I finally had a tough match and it was just what I needed to get into the right frame of mind before the quarter-finals. It does not help to have easy victories and then go straight into a big one. Against Billy Hadrell, my Australian opponent from the third round, I made the mistake of letting my guard slip a bit in the third game and paid the price by losing it. There was a lapse in concentration and he immediately raised his game. I was a bit negative when going for my shots in the front and back and one just cannot afford to do that. However, I got my act together soon enough, for I would not have liked the match to have gone into the decider. It felt good to turn on the heat just when I needed, to rattle off ten points in a row.Hadrell was obviously in a confident frame of mind after having beaten Mark Chaloner and then Julien Wellings, and with his unorthodox style of play, was a tough opponent. He hits the ball incredibly hard. The squash fans in Mumbai may recollect how Brett Martin used to play.Hadrell hits as hard, maybe even harder.
Graham Ryding must have been very disappointed with the outcome of his match against Jonathan Power. They train together, but have not played each other for about two years, so Ryding must have been hoping to take at least a game off Power. But in the end he could hardly make a match of it, losing 15-4, 15-4, 15-11.
It's amazing to look at the quarter-final pairings, which has the world No. 1, that is me, playing the No. 4 Paul Johnson and the No. 2 Ahmad Barada playing Jonathan Power, the No. 3. With a 64-player draw, it is incredibly tough to reach the last four stage.
Ahmad Barada was not the same self that demolished Martin Heath in the previous round. Tony Hands had him scurrying around the court, using the lob and the drop to good effect. But finally, the Egyptian's superior skills saw him winning in four. He was looking a bit tired. That is one more thing when playing a draw of 64. The extra matches one has to play needs a player to be superbly fit.
Ifeel that England's Chris Walker should have been a straight-games winner against Belgian Stefan Castelyn, but instead ended up loser. After winning the first game and then leading 11-8, there was a break as Castelyn left the court to get some treatment. Walker lost his concentration and could never get back into the match thereafter. He kept jumping to the intial lead, but then his game would juts crumble.
John White is having a great tournament. It's not every day that one defeats players like Australia's Jenson and Simon Parke back to back. White, who now plays for Scotland, is a fighter and never gives up. Both Jenson and Parke may have just made the mistake of lightening up after taking the initial lead. But White, who had played a five-game match the previous day still had plenty in store. He kept hitting winners in the decider and that proved too much for Parke.
Procam International
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Printer-friendly page
