First
Round - afternoon
Martin
Bronstein, Squashtalk reporter on the scene at Grand Central Terminal
by
Martin Bronstein, Live at Grand Central Terminal, New York, 21 Feb 2004
All
content © 2004
Squashtalk, photos: © 2004 Debra Tessier
[view the main draw/results] [view the qualifying draw/results]
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| Mike Corren (front) kept even with Thierry Lincou © 2004 Debra Tessier |
The world number one Thierry Lincou opened proceedings at Grand Central Station with an unimpressive performance against Mike Corren, a young Australian who is probably better than his 38 ranking indicates. Whether it's Lincou's new baby keeping him awake at night or a lack of training since he ascended to his world beating title it is hard to say, but the lackluster squash might indicate both.
Lincou was in a negative, safe
frame of mind, refusing to volley shots that begging to be put away, instead
taking them off the back wall. Corren realized that there was an opportunity
to make a name for himself and, unbelievably, he stayed up with the world
number. It wasn't pretty squash and the pulse rarely raced as the
ball was sent up and down the wall, as though they were making a coaching
video on how to keep the ball tight, "thus, limiting your opponent's
options and forcing him or her to play a loose shot". You're bored
already aren't you?
Lincou led most of the first game but Corren leveled at 12-12 and then pulled up from 12-14 to force extra points. Lincou realized that this was doing his reputation no good upped his game a little, took the ball short a couple of times and finished the game 17-14 in seventeen minutes.
CORREN MAKES
THE PACE
Corren started the second game very positively and led 5-3 and 12-11 giving
rise to the possibility of another upset. Lincou had lost in the first
round in Kuwait in January to a much lower ranked player. You would have
thought he would have trained like hell for the next tournament, but his
mind was simply not functioning at top level. He managed to pull up and
dominated the last four rallies to win 15-13.
In the third game Corren led again at 11-9 which finally forced Lincou into action. The next rally was good stuff with Lincou upping the pace, distributing the ball to the four corners and putting Corren under the sort of pressure he should have employed from the start. At the end of the rally, after Lincou had coolly put the ball away from a bedazzled Corren, it was apparent that this was where the difference lay between the two levels: Corren was puffed and from that point Lincou pulled away to take the last five points for a 55 minute victory.
I asked Lincou how he would rate his performance on a scale of 1-10 and he sheepishly chose 'about three'. What happened out there? "He slowed it down which I don't like and I had no focus out there,"Lincou said, almost apologetically.
POWER SINKS BERG
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| Doubles champion Viktor Berg (front) couldn't make headway against fellow Canadian Jonathon Power © 2004 Debra Tessier |
When I asked Berg the hardest thing about playing Power he said his speed and shots: "With other players you get tired after two hours. With Jonathon you're tired after 15 minutes. He's so fast on the ball and he has so many options; he can do four things with it when other players can only do two," he explained.
IN THE NICK OF TIME
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| Mohd Azlan Iskander almost came back against Nick Matthew in the best match of the afternoon © 2004 Debra Tessier |
He took the first two games off Mo Azlan Iskander easily. In fact too easily because the very talented Azlan came back at Matthew with real intent and never allowed Matthew to regain his ascendancy. This was easily the best match of the afternoon with both players demonstrating what skills a modern player has to have to stay competitive. A good use of the height of the court as well as the skill (and knowledge when to) to go short. They forced each other to cover the court constantly but Azlan was now pushing hard and Matthew was forced into errors as he tried to get some cheap points. Azland won the third 15-10 and led the fourth 5-1. Matthew slowly got back into contention and they played every point for all they were worth. There were errors, yes, but there were also some wonderful rallies.
Matthews got to match ball
but Azlan saved three match balls to move to game point 16-14. Now Matthews,
not wanting a fifth, fought back to 16-all. To the brave go the spoils
and this time it was Iskandar who hit a wonderful forehand slam into the
nick to win 17-16.
England national coach spoke animatedly to Matthew during the intermission,
but it was Iskandar's sloppiness that helped Matthew to 12-5 lead. The
talented Malaysian seemed to lose his desire and although he came back
to 13-9, Matthew was not going to let this one go and forced the pace
to get two errors from Iskandar to win 15-9.
