Hyder Qtrs/Semis Update: Top Two Seeds Walker And Razik Reach Final
By Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline May 14th -Displaying the grace and finesse that has made each of them currently one of the 30 best players in the world, first top seed Alister Walker and then the second-seeded defending champion Shahier Razik asserted themselves Saturday evening in their respective semifinal matches in the 43rd annual Quentin Hyder Invitational, hosted at Sports Club/LA on Manhattan's upper east side. Walker, who hasn't dropped a game in any of his three pre-final matches, defeated fourth seed Zac Alexander 11-9, 9 and 7, following which Razik emerged victorious from a grinding long-points-filled battle with Bradley Ball by a count of 11-6 11-9 10-12 11-5. They will play at 3:00 Sunday afternoon in what figures to be a highly entertaining final, especially given the extraordinary agility with which both contestants (who last played two years ago in Europe, with PSA No. 20 Walker winning in a close four games) are blessed.
Both of the first two games of the Walker-Alexander match followed similar patterns, with Walker letting big mid-game leads --- 9-4 in the first and 8-5 (from 1-5) in the second --- nearly get away, and both 10-9 points ended in the front-left of the court, with Walker hitting a perfect backhand drop-nick in the opening game and Alexander tinning an attempted backhand roll-corner to go down two games to love. Walker is extremely good at changing direction even when completely wrong-footed, though he can be prone to concentration lapses when he has a seemingly safe lead. This same latter flaw enabled Alexander to rally from 0-4 to 5-all in the third game, but Walker pulled off several spectacular shots to get to 9-6, including a lookaway cross-drop and a lunging reverse-corner from what appeared to be an impossible angle, and closed the match out from there.
As had been the case in this first semifinal, the nightcap featured an opening pair of games that saw the eventual winner force late-game tins from his opponent. After Ball, the only non-top-four seed to reach the semis (by virtue of his 11-9 in the fourth quarterfinal win over Ryan Cuskelly), had battled Razik on nearly even terms in getting to 6-7 in the first game, he committed four consecutive tins (in fairness, all but one of which came at the end of a torturously long point) to end that game. The second slipped away in even crueler fashion when at 9-all, Ball tinned a forehand cross-court, then (one long exchange ending in a let later) tinned a serve-return that gave Razik a two games to love lead.
The third game was a titanic battle, with Ball grimly forging small mid-game leads (5-2 and later 8-6), only to see Razik almost invisibly glide his way to 10-9, match-ball. But a sensational overhead backhand Ball cross-court drop winner, a forehand drive that he buried down the right wall and a forehand overhead into the front-left nick earned him that game, which he punctuated with a war-whoop and a clenched fist as he left the court.
Ball's game is based on his severe determination and the punishing force of his powerful drives, while Razik stays on an even plane, both with his emotions and with his unspectacular but smooth and relentlessly effective all-court game. Unfazed by the match-ball opportunity that his opponent had ripped away in that third game, Razik advanced to his third consecutive Hyder final (losing to David Palmer in '09 before winning handily over Scott Arnold last year) by patiently out-lasting an increasingly fatigued and embattled Ball and collecting a trio of consecutive-point tins that advanced the Razik advantage from 5-4 to 8-4, following which Razik calmly concluded the match with a sweet forehand counter-drop and a ball that clung too tightly to the right wall for a stretched-out Ball to steer back into play. Ball, who also lost a similarly hard-fought Hyder semifinal to Razik a year ago, came up with a valiant and praiseworthy performance this time as well, but Razik, like Walker earlier in the evening, was inexorable, setting the stage for what should be a terrifiv final.
Hyder Friday/Saturday Recap:
Qtrs:
Alister Walker d Tom Pashley, 3-0; Zac Alexander d Gilly Lane, 3-1; Bradley Ball d Ryan Cuskelly, 3-1; Shahier Razik d Bernardo Samper, 3-1.
Semis:
Walker d Alexander, 3-0; Razik d Ball, 3-1.
Copyright © 2011 Rob Dinerman
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By Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline May 14th -Displaying the grace and finesse that has made each of them currently one of the 30 best players in the world, first top seed Alister Walker and then the second-seeded defending champion Shahier Razik asserted themselves Saturday evening in their respective semifinal matches in the 43rd annual Quentin Hyder Invitational, hosted at Sports Club/LA on Manhattan's upper east side. Walker, who hasn't dropped a game in any of his three pre-final matches, defeated fourth seed Zac Alexander 11-9, 9 and 7, following which Razik emerged victorious from a grinding long-points-filled battle with Bradley Ball by a count of 11-6 11-9 10-12 11-5. They will play at 3:00 Sunday afternoon in what figures to be a highly entertaining final, especially given the extraordinary agility with which both contestants (who last played two years ago in Europe, with PSA No. 20 Walker winning in a close four games) are blessed.
Both of the first two games of the Walker-Alexander match followed similar patterns, with Walker letting big mid-game leads --- 9-4 in the first and 8-5 (from 1-5) in the second --- nearly get away, and both 10-9 points ended in the front-left of the court, with Walker hitting a perfect backhand drop-nick in the opening game and Alexander tinning an attempted backhand roll-corner to go down two games to love. Walker is extremely good at changing direction even when completely wrong-footed, though he can be prone to concentration lapses when he has a seemingly safe lead. This same latter flaw enabled Alexander to rally from 0-4 to 5-all in the third game, but Walker pulled off several spectacular shots to get to 9-6, including a lookaway cross-drop and a lunging reverse-corner from what appeared to be an impossible angle, and closed the match out from there.
As had been the case in this first semifinal, the nightcap featured an opening pair of games that saw the eventual winner force late-game tins from his opponent. After Ball, the only non-top-four seed to reach the semis (by virtue of his 11-9 in the fourth quarterfinal win over Ryan Cuskelly), had battled Razik on nearly even terms in getting to 6-7 in the first game, he committed four consecutive tins (in fairness, all but one of which came at the end of a torturously long point) to end that game. The second slipped away in even crueler fashion when at 9-all, Ball tinned a forehand cross-court, then (one long exchange ending in a let later) tinned a serve-return that gave Razik a two games to love lead.
The third game was a titanic battle, with Ball grimly forging small mid-game leads (5-2 and later 8-6), only to see Razik almost invisibly glide his way to 10-9, match-ball. But a sensational overhead backhand Ball cross-court drop winner, a forehand drive that he buried down the right wall and a forehand overhead into the front-left nick earned him that game, which he punctuated with a war-whoop and a clenched fist as he left the court.
Ball's game is based on his severe determination and the punishing force of his powerful drives, while Razik stays on an even plane, both with his emotions and with his unspectacular but smooth and relentlessly effective all-court game. Unfazed by the match-ball opportunity that his opponent had ripped away in that third game, Razik advanced to his third consecutive Hyder final (losing to David Palmer in '09 before winning handily over Scott Arnold last year) by patiently out-lasting an increasingly fatigued and embattled Ball and collecting a trio of consecutive-point tins that advanced the Razik advantage from 5-4 to 8-4, following which Razik calmly concluded the match with a sweet forehand counter-drop and a ball that clung too tightly to the right wall for a stretched-out Ball to steer back into play. Ball, who also lost a similarly hard-fought Hyder semifinal to Razik a year ago, came up with a valiant and praiseworthy performance this time as well, but Razik, like Walker earlier in the evening, was inexorable, setting the stage for what should be a terrifiv final.
Hyder Friday/Saturday Recap:
Qtrs:
Alister Walker d Tom Pashley, 3-0; Zac Alexander d Gilly Lane, 3-1; Bradley Ball d Ryan Cuskelly, 3-1; Shahier Razik d Bernardo Samper, 3-1.
Semis:
Walker d Alexander, 3-0; Razik d Ball, 3-1.
Copyright © 2011 Rob Dinerman
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