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[ Framboise ONE ] [ Framboise TWO ] [ Framboise THREE ] [ Framboise SEMIS ] [ TOUT EN CONTROLE ] [ ROUNDUP ]
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Say it with a French Accent from Broadgate
Framboise Gommendy reports |
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Day THREE
stories from Framboise:
NOW WE KNOW THE
SEMI-FINALISTS
So, Thierry Lincou will meet Nick
Matthew and John White will play Joe Kneipp in the semi-finals. Let's look
at how it all happened ...
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SHABANA: MY GOD!
Amr Shabana bt Thierry Lincou
11/9, 9/11, 11/10 (4-2), 11/5 (45m)
Jill Wood
(national referee from Hertfordshire) quite rightly gave a conduct warning
to Shabana today in his delightful match against French number 1 Thierry
Lincou - at 8/6 for saying “My God”.
The adorable Egyptian looked at her in complete astonishment and said “I
said My God”, to which Jill replied “That is blasphemy”.
Shabana looked at her and with a gorgeous smile concluded: “Not in my
religion….”
The crowd burst in laughter, while Jill smiled the line away.
The first game was extremely close and Thierry was up 5/0 before Amr awoke
and closed up the score. They were both hitting hard and going for length,
with Lincou volley dropping beautifully. 6/6, 8/8, but the Frenchman made
a few mistakes, and Shabana takes it away 11/9 in 11 minutes.
In the second, it’s Shabana who is up, and Thierry who was chasing. Lincou
succeeded to surprise his opponent by changing the direction of his
attacks and wrong footed him a few times (especially on Shabana’s right
side drop shots). Thierry takes the second, 11/9 in 8 minutes.
The third could have gone either way. By that time, both players were
playing at their best, Shabana attacking every ball under the sun, Thierry
retrieving magically. 10/10. Scoring thing cleared, blablabla time (sorry,
can’t get used to it, why can’t we have what the CWC had, deuce and
advantage, it’s SO SIMPLE!), and Thierry gives it away with a tin, 11/10
(4/2).
At that point, Mr Lincou remembered that he was probably playing one of
the fastest rising stars of the circuit in the semi-final of the event
tomorrow (if you know the answer, you are NOT winning a can of
Kingfisher), and decided with good reason that a little stretch, a run and
a shower was more appropriate than a five game battle, and stopped
running.
No, it was a good display (at last!) of the World Champion’s talents.
Lincou already qualified took the edge away, the 2 players are pals,
Shabana wanted to make a point, Thierry was happy to let his mate shine,
and the crowd (and me) enjoyed every minute of it.
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Today's PORTRAITS:
Amr, Jill &
Joe
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JONATHON POWER:
THE DOOMED PLAYER
Peter Nicol bt Jonathon Power
11/8, 7/11, 11/5 rtd (24m)
I can’t believe it. Power injured himself so
badly again today, that when he went passed me, carried out of the arena
by two people, I saw the size of his foot, and it was frightening.
It had swollen so much, on the side of the ankle, you have a mole the size
of an egg.
How unlucky can you get?
Both Peter Nicol and he were giving us the best performance they could
given the circumstances. A dead rubber, Nicol exhausted, Power injured in
the glutimus maximus. And still those two were battling away, being the
professionals and the showmen they are.
Peter wins the 1st 11/8, Jonathan replies by winning the 2nd 11/7.
In the 3rd, they are both having a great time, Peter retrieving and
attacking every ball he can put his racquet on, Jonathan volleying
EVERYTHING, as usual, using his dream reflexes. At 5/10, Jonathan serving,
both players decide to give an exhibition of right corner drop shots
(backhand for Peter, forehand for Jonathan), 4, 5, 6… 11, 12…
And Jonathan slips, falls, and Peter said later that he heard a “crack”
when the Canadian fell.
Jonathan is screaming in pain.
Everybody is on the court, Linda Davie, tournament referee, all the
officials, Wendy, the Referee hurries to the court as well. Alan Thatcher
takes the mike and tries to inform us of what is going on.
Sad. Very sad.
On the first night, I saw Jonathan falling on his own, because of a lack
of balance. But how unlucky this player is! For a whole year now, he
hasn’t been able to play his game, to do his job. Every week another
injury creeps in.
I do feel for the Magician. I am a great fan of his, and have been for a
long time, and I simply hope this is the last bad luck of a long series…
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Nicol v Power
the FULL STORY
Nicol now leads 21-17 ... |
KNEIPP: I’M GLAD TO STAY
BEACHILL: I’M GLAD TO GO!
Joe Kneipp bt Lee Beachill
11/2, 11/7, 11/8 (36m)
Joe is delighted to stay for the final stages, and Lee is not that
distraught to miss out on the semi-finals for the second year in a row.
It took only 36 minutes and a clear score of 11/2, 11/7, 11/8 for the
Australian to push the Pontefract star aside. “Go and take care of your
son, mate,” the 30 year old seemed to say, happy at last with his squash
and shots.
The first game was all Kneipp, in 9 minutes, even if both players enjoyed
long and powerful crosscourt rallies. The second was more balanced,
Beachill still serving his fantastic lob serve that puts a lot of pressure
on his opponents and returning Joe’s serve with some great return of serve
drop shots.
At 6/6, Kneipp put more pressure, more weight on the ball, adjusted the
drives, sharpen the drop shots, and soared to 11/7.
In the 3rd, the rallies were very quick until 5/5, and Kneipp gave us a
good display of his talents, in particular acrobatic volley drop shots and
some magical retrieving of Lee’s hard hitting and great length.
After Joe tinned his first match ball, Lee smiled a “don’t worry mate”, as
it was obvious that the Australian was walking away with this one.
It took 4 match balls, but Kneipp was in, Beachill was out.
“Thanks for that,” said Beachill to Alan Thatcher who was reminding the
audience that Lee was actually 2 love in the lead up before he finally
lost his match against Lincou the night before.
“Yes, I did play very well to start with, and then, I cracked up
physically. Thierry was number 1 a few weeks ago, he is obviously one of
the best players in the world, so it’s never easy to play against him.”
Asked if it had been hard to be away from home, Lee said
“I didn’t realise how hard it was going to be, as Ben (his son) is only a
few days old. And I think that tonight, it all caught up with me.”
Asked his thoughts on the semi-final, Kneipp concluded:
“I saw Johnny play for the past 2 days, and I don’t want to play him, and
I saw Nick play for the past 2 days, and I don’t want to play him either!”
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Joe - the Portrait |
JOHN
WHITE:
WHO’S THE MAN NOW ???
John White bt Nick Matthew
9/11, 11/3, 11/5, 11/5 (35m)
OK, OK, I admit it now. I voted for Thierry
Lincou for the player of the day
yesterday (although I don’t see what the Frenchman and his family would
have done with a huge box of beer (would have been nice on Eurostar…). But
White is the man.
Again.
Well, he is now the only unbeaten player of the event, and I honestly
don’t see who could beat him this week.
But then again, you know my talent of prediction (and you can stop
laughing now, it’s embarrassing).
The first set between the tall Scotsman (gets me every time that one!)
John White and the strong young Nick Matthew from Sheffield was very close
indeed, 3/3, 6/6, 8/8; 9/9… Nick was attacking and hitting heavy weight
shots, John was crosscourting beautifully, boasting at will, lobbing short
balls; beautiful rallies, great atmosphere on the court. But John made 2
mistakes, and Nick walked off court 11/9 in 15 minutes.
From that point on, we had Mr White in exhibition mode. The presence of
his ‘expecting a happy event’ spouse Suzy and two adorable children Tyler
and Kyra seemed to have boosted his abilities. In the next 3 games, Nick
could only get 13 points!
Flicking from right to left, and left to right, wrong footing Matthew “en
veux-tu en voilà”, “at will”, delicate drop shots, return of serve kills,
boasts, volley drop shots from the changing rooms, and finding all the
answers to Nick’s beautiful attacks.
And boy those two know how to entertain a crowd!
The cheeky Scotsman pretending to hit his opponent twice who had the bad
idea to place himself right in front of him, making a crashing noise on
the side wall that gave poor Nick a real fright (and us as well…).
Matthew twice looked at his elder in astonishment, and twice, John smiled,
proud of his joke, to the greatest delighted of the crowd.
But Nick had some good ones as well. For example, as he was about to hit
the ball, he asked for a let, to the great relief of Mrs White, as the
Englishman would have hit a very painful place if he hadn’t stopped his
swing. John made an “after the event” protection gesture.
Nick stated: “I didn’t know which ball to hit ... ”
John waited for the crowd to stop laughing, and added:
“The White one”.
It took a good 5 minutes to restart the match.
John was not unhappy with his performance, and mentioned that Joe Kneipp
had been on the circuit for a few years, and could be a redoubtable
opponent.
“Well, that’s why my loss tonight was a tactical one” said the cheeky (no,
not cocky, Nick, not cocky!) Matthew.
John White concluded:
“The top of the game is changing. Before, you always had the same
semi-finalists or finalists. Now, every one of the top 6 plus the
youngsters coming up can win on a given day. We are putting our body
through a lot, but that’s what we train very hard for.”
Two more days to go. Only two days?
This week is passing VERY quickly. Too quickly for my taste…
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Nick starts strong
Kyra,
Suzy & Tyler
provide John's inspiration
White powers ahead |
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