Tournament of Champions Finals Recap: For Ashour, First Bare Survival, Then Total Domination
by Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline January 25th --- Just two points away from a looming three-love defeat, and to that juncture thoroughly both out-played and out-worked by his opponent, 2007 British Open champion Greg Gaultier, PSA No. 1 Ramy Ashour survived a do-or-die third-set tiebreaker, and then from 6-3 in the fourth he ran off seven straight points and 16 of the match’s last 17 Thursday night in the final round of the 2013 J. P. Morgan Tournament Of Champions in Grand Central Station. Ashour’s 7-11 6-11 12-10 11-3 11-1 victory marked the third time he has triumphed in this mid-town Manhattan venue (previously in 2008 and 2011), and the second in the past three years.
Rarely in the illustrious history of this venerable championship --- which was being held for the 79th time, the first 59 of which were played as hardball events before the switch to softball in 1992 --- has the eventual winner been as close to losing (in straight sets no less) in the final as Ashour was on this occasion, though this year’s event did represent the 25th anniversary of when Mark Talbott fended off a few third-game final-round match-balls against him and overcame Ned Edwards in 1988 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. Though Ashour had the word “Inspired” prominently emblazoned on the front his shirt, his play was far from that through the first two games and most of the third as well.
In contrast to the 2009 Tournament Of Champions titlist Gaultier, who was sharp, error-free, highly mobile and exceedingly focused, Ashour, noticeably lacking the spark that had animated his incandescent performance one night earlier in his five-game semifinal win over the top-seeded James Willstrop, betrayed a proneness to mistakes, both physical (four unforced tins in each of the first two games) and mental, as when he hit a behind-the-back serve-return while trailing 9-5 in the second game that was properly called a stroke against him, presenting Gaultier with game-ball. By the time he finally began playing up to his true level late in the third game, it seemed that his rally may have been too little, too late.
But it is NEVER too late when one is discussing a player as talented as Ramy Ashour. After first angling a backhand drop shot perfectly into the front-left nick at 10-all in the third with Gaultier fenced out on his right hip, Ashour knocked off a forehand overhead volley into the front-right nick to salvage that game, and Gaultier was never the same player thereafter. On the first point of the fourth game, he rashly attempted a cross-drop serve-return that clanged off the tin, a disquieting shot selection at the time (as was a low-percentage backhand working-boast on the following point, which he also tinned), and maybe in retrospect an early sign of the deluge that awaited.
The exchange that may have put the match over the edge for good occurred at 5-2, Ashour, when Gaultier, after running Ashour all over the court, twice had him stuck right near the front wall and smashed the ball at him; the first one Ashour was able to reflex-volley back, and the second one he not only returned but directed into the far nick, an outrageous winner which he celebrated by strumming on his racquet strings as though playing a guitar while the crowd gasped in wonderment and Gaultier grimaced in disbelief and dismay.
When the French star then scored a front-court winner of his own on the ensuing point to draw to 3-6, he still appeared fully in contention; certainly no one at the time could have foreseen that, of the 17 points that remained, only one would land in his column. However, when Ashour took the next two points to go up 8-3, Gaultier visibly conceded the last three points (he was actually starting to open the door to exit the court as Ashour was hitting that game’s last stroke), a risky move psychologically but one presumably designed to conserve his strength for the fifth game.
But it swiftly became clear that he didn’t have much left for the fifth game either, and Ashour, sensing Gaultier’s vulnerability, pounced, reeling off increasingly audacious winners in what would have been a shut-out were it not for his one sole tin on the game’s third point. By the end, he was sprinting to the tape in a wave of exuberance and confidence that engulfed his exhausted and deflated foe, who less than a half-hour earlier had been on the precipice of victory. Possibly the pair of tough four-game matches Gaultier had endured on the two previous nights against first Mohd El Shorbagy and then the defending champion Nick Matthew may have taken a toll (compared to Ashour having had a “rest” day on Tuesday after playing his quarterfinal on Monday), especially since the losing player scored nine points or more in five of those eight quarters/semis games that Gaultier had played. What is certain is that a combination of factors, not the least of them a revived Ashour’s excellence buoyed by his escape from oblivion in the third game, came hurtling down on Gaultier in the tournament’s culminating moments.
In the end, it was an unusual, somewhat off-putting match in the sense that, with Ashour struggling early and Gaultier capsizing late, there were only a few stretches, most notably the last half-dozen points of the third game, in which both players were performing at or near their considerable standard. It is a sign of how completely the semifinal foursome have reigned over the past half-decade of PSA competition that each of them had lifted the Tournament Of Champions trophy once in the four years leading up to the 2013 edition. And with all four of them still in the midst of their respective primes, they could well be filling the four semifinal slots in this event a year from now as well.
While as noted there was a sharp turnaround midway through the men’s final, the theme of women’s final between Natalie Grinham and Kasey Brown remained constant throughout, as Grinham demonstrated a mastery of the angles, a knack for alternating her shot choices and a remarkable ability to glide to virtually everything that her opponent tried in remaining undefeated (now 7-0) against Brown with a well-played but convincing 11-6, 5 and 6 victory to retain the title she had won in 2012 against Dipika Pallakal. The smallish Grinham, a four-time World Open finalist who took some time away from the tour to give birth two years ago, was able to control most of the points with a combination of positioning, precision and anticipation that often had Brown flailing at the ball, reversing direction, confronted with having to deal with Grinham’s parabolic lobs that were difficult to locate in the host venue’s bright overhead lights, and only rarely able to set her feet and deliver a telling blow.
Grinham was able to put together defining runs (from 3-4 to 8-5 in the first game, from 7-6 to 11-6 in the second, the last on a great forehand overhead into the right-front nick, and from 3-2 to 8-3 in the close-out third) and sail to the tape from there. Interestingly, both finalists had been pushed to a fifth game by Egyptian teenagers in their respective round-of-16 matches; Brown had actually trailed Heba El Torky two games to one before eking out an 11-9 fifth game, while Grinham won 11-4 in the fifth over 2011 World Junior Champion Nour El Tayeb.
This was the 15th straight year, and the 16th time overall, that this championship has been held in Grand Central Station’s impressive environs, a tribute to the staying power of Tournament Director John Nimick, Associate Director Beth Rasin and Operations Director Melissa Winstanley, who are already looking forward to an even better event in 2014.
by Rob Dinerman for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline January 25th --- Just two points away from a looming three-love defeat, and to that juncture thoroughly both out-played and out-worked by his opponent, 2007 British Open champion Greg Gaultier, PSA No. 1 Ramy Ashour survived a do-or-die third-set tiebreaker, and then from 6-3 in the fourth he ran off seven straight points and 16 of the match’s last 17 Thursday night in the final round of the 2013 J. P. Morgan Tournament Of Champions in Grand Central Station. Ashour’s 7-11 6-11 12-10 11-3 11-1 victory marked the third time he has triumphed in this mid-town Manhattan venue (previously in 2008 and 2011), and the second in the past three years.
Rarely in the illustrious history of this venerable championship --- which was being held for the 79th time, the first 59 of which were played as hardball events before the switch to softball in 1992 --- has the eventual winner been as close to losing (in straight sets no less) in the final as Ashour was on this occasion, though this year’s event did represent the 25th anniversary of when Mark Talbott fended off a few third-game final-round match-balls against him and overcame Ned Edwards in 1988 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. Though Ashour had the word “Inspired” prominently emblazoned on the front his shirt, his play was far from that through the first two games and most of the third as well.
In contrast to the 2009 Tournament Of Champions titlist Gaultier, who was sharp, error-free, highly mobile and exceedingly focused, Ashour, noticeably lacking the spark that had animated his incandescent performance one night earlier in his five-game semifinal win over the top-seeded James Willstrop, betrayed a proneness to mistakes, both physical (four unforced tins in each of the first two games) and mental, as when he hit a behind-the-back serve-return while trailing 9-5 in the second game that was properly called a stroke against him, presenting Gaultier with game-ball. By the time he finally began playing up to his true level late in the third game, it seemed that his rally may have been too little, too late.
But it is NEVER too late when one is discussing a player as talented as Ramy Ashour. After first angling a backhand drop shot perfectly into the front-left nick at 10-all in the third with Gaultier fenced out on his right hip, Ashour knocked off a forehand overhead volley into the front-right nick to salvage that game, and Gaultier was never the same player thereafter. On the first point of the fourth game, he rashly attempted a cross-drop serve-return that clanged off the tin, a disquieting shot selection at the time (as was a low-percentage backhand working-boast on the following point, which he also tinned), and maybe in retrospect an early sign of the deluge that awaited.
The exchange that may have put the match over the edge for good occurred at 5-2, Ashour, when Gaultier, after running Ashour all over the court, twice had him stuck right near the front wall and smashed the ball at him; the first one Ashour was able to reflex-volley back, and the second one he not only returned but directed into the far nick, an outrageous winner which he celebrated by strumming on his racquet strings as though playing a guitar while the crowd gasped in wonderment and Gaultier grimaced in disbelief and dismay.
When the French star then scored a front-court winner of his own on the ensuing point to draw to 3-6, he still appeared fully in contention; certainly no one at the time could have foreseen that, of the 17 points that remained, only one would land in his column. However, when Ashour took the next two points to go up 8-3, Gaultier visibly conceded the last three points (he was actually starting to open the door to exit the court as Ashour was hitting that game’s last stroke), a risky move psychologically but one presumably designed to conserve his strength for the fifth game.
But it swiftly became clear that he didn’t have much left for the fifth game either, and Ashour, sensing Gaultier’s vulnerability, pounced, reeling off increasingly audacious winners in what would have been a shut-out were it not for his one sole tin on the game’s third point. By the end, he was sprinting to the tape in a wave of exuberance and confidence that engulfed his exhausted and deflated foe, who less than a half-hour earlier had been on the precipice of victory. Possibly the pair of tough four-game matches Gaultier had endured on the two previous nights against first Mohd El Shorbagy and then the defending champion Nick Matthew may have taken a toll (compared to Ashour having had a “rest” day on Tuesday after playing his quarterfinal on Monday), especially since the losing player scored nine points or more in five of those eight quarters/semis games that Gaultier had played. What is certain is that a combination of factors, not the least of them a revived Ashour’s excellence buoyed by his escape from oblivion in the third game, came hurtling down on Gaultier in the tournament’s culminating moments.
In the end, it was an unusual, somewhat off-putting match in the sense that, with Ashour struggling early and Gaultier capsizing late, there were only a few stretches, most notably the last half-dozen points of the third game, in which both players were performing at or near their considerable standard. It is a sign of how completely the semifinal foursome have reigned over the past half-decade of PSA competition that each of them had lifted the Tournament Of Champions trophy once in the four years leading up to the 2013 edition. And with all four of them still in the midst of their respective primes, they could well be filling the four semifinal slots in this event a year from now as well.
While as noted there was a sharp turnaround midway through the men’s final, the theme of women’s final between Natalie Grinham and Kasey Brown remained constant throughout, as Grinham demonstrated a mastery of the angles, a knack for alternating her shot choices and a remarkable ability to glide to virtually everything that her opponent tried in remaining undefeated (now 7-0) against Brown with a well-played but convincing 11-6, 5 and 6 victory to retain the title she had won in 2012 against Dipika Pallakal. The smallish Grinham, a four-time World Open finalist who took some time away from the tour to give birth two years ago, was able to control most of the points with a combination of positioning, precision and anticipation that often had Brown flailing at the ball, reversing direction, confronted with having to deal with Grinham’s parabolic lobs that were difficult to locate in the host venue’s bright overhead lights, and only rarely able to set her feet and deliver a telling blow.
Grinham was able to put together defining runs (from 3-4 to 8-5 in the first game, from 7-6 to 11-6 in the second, the last on a great forehand overhead into the right-front nick, and from 3-2 to 8-3 in the close-out third) and sail to the tape from there. Interestingly, both finalists had been pushed to a fifth game by Egyptian teenagers in their respective round-of-16 matches; Brown had actually trailed Heba El Torky two games to one before eking out an 11-9 fifth game, while Grinham won 11-4 in the fifth over 2011 World Junior Champion Nour El Tayeb.
This was the 15th straight year, and the 16th time overall, that this championship has been held in Grand Central Station’s impressive environs, a tribute to the staying power of Tournament Director John Nimick, Associate Director Beth Rasin and Operations Director Melissa Winstanley, who are already looking forward to an even better event in 2014.
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