Day ONE

BJO 2008

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EN Bref Issue #1

RESULTS LISTING

Steve Cubbins reports
from Sheffield

Well, with 250 matches on there's a chance that there was a better match than Shahzad Khan against Antonio Gonzalez Salas, but it was pretty good, trust me, and I only saw the fifth game!

These two were running as if there was no tomorrow, hitting with fearsome pace, and retrieving ball after ball that looked impossible.

Add to that a few minor disputes, partisan supporters on both sides and plenty of enthralled neutrals, and this was a match to savour ... two talented youngsters trying their hearts out, it was such a pity one had to lose.

There was nothing between them, 1/1, 2/2, all the way up to 7/7.

The last two points took an age, with numerous lets, but in the end it was the Pakistan supporters who were happy as Shahzad recovered from two games down to record a memorable win.

"That was a great match," referee Tony Parker said at the end, and went on to confirm that all five games were just like the last one.

Yep ... match of the day ...
 

Shahzad Khan

You get some physical mis-matches in the early rounds, and little Joe Matharu would look more at home in the under 13 event. But it was Joe's birthday over the weekend, so under 15 it was.

"He wasn't very happy to discover that he was on the glass court either," his mum told me before the match.

Joe, at a significant height and reach disadvantage, often switches to a two-handed style, on both sides, which won't help his reach much either.

Joe took a while getting used to the court, losing the first 9/0, but he went 4/0 up in the second, and caused his much bigger Indian opponent some trouble.

He eventually lost 3/0 in 14 minutes, but he never stopped running, never stopped trying, although it's a big court when you're that small, and mum was rightly proud of his efforts ... and will be looking forward to another go at the Under 15 next year.

The first match on the glass court at Abbeydale attracted my interest, featuring as it did a player from Cambodia. 'Can't have been many Cambodians entered over the years' I thought.

At a quick glance it was hard to tell the Cambodian ... until after the first game I went to talk with his dad. "He's from Cambridgeshire, the computer has put all of our players down as from Cambodia," he explained ...

Oh well, an all-English clash to watch instead then.

Robert started nervously, losing the first thirteen points of the match. "It's his first BJO," said Dad Martin, "he's never played on a glass court before and he's not started playing yet ..."

Robert scored his first point at 0/4 in the second, and although he got more into the game, William was always in control of the match.

"The BJO is a big event, and I guess you're bound to be nervous, but that's the worst I've seen him play for a long time," explained Martin.

"It felt weird, really strange," said Robert. "I'm not quite sure what it was that made it feel so strange, but it was really hard to get used to it."

Robert had a second runout on the glass court in the afternoon in his plate match - "I did better, I was 7/0 up in the first, managed to lose it, lost the second 9/7 but lost the last 9/0."

Next year Robert will be hoping to be on the glass court again now he's used to it ... unless he's emigrated to Cambodia, of course ...
  

Oxfordshire's Lewis Wood exceeded his ambition when he took the first game against France's highly-rated Lucas Serme.

"He knew that Lucas was much higher-ranked, and he really wanted to take at least five points off him," explained Lewis's mum Catherine.

Lewis was able to catch his French opponent out with his boasts and drops in that first game, aided by a few errors from Lucas.

But from 2/0 to Lewis in the second the match turned, as Lucas started to make use of his extra power and reach and dominated the match, winning 27 consecutive points to reach the second round tonight.

"We went over to the US and Canadian Opens last month," said Catherine. "Lewis won his first matches in both of those but it's just a different class of player here in Sheffield."

Lucas with French coach Fred Lecomte

A comeback too far

Marc Rudolph, an avid Man Utd fan from South Africa, found himself 2-0 down against Yorkshire's Ben Hodgetts before he started to claw his way back into the match.

He levelled it with a 10/9 fourth game, but the effort clearly tired him, as his taller opponent largely controlled the final game.

"There is a large South African contingent here, but mainly in the U17 event," said Marc's coach Sonica Fritz. This is my third BJO, I'm also looking after Robyn Baptiste in the Girls U15 - it's her second event and Marc's first, so I'm sure the experience will do him good.


                       Robyn, Sonica and Marc

As a three-time Scottish Junior Open champion, Arturo Salazar remained an unknown quantity visually, so a photo of the budding Mexican star was a must.

Knowing that he had a twin brother Cesar was a worry, but thankfully Arturo obliged by wearing a t-shirt that took away any doubts...



The vagaries of the seeding had given Arturo a spot in the qualifying, while twin Cesar, who Arturo beat in those three Scottish finals, was straight into the main draw.

Arturo proved just too strong, too fast and too accurate for his Pakistani opponent, dropping one point in just 19 minutes of play.

Arturo and Cesar later both won their first round matches, and Arturo's reward is a 9am meeting tomorrow with top seed Ramy Ashour, so without wishing to prejudge the result, it may be  a good job we got that photo today ...
  

The English boy got off to the better start in this match, but Moriamez started to find his game and levelled the first at 5-all, placing the ball just that bit tighter than Underhill.

A fantastic rally, with probably more shots than the rest of the game so far, put Underhill 6-5 up and three quick errors followed from Moriamez as he squandered the first game.

After the break though, the French boy regrouped and started to play accurate squash once more. From 8/0 up in the second a few disputed rallies made the game take longer than he would have liked, but the pattern was set, and the match was level.

Moriamez always had the edge in the final two games, moving his opponent well, hitting several dying lengths and picking off anything loose for winners.

A conduct warning to Underhill for dropping his racket in disgust for the umpteenth time, a few well-contested rallies towards the end, but there was no stopping the Frenchman.

Scotland's Ian Jubb was seeded two in the under 15 for the Scottish Junior Open, and matched that seeding by reaching the final.

Seeded 17/32 here he scored an easy first round win over Sam Davidson of Wales in just 11 minutes, then faced Denmark's 17/32 seed Philip Tran.

The two were well-matched physically, and their movement and hitting was also of a similar standard.

But from the beginning it was evident that the Dane was simply more accurate than the Scot. Jubb was always on the back foot, always the one rushing to catch up, while Tran was controlling the rallies, creating the time to place the winning shots, and hitting fewer errors.

Maybe on another day, on another court, it would be different, but tonight was the Dane's, and that's one step towards their target for this week, according to National Coach Fransesca Busi 

"This is such a strong tournament," he said. "We could only really bring our best players, so we have two, Philip and  in the U17.

"Our goal was to get them both into the last 16. Philip is now there and if Christian Frost wins tomorrow that will be a great success for us.

"I took over as National Coach last August for three years. We'll be taking teams to some of the other European Junior events, but our main target is the U19 team event in Switzerland, and of course the Senior European Teams in Vienna.


              Busi, Tran and Frost

Arriving at Abbeydale

Chris Nutley (centre) gets the tournament desk ready

 by Squash Site

www.bjosquash.com