US Open Round-of-16 Reports by Steve Cubbins October 13, 2013
- Today saw the start of the second round - the last sixteen - and it
was the top half of the draws back in action, all on the glass court at
Drexel University's John A. Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.
Today's eight
matches produced a feast of squash for the crowd, one major upset as
France's Mathieu Castagnet beat seventh seed Borja Golan in an epic
105-minute encounter, and one narrow escape as fourth seed Alison
Waters just about managed to hold off Donna Urquhart.
Perry Powers into Quarters
Eighth seed Madeline
Perry didn't make a great start to her match with Denmark's Line
Hansen, but the Dane was playing well and managed to maintain a lead
throughout the first game which she took 11-6. The Irish veteran took
control from the outset of the second though, and took the next two
games 11-2, 1--3 with Hansen getting frustrated with her high error
rate.
The fourth was the
most competitive game, Hansen led early but Perry fought back to level
at 6-all and, helped by a few more Danish tins, took the match
11-8after 41 minutes.
"She started well, her
length was better than mine and I just couldn't get control of any
rallies," said Perry, "but I felt much better from the start of the
second.
"I've been struggling
with a knee injury for the last couple of months, so it's just nice to
be playing again, I'm looking forward to the quarter-finals and having
another rest day can't hurt!"
King back on Track
Joelle King, the Kiwi
fifth seed who so nearly upset Nicol David in last year's semi-finals,
came through to the last eight with a straight-games win over Sarah
Kippax, although the Englishwoman will feeel unlcky not to have at
least taken a game.
King started off well
enough, taking a 4-1 lead, but Kippax levelled at 5-all and continued
to hold her own up to 8-all. There were some tough rallies, but plenty
of unforced errors too, and despite hitting the tin seven times King
managed to win the game 11-9 as Kippax struck out on King's second game
ball.
King cut out the
errors in the second and powered through to take it 11-4, then
recovered from a 0-3 deficit in the third to take the match 11-7 with
Kippax's error rate rising.
"I had a close match
against Nouran [Gohar] in the first round, and that was probably just
the kick up the bum I needed," admitted King afterwards. "I'm glad I
was able to come out and play much better today, even if I did make a
few errors at the start."
It's Magnifique, Mathieu
In the first of the
men's second round matches Mathieu Castagnet pulled off the biggest
upset of the event so far as he beat seventh seed Spaniard Borja Golan
in an epic five game encounter that took 105 minutes to complete.
There was nothing to
choose between the two players for five games that were superbly
contested, close all the way, with both players willing to play patient
squash waiting for an opportunity, the upping the pace when they could,
settling back into a patient game if it didn't work. Captivating stuff,
and thoroughly enjoyed by the growing crowd at Drexel.
There were no wild
swings of fortune - the Frenchman took a good start, maintaining the
lead after a 4-1 advantage to take the first 11-7, but Borja struck
back to take the second and third 11-9, 11-8 with barely a point
between them. Castagnet opened up a gap from 4-all in the fourth fo
force a decider 11-9.
In the fifth Castagnet
again made a good start, 3-0 and 8-5 but Golan battled back to 8-all. A
Spanish drop into the tin for 9-8, a drive that died in the back corner
for 10-8, and a mishit winner to the front to finish a match that
no-one deserved to lose.
"I have no words, I'm
so happy," said Castagnet after the best win of his career. "I was
injured for three months before the world teams and couldn't shake it
off. I really considered ending my career then, but I'm so glad I
worked hard to recover, it feels so good to be playing again, and to be
winning a match like this is unbelievable.
"If I end up playing
Greg [Gaultier] in the quarters it will be great for France but a very
tough match for me - but playing anyone now would be tough, I need to
get some rest and recovery!"
Elshorbagy Crushes Clyne
World No. 6,Mohamed
Elshorbagy came to play this afternoon. Within the first five points,
the Egyptian was hitting winners between his legs from the back court,
rolling over his backhand volley for nicks and collecting every point
with mind-numbing quickness. Scotland’s Alan Clyne was left just trying
to survive. Elshorbagy had secured the first game in less time than it
took for Castagnet and Golan to finish their first five points!
Determined to make a
good showing, Clyne held his own to 6-all in the second, but Elshorbagy
ran the table from there to take a commanding lead, 11-6—and then ran
away with the third, 11-6 ... but it wasn’t that close. Elshorbagy put
on a dazzling array of inside-out dropshots that left the crowd gasping
and Clyne shaking his head. The pace being imposed by Elshorbagy was
breathtaking and exhausting, for his opponents and spectators alike.
}I was too passive in
my last match, so I knew I had to increase the pace today," said
Elshorbagy. "I used my rest day well yesterday, and I’m really happy
with my performance today.
"Yesterday I just
chilled and had a massage. I know if I play Karim Darwish next I’ll be
looking for revenge because he beat me 3-0 in Malaysia the last time we
played."
Waters survives
When fourth seed
Alison Waters was playing well, she was playing very well, and Donna
Urquhart was being forced onto the back foot to do some hard work in
keeping the rallies going. The Australian does that willingly, but
Waters' aim was true at the opening of the match as she took an 8-3
lead.
Urquhart was still
fighting, while Waters started finding the tin rather than the nick,
and the left-handed Aussie took eight points in a row to take an
unlikely lead 11-8.
Normal service looked
to have been resumed as Waters took the second and third by the scruff
of the neck 11-5, 11-4. But Urquhart wasn't willing to be shaken off
that easily as she came out firing in the fourth, holding off Waters'
late comeback to level the match 11-9.
Waters looked to have
established a winning platform at least three times in the decider, but
a) she kept making mistakes, b) Urquhart never stopped running and c)
the Aussie found a handful winners that left Waters stranded.
Waters led early in
the fifth, 4-1 and 6-3, but those factors brought us level at 7-all,
then two careless tins from waters put Urquhart two points away from
the match. Waters' threw her racket in disgust, got a conduct warning
for her trouble, then fired in three crisp winners to reach match ball
10-9,
That was lost on a
stroke, then another opportunity when Urquhart was denied a let -
confirmed by video review but unpopular with the crowd - and that was
converted with a trickle boast. This time it was Urquhart's turn to
bounce her racket.
"Donna played well, but I was pretty patch throughout," admitted Waters, "I'm just glad to have got through!"
David in control
It's daunting going
into a big match against someone you've never beaten, although plenty
of players have a worse record against Nicol David than Camille Serme's
0-8 tally.
They met just last
week in the Carol Weymuller final, and the Frenchwoman gave the
undisputed world number one a good run for her money then. She did the
same today, for the first game at least, keeping the scores level until
6-all, going ahead 8-6 even. But David just kept plugging away, as she
does, came back to take the lead 11-9 and leads of 6-1 in the second
and 7-1 in the third, along with Serme's now increased error count,
were enough to see her through 11-5, 11-5 in 36 minutes.
"I was really pumped
up for this, ready to give my best," said David. "We played last week
and she was playing really well, so I knew she would be fired up for
it. I managed to settle and get into my game but it wasn't easy, she
played well again."
Gaultier Goes Gangbusters
Top-seeded Gregory
Gaultier of France was a prohibitive favorite going into his second
round clash with England’s Adrian Waller, and nothing about the outcome
would prove that to be wrong. Waller, playing in his third U.S. Open
main draw has now bowed out to the No. 1 seed in each of those
events—to Ramy Ashour in 2009, Thierry Lincou in 2010 and now Gaultier.
To Waller’s credit,
Gaultier has been rolling recently. Last month, Gaultier won the
Abierta Mexicana de Raquetas in Toluca, Mexico, and then a week ago
finished runner-up to Ramy Ashour in the NetSuite Open in San
Francisco, California.
The world No. 2
pressured Waller from the start by jumping on the ball early and never
giving Waller a sniff of hope. The Frenchman’s shots were too tight,
too deep when hitting length, and so severely cut when going short they
the ball refused to bounce. Top that off with lightning quickness, and
Gaultier was never going to be denied.
“Today I was really
focused from the first point,” said Gaultier. “I really had to play
fast and bring something. In the first round I wasn’t quite there
mentally, so I tried to raise my pace today.
"It’s just motivation
at the end of the day. I’ve been a month on the road and haven’t seen
my family and my kid. I turned up at the junior tournament downstairs,
and I was also quite impressed with the level of the juniors here."
Marche’s Dreams Dashed by Darwish
Egypt’s Karim Darwish,
former world No. 1 and current No. 5, ran out to a 10-2 lead in the
opening game against France’s Gregoire Marche before surrendering thee
more points to put the Frenchman in a hole, 11-5. But before Marche
could gain confidence from that late run in the first, Darwish again
raced out to a 10-2 lead in the second—and snuffed out any hope Marche
might have had by finishing that one off, 11-2.
However, Marche
refused to go away, and Darwish relaxed ever-so-slightly in the third
as they stayed even to 10-all. That’s when the rallies lengthened,
approaching 75 strokes each.
Unfortunately for
Marche, that played into a career-long strength of Darwish who was
content to let Marche work until he made an error. In this case, that
error came in the form of a pair of strokes to Darwish, and the match
in forty-four minutes.
“It’s always best to
win these early rounds as quick as possible,” commented Darwish. “But
these days that’s getting much harder. The third game today was like
three games.”
WSA World Series, top half: [1] Nicol David (Mas) bt Camille Serme (Fra) 11-9, 11-5, 11-4 (36m) [4] Alison Waters (Eng) bt Donna Urquhart (Aus) 8-11, 11-5, 11-6 , 9-11, 12-10 (58m) [8] Madeline Perry (Irl) bt Line Hansen (Den) 6-11, 11-2, 11-3, 11-8 (41m) [5] Joelle King (Nzl) bt Sarah Kippax (Eng) 11-9, 11-4, 11-7 (31m)
