Day One Qualifying, PSA Nova Scotia Bluenose Classic
from Martin Dumas & Blair Cook
March 26, 2012 - Qualifying got underway Monday evening for the 2012 Bluenose Squash Classic.
While the record temperatures from last week have past, the action indoors at the St. Mary’s University squash courts is definitely heating up.
A field of 16 players, which includes 15 professionals and local amateur star Matthew Bishop, has now been halved. The winners from this evening hoping they can follow-up tonight’s victory with another tomorrow and advance to the main round of the $55,000 Bluenose Squash Classic.
Main round play begins Wednesday at The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. A glass court is currently being constructed on The Cohn stage and will host all matches through to the finals on March 31st.
Round two of qualifying begins at 5:30pm on Tuesday night at the St. Mary’s Tower and admission is free. Tickets can be purchased for main round play by contacting the Dalhousie Art Center box office. Tickets are priced as low as $9.50.
Shawn Delierre (CAN) VS David Letourneau (CAN)
It was an all-Canadian qualifying match up between Shawn Delierre and David Letourneau. David's patience on the court helped him take the first two games, but Shawn came out in the third with a new determination. With a few unlucky shots into the tin by Letourneau, Shawn was able to take the third 11-4. Shawn won the next two games 11-7 to take the match three games to two in a 78 minutes. Shawn credits his win with advice and support given to him after the second game “I needed some help and I got it from Dane.” MD
Cesar Salazar (MEX) VS Fred Reid (CAN)
The first match of the 2012 Bluenose Squash Classic pitted Fred Reid as the underdog against Cesar Salazar. With nearly 67 points separating them in the world rankings, Reid would need his A-game to advance.
In the early play, both players were happy to feel out the court hitting gentle length and soft touches as the opportunities arose leading to a 5-5 score midway through the first game. It was Salazar that started finding some success catching Reid going the wrong way a few times as he closed out the first game 11-6.
The second game was all Salazar as the combination of feathery drops and hard drives was keeping Reid on his heels. Salazar won the second game 11-5.
It looked like it was going to be an early evening for Salazar, but Reid had other ideas in the third game. Salazar was up 4-1 early, when Reid managed to string together a nice mix of drops and drives that had Salazar stretched as he tied the game at 5. The players swapped points all the way up to 9-9 before Reid found a couple of more points to hang in there to take the third game 11-9.
The fourth game held promise of perhaps a longer than anticipated match as Reid kept the game close with a great drop to get to 3-4. Salazar wasn’t about to let him come back though, and the favorite kept Reid under pressure constantly on his way to an 11-5 win and a 3-1 match victory. BC
Robbie Temple (ENG) VS Raphael Kandra (GER)
In the late match, Robbie Temple from England defeated Raphael Kandra of Germany 3-0. Kandra, who gambled on receiving an entry into qualification, was elevated from number one reserve to qualifier when Miguel Rodriguez withdrew due to injury and Martin Knight took his spot in the main round. Tonight’s match had several great rally's with both players showing great patience. It was Robbie's athleticism and speed however, that appeared to be a little too much for Raphael this time around. Robbie was able to get the win in 50 minutes. MD
Joe Lee (ENG) VS Henrik Mustonen (FIN)
This match was cut short when Mustonen pulled his hamstring at the end of the first game, which he lost 11-3 to Lee. Lee showed some gritty determination in the first game indicating that he was ready to play. He will just need to save that for tomorrow night. BC
Chris Simpson (ENG) VS Dane Sharp (CAN)
It took 52 minutes for England's Chris Simpson to defeat Canada's Dane Sharp by a score of three games to one. The first game started off with Dane taking a quick 5-1 lead. After two let calls, Chris battled back and took the next 6 points and went on to win the game 11-8. Dane was playing great length in the second, again getting up 5-0 but losing a tough one 11-8 to a stroke call. Dane came out with a new focus in the third game and played really strong squash to take the gam 11-2. In the fourth game, a great long rally went the way of Simpson and appeared to take a lot of energy out of Dane. The long rally paid dividends for Simpson as he went on to win the fourth 11-4 and take the match by a score of 3-1. MD
Matt Bishop (CAN) VS Arturo Salazar (MEX)
And not to be outdone for the night’s quickest match, the local legend, Matt Bishop was scheduled to take on Arturo Salazar the 51st ranked player in the world. The boisterous crowd was fully behind Bishop as the match got underway. Bishop dropped the first two points on tentative shot selection, but his third rally was awesome as he knicked out his first point of this year’s event. From that moment on, the points started coming Bishop’s way, perhaps a little too easily. It soon became clear that something wasn’t right with Salazar. By the time the score read 9-4 in favor of Bishop, Salazar gracefully conceited the match. So while it’s unfortunate for both players that they didn’t get to tussle a little bit more, the good news for local fans is that Bishop is playing again tomorrow night and is one match away from the main event at the Cohn on Wednesday. BC
Jan Koukal (CZE) VS Christopher Gordon (USA)
This was a very interesting matchup. Gordon has the wingspan of an albatross and rarely lets a ball get past the mid court causing him to own the T like it was his own private yard. Koukal on the other hand, was a mad retriever, digging balls from all four corners of the court and more than once collided with Gordon trying to negotiate a safe path to the ball. This match was going to be a humdinger and neither player disappointed.
Game one saw Gordon come out hitting a combination of tight hard drives, particularly down the backhand wall, with a constant peppering of tight drops to the backhand front corner. The first game saw each player trading points all the way up to 9-9, but it was a costly error from Koukal that gave Gordon game ball, which on the subsequent rally he capitalized winning the first game 11-9.
In the next game, we saw the first of many cross drops that Koukal used most successfully to counter Gordon’s line attack. His first backhand cross drop gave him a 4-1 lead in the game. Gordon again mounted a comeback, but was stifled when Koukal hit another cross drop to take an 8-6 lead. So what was going to win the second game? Gordon’s punishing backhand drive/drop combination or Koukal’s cross drops. Gordon again played his way back into the game to tie it at 10. Again, Koukal made a costly error to give Gordon a game point, which Gordon won to go up 2-0.
In the third game, Gordon came out slow, making four miscues in a row to go down 0-4. It was a deficit he was never able to overcome and he went on to lose the third game 11-7.
Now by this time, there was plenty of contact, which was taking its toll on the players. Gordon was fooled early in Game 4 with another cross drop and was never quite able to get into the game losing 11-2 sending the match to a deciding fifth game.
In the fifth game, Gordon appeared to have found a second wind early. On a snazzy knick he was up 4-2. Both players were tiring and with the number of lets called, at times they appeared like boxers in the 15 round all tied up in one another’s arms. Koukal was by no means going away and was unwilling to consider any sort of thought of losing to the lower seeded Gordon. Once again, his cross drop kicked off a run of four unanswered points to go up 8-5. For good measure, he added one more cross drop to set up a match ball at 10-7 and closed the fifth game 11-8 to take the match. BC
Charles Sharpes (ENG) VS Eric Galvez (MEX)
In the final match of the evening, the underdog Charles Sharpes took on the mighty Mexican Eric Galvez. With 23 ranking positions between them, betting money might favor Galvez, but not so fast.
Galvez came out in the first game pounding the snot out of the ball. Sharpes confirmed after the match, “[Galvez] started out like a train and it took me a while to get used to the pace on the ball.” In fact, it only took Galvez a few minutes to win the first game 11-3.
In the second game, Galvez came out again just brutally beating the ball into tight biting drives that overwhelmed Sharpes as he took a commanding 7-3 lead. But it was at this point that Sharpes started to adjust his game and extend the rallies giving Galvez a nice workout. However, the adjustment came too late in game two and Galvez took the second game 11-6.
In the third game, what was left of the squash ball, got a bit of break as Galvez didn’t quite have as much snap on the ball as he did in the first two games. Sharpes was now fully engaged in the game and this time it was he who took the 7-3 lead. Instead of digging in, Galvez chose to save his energy for the next game and Sharpes walked away with an 11-3 win in the third game.
In the fourth game, both players started strong scoring winners and taking the score to 3-3. But the momentum was clearly beginning to sway in Sharpes favor as he outpaced Galvez en route to win the game 11-6.
In the fifth and deciding game, Galvez had lost much of the pace he had earlier. Sharpes, under the watchful eye and tutelage of Daryl Selby, was now controlling each rally. Sharpes went on to win 11-3 and will meet Jan Koukal tomorrow night. BC
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