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Irish Open 2007 - first round of qualifying

Apart from Chris Ryder losing what I heard was quite a cagey encounter with Derek Ryan, who is never an ideal first round qualifier, there weren't any further upsets by the locals. Chris lost 3:1 and was quite disappointed with his efforts, but then again the higher-seeded player losing always is and Derek is still in a good shape and very tough to play.
I saw Bernado Samper play Phil Nightingale, at least the last game, which was entertaining due to the high pace at which it was played. Bernado could be quite the force to be reckoned with as he seems to be able to play at a very high pace and still use his very good hands.
As said, the locals, apart from Ryan, didn't make quite the impact many supporters had joped for, whereby it should be noted that Peter Emanuell made it a hard piece of work for Brad Hindle, which I blame, without watching a single second of the match, to his deceptive quickness, which I fell victim to in Irish league.
Other local Arthur Gaskin was keen to do well in his home country and despite having relocated recently to train more with Simon Parke, couldn't beat Welshman Rob Sutherland, who now faces topseed and my fellow countryman (go Germany!) Simon Rösner, who got a bye today.

Johnny Hartford, who was playing another local Nigel Peyton, was rolling off a clear win with a solid performance in games one and two. Although inquiring about the running cricket match between England and South Africa (which was somewhat depressing for all Englishmen here), he didn't let the score affect him as his opponent may have hoped so and won 3:0. This is what I was going to write anyway while watching the match but then it suddenly all turned around!!! While writing this after the second set, Nigel actually just hit about 7 kills in a row, one more impressive than the other and took the game off Johnny 11:2. That is what you get for predicting scores too early and of talking about cricket in the game breaks. It turned out to be a close 3-1 game for Johnny after some absolutely fantastic display of hard-hitting, all-out-winner squash by Nigel. Who needs John White if you have Nigel around! You could see Johnny getting a bit nervous after that but he kept his calm at 9:8 up and managed to squeeze a tight win in the end. He said, fittingly afterwards, that he has never played anyone hit that many superb winners in a single game and I can't do more than second that. I disagree, as I played Johnny once before :)
The last game of the match was between local Keith Moran and Julian Illingworth. While Keith is a very good player Julian never looked too troubled and it was a clear case of pro versus local. This is in no means meant disrespectfully as we have seen many upsets by good local players, but they in most cases just lack that decisive edge and percentages that the pros seem to have on them.

Quotes:

Rob Sutherland:
Played Arthur a couple of year ago and beat him at the time. Wasn't too sure about today, I knew he would come out fast and the first game was close, 12:10. I tried to control the pace a little cause he likes to play at a high pace, which calmed things down. He made quite a few mistakes in the end and got frustrated whereas I was able to keep my calm. I am now playing Simon, whom I played once in juniors a long time ago, seen him play quite a bit and looking forward to a tough hard game. I am living in Wales at the moment, mainly training with Chris Robertson and hitting with Jethro Binns and Ricky Davies. Current ranking is about 102, whereby I haven't really thought about too many goals for end of the season as I have been out injured for a bit. Playing European Team Championships as next tournament.

Dave Barnett:

Rankingwise probably the best win so far in PSA, I am at 110 and Jesse is about 60 to 70.
Started well, he seemed to lose a bit of interest to be honest, he really seemed to let himself down after my good start.
Rallies weren't quite as tough as I thought as he went for winners most of the time. I lost concentration in that third game and his winners kept coming off. Fourth game went all my way, went up early on and held my lead.
Never played Bernado before, seems a very good player, and he is even higher in the ranking than Jesse. It is gonna be tough - a high pace - so I will attempt and keep up with that and see what happens. It is a good court, low tin, bit of a dodgy area just over the tin but I generally like the court.
Had a week off before this cause I was tired, got 4 -5 tournaments coming up and I am trying to break into top 100 by the end of May.

All this makes for some interesting qualifying finals tomorrow:

There isn't a real pick of the bunch but I guess Derek Ryan, who is facing the very fit Aussie Brad Hindle, could be the one to watch. Brad doesn't give in easily and I would expect Derek to have to come up with a good performance if he wants to make the main draw. Bernardo Samper seems to be the favourite against Dave Barnett, whereby the Newcastle lad will want to extend his giant-killing.
Johnny Harford will face the only American in the draw, Julian Illingworth, and with their styles of play not looking too dissimilar, this could be a rather lengthy affair.
last match up will be Germany's number one player Simon Rösner, who will be keen to put in a good performance against Rob Sutherland in preparation for the main draw. However, Sutherland is a resiliant player and won't be a push-over. Maybe his countryman and second-seed Alex Gough will be there for some coaching, which would (I take it Goughy is a rather good coach) spell bad news for Simon.

I will try and keep my coverage up for the tournament and get some women's squash in too. With wireless around at courtside it shouldn't be too tough!

German Bundesliga - final standings

With each team having played 18 matches over a 7 month period we now have the final standings before the play-offs (end of May). And surprise surprise, Skwosch Froesche Marburg qualified in second place before the likes of SI Stuttgart, Black & White Worms and traditional play-off candidates such as Court Wiesel Bonn and Koblenz.
The format for the play-offs is as following: the top two teams (Paderborn and Marburg) are seeded in their respective semi-finals and Stuttgart and Worms will be drawn against them.
With Paderborn being clear favourites (as virtually every year) Marburg will be happy not to face them in the semi-finals, whereby it has to be said that with any team playing in their best formation, is a potential threat to Paderborn. In any case, the playoffs promise some exciting squash, with not only many of Germany's top ten players taking part (Simon Baker, Patrick Gaessler for Stuttgart, Stefan Leifels and Simon Roesner for Paderborn, Andre Haschker for Marburg, or German vice-champion Jens Schoor for Worms), but also the likes of Gregory Gaultier, Peter Nicol, Nick Mathew and potentially Amr Shabana.
The big losers of the last Bundesliga weekend have to be Stuttgart, who were certain to become second, all they had to do is beat Erlangen, who lost all but one game throughout the whole season, so rock-solid bottom with one point. Unfortunately for Stuttgart they were not able to get a top player in for position one, so Simon Baker lost to Andy Whipp 2:3 which decreased Stuttgart's lead to 2:1. Then Patrick Gaessler had to withdraw due to injury and suddenly they had drawn to the weakest team of the league and lost second position to Marburg. Oh well, Stuttgart will be fine if they draw to Marburg for the semis but will be distraught to play Paderborn in the semis, as this would make for a fanstastic final. Stuttgart had lost to Paderborn in last year's semi-finals, but only on countback after drawing 2:2.
The final league standings can be seen here>: Bundesliga, final standings

Shabana and Peter a level above

So, my prediction that Gaultier would win did not really materialise in the end and he was beaten by Peter Nicol in the semis rather convincingly, to say the least. Not many semi-finals finish with a five, eight, five scoreline and despite lasting 54 minutes I must say I am somewhat surprised. Reading the reports on squashsite.co.uk it seemed as if Nicol played more attacking than usual and seems to have done very well therewith. Obviously Nicol is one of the greatest players to have graced squash courts all over the world but all in all he is more known for his retrieving ability than his shot-making capability. I have the feeling that this can of course win him a match against most people, but there were and still are of course certain players who can exploit an all-too defensive game which consists of retrieving rather than attacking, obvious examples are of course Power, Gaultier, Beachill and of course Shabana. Despite relying on other people's observations one can see what a difference it can make if you add an extra element to your game.
So what Bermuda proved was that Shabana is still the man to beat at the moment and has once and for all proven to be a far more consistent player than people thought he ever could become. Bermuda also showed that everyone is going to miss Peter Nicol and it is nice that he is producing some wonderful results to finish off his truely marvelous career.
On the other hand Nicol's great form is bad news for all the other top ten players, as I am sure many of them are hoping to beat Nicol one last time before he retires. Chances are not looking too good for many of them.

New German Squash Website

Especially German readers will be pleased to hear about www.squash-portal.com , a new German Squash website offering timely national and international Squash news. You can sign up for a newsletter too and publisher Alfred Vega has been happy to point out, that Germany's Simon Rösner (PSA 72) has agreed to report once in a while.
So give it a go, looks like a good thing. It is not as if us Germans have a plethora of informative and interesting Squash websites, so we should be thankful for anything we get.
Good luck Alfred anyway...

Predictions for Bermuda

Obviously, with the first round being finished and the scond one in process, naimg the potential winner has become somewhat easier. The fact that one of the big favourites, Anthony Ricketts, just lost to Ong Beng Hee of Malysia, gives more food for thought however and makes the draw somewhat more interesting.

In my opinion LJ Anjema is one of the strongest players still outside the top twenty and Ricketts having beaten him as clearly as he did made him red-hot favourite in my eyes. Which makes Ong Beng Hee's task of having beaten Ricketts three zip even harder to understand. It seems that once in a while good old Ong is able to pull one out of the bag and beat one of the big guys, although his last big win, as far as I can remember, was against David Palmer in the British Open 2006.

I think Gaultier is going to be the big benefactor of this, after he beat Beachill in what looks a convincing win. I cannot see him losing to Beng Hee right now and he will give Palmer or Nicol, whoever makes their way through to the semis, a very hard time and certainly will not enter the court as underdog.

The top half however is a little more open in my eyes and it will be interesting to see how Willstrop will fare against the man of the moment, Amr Shabana himself. I think that if someone can beat Shabana in the top half it is going to be Wilstrop, as he is one of the few players who has both the physique and precision to keep up with him. With Shabana having realised that he is more successful with a slightly more basic game of squash, he seems to really have moved away from losing to the likes of Lincou, Mathew or Nicol. I think if someone is going to beat him, it will be someone who plays a more attacking squash and not just let himself be dominated by Shabana, which is why John White did so well against him. Obviously White does well against anyone if he is playing well, but I hope you get my point.

So I am going to be precise: in my opinion Gaultier is going to win the tournament, as he is again, someone who can do well against Shabana. He hasn't lost to Wilstrop throughout his entire career (not that they have played since juniors I think), he beat Lincou and Nicol the last times but lost to Mathew the last few times. As I can't see Mathew going through again, I think chances for the Frenchman are good. Let's see! Comments welcome...

Power retires...

So, I will be honest here - despite only having seen Power live in action in one tournament, he has remained my favourite player ever since. I guess this is of course a kind of popular choice and I don't claim points for inventiveness, but there are I think certain things about Power which make his game and character so appealing to everyone.

The one thing I really remembered when seeing him live (this was the World Open in Antwerpen 2002) , was the attention he received from everyone. There were always a couple of players hanging around at the venue but as soon as Power showed up all kinds of people ran up to him to be photographed with him and talk to him. And he was great, chatted and took pictures with everyone. Later on that day I saw him waiting outside the venue waiting for the shuttle with Grayham Ryding and he looked like a bit of a tramp waiting outside in the cold, it was a kind of funny sight.
Fortunately he lost in the semifinals to Palmer, he had to withdraw after Palmer caught his eye with the racket, but it hadn't been a great match anyway, Palmer refused to move, Power refused to hit the ball so it was let after let after let and kind tiresome. For that I have seen him on several DVDs and have found no other games as entertaining to watch as his. Drama, amazing racket skills and a great sense of humour. It has all been said before, but, I guess he is the kind of player one can't talk about enough. And he will remain one of th most talked about players in years to come.

And I think it is universally regarded as a great way to finish his career on such a high. He just isn't the kind of player to lose in first rounds and to slump down the rankings. He is the one to finish on top, and that is just what he did.

Welcome

So quite obviously my first post will be an introduction to explaining to you, my dear readers (as few as you may currently be), what "Dan's squash blog" is all about.

As with all blogs this is intended to provide you with my view on the world of squash (no, not the fruit), thereby focussing on the professional squash tour. So I will try and give you a nice overview on current tournamants & events, players, leagues and what ever else happening in global squash. Being German (I do live in Dublin however) there will be more information on German squash than you would find on other international sites and perhaps a couple of German-specific articles wil be in German too, so don't be too irritated.

Anyway, feel free to send me any opinions or likewise and I will try and publish them too if interesting. If you like tell your friends or likely-minded people about the site or put a link on your own site - I'd appreciate that. That is if you like what you read. I think this is one of the very few squash blogs around and information on squash is still pretty scarce, so I hope I can contribute in some way.

That is all for now, off to work on my first proper posting!