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!