$70K British Grand Prix First Day Report
by Steve Cubbins
photo courtesy Steve Cubbins
September 21, 2012 - There were no upsets on first day’s play of the Springfield Solutions British Grand Prix in Manchester, with all the qualifiers and the wildcard departing in the first five matches - although Saurav Ghosal had a matchball against Adrian Grant - and the evening was rounded off with a trio of English wins to give the hosts half the available quarter-final spots.
Round One Results:
[1] James Willstrop (Eng) 3-0 Daryl Selby (Eng) 11/8, 11/7, 11/4 (59m)
Laurens Jan Anjema (Ned) 3-0 Jens Schoor (Ger) 11/7, 11/4, 11/6 (36m)
Simon Rosner (Ger) 3-0 [Q] Mathieu Castagnet (Fra) 11/6, 11/3, 11/5 (49m)
[3] Gregory Gaultier (Fra) 3-0 [Q] Adrian Waller (Eng) 11/6, 11/7. 11/4 (36m)
[4] Peter Barker (Eng) 3-1 Borja Golan (Esp) 11/8, 7/11, 12/10, 11/2 (85m)
Adrian Grant (Eng) 3-2 [Q] Saurav Ghosal (Ind) 7/11, 7/11, 11/3, 12/10, 11/6 (87m)
Alister Walker (Bot) 3-0 [Q] Chris Simpson (Eng) 11/7, 14/12, 11/3 (57m)
[2] Nick Matthew (Eng) 3-0 Tom Richards (Eng) 14/12, 12/10, 11/0(48m)
Match by Match
The opening match pitched Germany’s Simon Rosner against Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet, a match that was originally scheduled as a qualifying first round encounter. Rosner controlled the match to run out the 11/6, 11/3, 11/5 winner.
“I’m really happy with the way I played today,” said Rosner. “Normally I find it difficult to get into the tournament, but today I was confident from the start.”
Castagnet was impressed with his opponent’s play too: “ I took a good squash lesson today, he played the perfect match, accurate, never showing any sign of tiredness or weakness.”
There was better news for the French camp in the second match as third seed Gregory Gaultier despatched English qualifier Adrian Waller 11/6, 11/7, 11/4.
“I was moving well today,” said Gaultier, who became a father for the first time less than a month ago. “Of course, having a baby coming into your life is a big change. I haven’t had the chance to play squash for a long time, so I’m so hungry for playing, I’m enjoying it so much, and that I feel makes the difference.”
Adrian Grant had more trouble against his qualifier. Indian number one Saurav Ghosal took a two game lead, and had a solitary match ball in the fourth, but the Englishman survived the scare to run out the winner 7/11, 7/11, 11/3, 12/10, 11/6.
“I have a bit of a loss of confidence at the moment,” admitted Grant, “so I was not at the top of my form when I started today. I really don’t know why I am such a slow starter. Certain things do fire me up, but still, I just can’t be fired up from the start the way I would like to.”
“Absolutely gutted to say the least,” admitted Ghosal on Twitter. “Good performance...just need to win.”
The fourth match of the day saw the departure of the fourth qualifier as Alister Walker saw off a determined challenge from former training partner and regular rival Chris Simpson. The Botswanan took tough tough and lengthy opening games 11/7, 14/12 before easing away to take the third 11/3.
““We both played good squash, tight,” said Walker. “I was trying to stay in front as much as I could, and when I was able to, I was controlling the rallies better. But he’s got such racquet skills, if he managed to get in front, he was holding and driving, putting me under huge pressure. When he was, I had to scrap through a bit.”
Wildcard Jens Schoor fared no better than the qualifiers when he took to court against Laurens Jan Anjema. as the Dutchman powered through 11/7, 11/4, 11/6 in 36 minutes.
“I wasn’t nervous at the start,” Anjema said afterwards, “but we only get 15m practice on court, so you only start to get comfortable on there when you play your match, and, it took me a bit of time to get settled. Once I had the first game under my belt, I was able to play nice and relaxed.”
“I was struggling to find my rhythm,” admitted young German Schoor, who was enjoying the wildcard spot for the third year in a row. “I just couldn’t get the ball past him enough, I was playing well in patches, but only for 4 or 5 rallies per game, that’s not enough.”
Peter Barker became the second Englishman to reach the last eight, but it was far from easy for the fourth seed to get past Borja Golan, who, like Simon Rosner, was spared having to qualify by withdrawals from the main draw.
The first three games were long, tough, hotly contested and frequently disputed. Barker took the lead 11/7, Golan struck back 11/8, then couldn’t capitalise on leads of 7/3 and 10/7 in the third as the Englishman regained the lead 12/10 with a run of five unanswered points.
That was the turning point as Barker eased through the fourth 11/2.
http://www.squashinfo.com/events/4760-mens-british-grand-prix-2012
“You know that a match against Borja is going to be ultra competitive, and yes, four months is a very long time without matches,” admitted Barker. “I lacked a bit of mental sharpness today and when I found myself 7/3 down in the third, I knew I had to do something different. And I was a bit more precise after that. ”
England were now guaranteed four quarter-finalists with world number one and two James Willstrop and Nick Matthew still to come, both playing compatriots.
Matthew, last year’s runner-up, faced Tom Richards, who gave the world champion an almighty run for his money in the first two games. But the Surrey man couldn’t capitalise on the game balls he had in each as Matthew went two-nil up 14/12, 12/10, and an 11-nil whitewash in the third did nothing to improve Richards’ mood.
“I think I played the important points well,” said Matthew. “We had two tie-breakers, and whereas he was patient all through the games, suddenly he tried to force it. I could very well had found myself 2/0 down today, after having had game balls in both games, that’s why in the third, I was making sure I was getting it right.”
World number one Willstrop also won in three games, conceding three fewer points than Matthew, but Daryl Selby’s were more evenly spread as Willstrop won 11/8, 11/7, 11/4 in one minute short of an hour. Like Richards, Selby contested the first two games strongly before finding Willstrop too hot to handle in the third.
“There were a few cobwebs that need to be cleared out, there’s no way you’re going to be in top form at the start of the season,” admitted Willstrop..”I was ready for a physical test. I had to hang in during that second game, and when I managed to pull away it gave me a boost for the start of the third.”
DRAW
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