'Sweating Blood' Excerpt #3: My Greatest Match Posted October 26, 2013
My 2012 British Open
win over Ramy Ashour at London’s O2 Arena is, I believe, the finest
performance of my entire career. As I admitted earlier in my book, I’d
previously become obsessed with Ramy after a succession of losses to
him during 2011 and 2012. I’d heard stories of how Peter Nicol had once
adapted his training specifically to beat Jansher Khan and I’d tried to
do the same for Ramy. The key difference, and where I got it wrong, was
that Peter looked at how he might hurt Jansher. I on the other hand
focused on what Ramy was good at and how I might stop him, instead of
concentrating on my own strengths. This was approaching the problem
from the wrong way round.
In the build-up to the
2012 British Open I worked with my sports psychologist Mark Bawden who
encouraged me to focus on my own strengths. He got me thinking about
how I could hurt Ramy rather than how Ramy could hurt me. I needed good
length on my shots, and I needed to hit extra-wide cross-court shots
because Ramy was so strong in the middle of the court. But these
strategies alone were not enough. They would limit Ramy but not defeat
him. I still needed to dominate the middle of the court by pushing him
deep and controlling with my volleys. Then I needed to attack with more
variety and deception than I usually did.
My coach David Pearson
had just returned from a trip to Brazil with Chris Gordon, an American
player he coaches. Over in South America they’d become friendly with an
eccentric Brazilian player called Rafael Alarcon. Over dinner one
night, Rafa said to DP that when I played Ramy I “didn’t play enough to
the eight corners of the court”. DP had no idea what he was talking
about. Eight corners? Surely, even in Brazil, there are only four
corners to a squash court.
Rafa explained that he
considered the areas on both side walls, just in front and just behind
the service box, to be corners of the court. Eight corners in all. If I
was to use these extra corners, it would slow Ramy’s speed to the front
of the court and would limit his counter attack because of a lack of
angles. Most crucially, though, it would give me more variation in my
attack.
The O2 Arena was a
fantastic venue. I loved the feeling of playing in it. But even by the
time I’d reached the final I still hadn’t hit full stride. I was lucky
to overcome a slightly tired Peter Barker in the semi-final the day
before. Perhaps I was saving my best for last.
In the final itself,
Rafa’s eight-corner plan dovetailed perfectly with my new mental
strategy. Not only did I frustrate the Ramy into making a succession of
errors, but I managed to attack him too. It was my third British Open
title, more than any other Englishman had won.
