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.