First Round Jitters
James Willstrop Gets Big Win over kareem Darwish

by Joe and Dan Kneipp, Live at Grand Central Terminal, New York, 23 Feb 2003
All content © 2003 Squashtalk, photos: © 2003 Debra Tessier

[view the mens draw/results]    [women's qualifying draw/results]

by Joe and Dan Kneipp

There’s something unnerving about playing your first match of a big tournament. You’ve arrived in a foreign city and you’re usually dealing with some form of jetlag even if it’s mild. You’re trying to prepare for a good tournament, but in the back of your mind you’re curious as to how you’re going to play.

Every standard of player from pro level to beginner knows that some days you hit the ball beautifully and can’t do anything wrong, and other days you
can’t play the most basic shots to save your life. Obviously part of being a successful pro player is being able to still win matches when you don’t play well, but that doesn’t help solve the performance mystery.

Why did John White beat Peter Nicol in 31 minutes in the World Open semi final? Why
hasn’t he done that before? Why couldn’t he do the same in the final? Where his biorhythms more in tune in the semis? Was Jupiter in line with Mars and Saturn circling perfectly around Uranus? Did he have the perfect balance of carbohydrate loading to sleep ratio? Was it because he put his left shoe on first?

He won’t know the answer so don’t bother asking him. Obviously he knows what his preparation was, what shots he chose and when, but not why everything worked on that day. If you’ve been on a squash court before you’ll know what I’m talking about. Some days things just work, and some days they go horribly astray and often you have no idea why that is.

So in the first round of a big tournament there’s always the uncertainty of how the tournament is going to pan out. Karim Darwish, Alex Gough, Amr Shabana and Chris Walker wouldn’t have arrived in New York thinking that their tournament would end on the first day. We all know what it feels likes to be a seed and lose in the first round. The last two big tournaments (Qatar Classic and World Open) I lost as a seed at the 32 man stage. It’s
disappointing, depressing and creates uncertainty about how you’ll perform in the next tournament. That uncertainty creates extra nervousness which usually leads to scrappier squash which greatly increases the chances of you losing a lot of points quickly and subsequently the first game which can increase the nervousness and create a vicious self perpetuating circle.

Dan and I have discussed at length that in a strange irrational way it can actually be more beneficial (mostly mentally) to have to qualify. You’ve played two matches, with the first one usually being relatively easy. So you’ve had time to get used to the court, become aware of how well you’re hitting the ball and know what you’re working with once the main draw
begins. There’s also the advantage of absolutely no pressure in the main round if you are the qualifier. If you’re the seeded player and you beat a qualifier it’s hardly interesting news, "Wow big deal. You’re ranked in the top sixteen and you beat a guy ranked #35 who has already had two days of matches. How oh so very impressive". Which means you have everything to lose and nothing to gain. There’s a few players that have a reputation for over analysing the game and letting the mental side of the sport too often dictate their results.

WILLSTROP WEATHERS DARWISH
That’s one of the mental benefits of being a qualifier. There’s obviously disadvantages. While we were waiting for my match to start we watched James Willstrop take on Karim Darwish. We said in the preview that this was going to be a good match and it didn’t disappoint. Willstrop is the recently crowned World Junior Champion while Darwish held the title before Willstrop.

But there’s over 30 world ranking points between them with Darwish sitting at #11. And to make it worse Willstrop had to go through qualifying playing a tough four setter in the first round, then a ridiculously long 100 minute five set marathon against Canadian Shahier Razik in the second round of qualifying. Darwish should be able to walk on court with quiet confidence that Willstrop will be tired and sore and will run out of steam. Willstrop beat world #10 Martin Heath in the second round of the British Nationals, then followed it up the next day with a five set victory over another top 20 player Nick Taylor. So he’s obviously no chump and can play good squash. But that wasn’t how he started. It looked like he was nervous making some strange mistakes and odd shot selection.

Dan talked to him about it after his dramatic five set victory and it again came down to the mindset involved with qualifying. Willstrop said he felt like he wasn’t going to be able to play well and that part of him had an uncertainty about his ability to win after having a five set 100 minute match the day before and playing against a fresh competitor. It wasn’t until he won the second game that the momentum began to swing. The mental boost it gave him began to become apparent in his play and physically he seemed to grow even stronger. As the game continued to sway in his favour the memory of all of the work he had done appeared to fade away. Obviously your fitness has to be very good if after a tough qualifying tournament all you have to worry about is the mental challenges.

JOE KNEIPP WINS
So my match was against Englishman Nick Matthew who is #25 in the world. We had never played before so I didn’t know what to expect. One of the main differences as you go further up the ranking is the pace and intensity of a match. The closer you get to the top the faster the game is played and the longer it is able to be sustained. So when you play against someone whose game you don’t know much about but who is ranked lower than you, playing
at a high pace with lots of running and scrambling is usually the safest way to approach a win. Someone forgot to tell this to Nick. Our first few rallies went on forever with Nick getting some incredibly retrievals and putting lots of pressure on, particularly with his volleys. I knew I was in for a tough match. I eventually won 15-12, 15-8, 15-6 but as Dan said this score line didn’t do Nick any justice and it was a bloody tough match. I think it
was Ricketts who said you don’t get any easy first round matches.

Tomorrow’s match is against the World Champion on the glass court. I’ll be there with bells on.