Andrew Wagih Shoukry 11-4, 11-6, 11-7 in an entertaining, fast-paced, match.
"I'd never played Andrew before," said the Spaniard, a former world No10. "But I know he's a very up-and-coming Egyptian player. He's a very dangerous player if I left the ball loose so it was important for me to concentrate tonight. It was an intense match - not your typical 3/0 win - and I'm glad to make it off in court in three."
There will be Egyptian interest in the other semi-final where fourth seed Karim Abdel Gawad takes on Stephen Coppinger, the No2 seed from South Africa.
Gawad, the 20-year-old world No44 from Cairo, faced the competition's last surviving qualifier Eddie Charlton, the Englishman who scalped Robbie Temple in round one. The match went the full distance, the Egyptian recovering from the loss of the first game to win 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 13-15, 11-7 after 76 minutes.
"He's a very talented Englishman," Gawad said after the match. "There are few players like him, he does the basics well and retrieves extremely well so I expected a tough game when I saw him last night against Robbie.
"I'm still feeling good, despite the five games. I didn't play today like I would have liked. There was a lot of pressure on me and I think I played more defensive than I normally like to play. But that's a credit to Eddie, he was always in front of me and didn't let me attack."
Coppinger had only played Mark Krajcsak once before - the Hungarian claiming a 3/1 victory against the Durban-born 27-year-old in 2008.
The second meeting was a hard-hitting affair with Coppinger, now ranked more than 40 places higher, looking to push up on the tee and deny his opponent time. Neither players were flawless in their finishing, with Krajcsak often counteracting his own efforts by regularly hitting the tin. Errors aside, the first game and much of the second were closely fought affairs, though Coppinger more often than not ended up on the positive end of the rallies.
Krajcsak's movement seemed less enthusiastic as the second game progressed and two outright winners from the South African, followed by a Krajcsak tin allowed Coppinger to close out an 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 win in 36 minutes.
"I'm pretty happy with the match tonight," said the top-ranked South African. "I'm happy to be through to the next game. I know from experience that it'll be a tough battle against Karim, and he'll be a big obstacle in my way of getting anything from this event. But one match at a time!"
RESULTS: PSA Challenger 15 Coronation London Open, London, England
Quarter-finals:
Chris Simpson (ENG) bt [1] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) 15-13, 7-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 (71m)
[3] Borja Golan (ESP) bt Andrew Wagih Shoukry (EGY) 11-4, 11-6, 11-7
[4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt [Q] Eddie Charlton (ENG) 9-11, 11-8, 11-6, 13-15, 11-7 (76m)
[2] Stephen Coppinger (RSA) bt Mark Krajcsak (HUN) 11-9, 11-5, 11-5 (36m)
Semi-final line-up:
Chris Simpson (ENG) v [3] Borja Golan (ESP)
[2] Stephen Coppinger (RSA) v [4] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
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