Matthew and David retain World Open titles in Rotterdam
Defending champions, top seeds and world number ones Nick Matthew and Nicol David both successfully defended their World Open titles in contrasting finals at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands’ City of Sports.
[1] Nicol David (Mas) bt [2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng)
11/2, 11/5, 11/0 (28m)[1] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt [6] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
6/11, 11/9, 11/6, 11/5 (92m)
Nicol Supreme for Six
Malaysian superstar Nicol David collected a record SIXTH World Open title here at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam with a supreme performance to dismiss second seed Jenny Duncalf in straight games in just under half an hour.
The English world number two didn’t do anything wrong, made very few unforced errors, but it was hard to see where her points were going to come from, such was the control that the Malaysian, moving and hitting supremely well, was exerting on the match and on her opponent.
Nicol led 5/0 in the first after some long opening rallies, taking it 11/2, she led 6/2 in the second, finishing it off 11/5, and was totally dominant in the third as Duncalf’s spirit visibly wilted.
Six titles in seven years for Nicol. Supreme.
“She was ridiculously good today,” admitted Duncalf. “I wanted to stay on there as long as possible, but she had other ideas…”
Nicol was impressed too: “This is my best performance ever. I didn’t expect anything but I wanted it so badly, I didn’t want anybody to put their hands on that trophy but me. I had a great support in the crowd, they were magnificent, I had my parents, Liz, and a big team of supporters from Squash City in Amsterdam that came to support me.
“My World Open titles mean the world to me, but I would gladly trade the six of them for just one Olympic Medal…”
Matthew still the Champion
It took a little over three times as long as the women’s final, but Nick Matthew retained his World Open title with a scintillating performance in front of a packed crowd at the Luxor Theatre.
Gregory Gaultier, playing in his third final, pulled away to take a tough first game, but Matthew took an equally tough second, then pulled clear at the end of the third after the Frenchman took a small injury break after a mid-court collision.
The defending champion made a strong start to the fourth, and at 6/1 it looked as is the end might come quickly, but Gaultier, invoking the crowd to help, started on a comeback that was cut short at 6/4 by a couple of errors.
Once Matthew had re-established the lead he closed the match out and raised his arms in triumph … still the World Champion.
“Even though I lost the first I knew that I was not playing badly,” said Matthew, “not doing anything wrong in particular, but that he was just playing better than me.
“I stuck in, stuck in, stuck in, and just started to attack a little bit. I got a finger in the door, and then my body through, and saw a chink of light and went for it.
“When I won today, it was pure joy, and pure relief. I feel for him, he’s been in three finals now, but hopefully he’ll will after I’m gone!!!!
Full reports, quotes, photos and more on TODAY at the World Open: http://worldopensquash2011.com/today.htm
The Finals: LIVE from 14.00
Watch them, follow the scores and commentary, get involved, follow the tweets … it’s all there on WORLD OPEN LIVE … your choice
www.worldopensquash2011.com/live.htm
The Finals: Previews in Numbers
Reigning champions aiming to defend titles in Rotterdam
With all four semi-finals of the World Open Squash 2001 at the New Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam finishing in straight-game victories, defending champions and world number ones Nick Matthew and Nicol David remain on course to retain their title in this, the richest-ever squash event, with a combined prize fund of over $400,000.
Their opponents in today’s finals will be France’s Gregory Gaultier, twice a World Open runner-up, and England’s Jenny Duncalf, the world number two who will be appearing in her first World Open final.
World Open Finals:
14.00 [1] Nicol David (Mas) v [2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng)
16.00 [1] Nick Matthew (Eng) v [6] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
Live scores and text commentary will be on TODAY shortly before 14.00
Fancy a Flutter? Final Stats …
For Nicol David the World Open final is no strange place. Competing in her 10th event, the Malaysian Datuk is in her 6th final, and looking to win the title for a record 6th time. 41 matches, just 3 defeats, the World Open is David’s natural domain.
For opponent Jenny Duncalf, it’s a first outing in the final. “If you could choose one match to play in, the World Open final would be it,” she said after winning the semi-final; yesterday, her 2nd in 11 World Open outings, and she’ll be playing her 25th match in the pinnacle event today.
Against David, Duncalf has played just once in the World Open, in Amsterdam two years ago, but overall they have met 28 times and the Englishwoman has just 2 victories to her name, both at the end of 2009 but David has avenged those 8 times since, 3 times this year in Grand Cayman, Malaysia and Australia, all of them finals.
Nick Matthew and Gregory Gaultier are also no strangers to the World Open or to each other. As Gaultier said last night, “it’s nice to see my generation of players at the top of the game still.” The English defending champion is competing in his 11th World Open, the Frenchman his 10th, and neither are unaccustomed to reaching the final stages, Matthew reaching the quarters or better in the last 5 events, Gaultier failing to reach that stage just once in the last 7.
For the record that’s 36 World Open matches each, 27 wins each. Gaultier has made two finals, losing out agonisingly in 2006 and convincingly in 2007, Matthew won his one final last year in Saudi.
Against each other they’ve played in 2 World Opens, 2009 and 2007 with Gaultier winning both times. They have shared victory in their 22 matches at 11 each, but in senior competition if you take away Matthew’s 4 wins in team events Gaultier has a 10-6 advantage. On the other hand Gaultier’s last win was in the 2009 World Open and all 4 meetings since then have gone Matthew’s way.
Does all this help predict a winner? Probably not, but a fantastic pair of finals is a fair bet …
Facts and Figures gleaned from www.SquashInfo.com
Richard Eaton: Gregory earns chance number three
05-Nov, Semi-Finals:
Gregory earns chance number three
Richard Eaton
Gregory Gaultier, the former world number one from France, earned another chance of achieving his life’s ambition when he reached the World Open final for the third time.
The 28-year-old from Aix-en-Provence beat James Willstrop, last year’s World Open runner-up from England, by 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 with a semi-final performance which suggested he may be playing well enough to atone for losses in two previous finals.
Gaultier was relaxed and confident, his movement was superb, and he avoided the clusters of errors which occasionally disfigure his exceptional talent.
Only when Willstrop led 6-2 early on did it seem that the Englishman’s long reach and excellent racket skills would cause trouble. There was also a brief spell in the middle of the second when Willstrop fought hard to get back on terms, but thereafter it was steady progress for Gaultier.
“It was a bit of a fight in the first game and then we both relaxed, because I don’t think we want to be aggressive on court – it’s just a better game,” Gaultier said.
“He’s not like that and I don’t think I’m like that,” he added rather mysteriously, perhaps a reference to suggestions that a bit of sledging had passed between the two of them.
Asked about his chances of atoning for the five match points which got away against David Palmer in the 2006 final in Giza, and the straight games loss to Amr Shabana in the following year’s final, Gaultier offered reasons for being hopeful.
“I am quite mature now, even if I am 28,” he claimed. “Is this how old you were when you were world champion?” he asked his interviewer Vanessa Atkinson, the women’s World Open winner in 2004.
“At 26, 27, 28, everything comes together,” Gaultier went on. “With me, mentally was how it happened. I worked with people, and I have managed to stay more calm on court.
“But of course I talk a lot on court, and this is my character – you are not going to change someone like this.”
The first sign that Gaultier was getting on top came with a sequence in which he played a forehand volley kill, a forehand cut-off volley winner, and then a forehand cross court length winner, to advance to a 7-5 lead.
Despite a brief altercation with the referee at the end of that first game, he was soon motoring to leads of 3-0 and 7-3 in the second game, sometimes making Willstrop twist and turn uncomfortably.
Once Willstrop lost his racket and fell heavily and on another occasion both men fell and ended sitting on the court, looking at each other, eventually grinning.
After that Willstrop’s challenge began to fade, and when Gaultier clinched the second game with a drop shot to a treacherously clinging line, his progress to victory accelerated the third.
Gaultier now plays Nick Matthew, the first Englishman ever to win the World Open title. Matthew moved to within one win of retaining it when he overcame Karim Darwish, a member of Egypt’s world title winning team, by 11-9, 11-9, 11-1.
“I had a little bit of luck to win the first two games narrowly like that,” said the Yorkshireman who combined a supremely disciplined performance with the courage to go for openings when he had carved them out. “I feel like I have done half the job, but now feel I will go into the final in decent shape.”
Gaultier said of his showdown with Matthew: “I wish him luck – but I wish myself more luck,” and then claimed: “I made two finals before, but I have been taking it one match at a time this week and didn’t think about the title at all.”
Then Gaultier paused, thought, and changed his mind: ”Sometimes I see myself like that,” he admitted, gesturing as if to hold up the trophy.
Earlier Nicol David produced a superbly-controlled win over her longest lasting rival to move within one win of a record sixth women’s title.
The phenomenal Malaysian did that with an 11-9, 11-4, 11-6 win over Natalie Grinham, the Australian turned Dutch international whom she beat in the excellent 2009 World Open final mot far away in Amsterdam.
David pulled back calmly from a deficit of 7-9 in the first game, using her athleticism and well-ordered driving to keep the rallies as long and arduous as possible.
“It just feels like déjà vue all over again whenever we step on court,” said David, a fellow resident of Amsterdam. “It was a really close first game, which I didn’t want, so I am just pleased to have won 3-0.”
She now plays Jenny Duncalf, the second seeded English woman, who won 11-9, 11-3, 11-7 against Samantha Teran, the first Mexican ever to reach a World Open semi-final.
Malcolm’s Semi-Final Preview
One of the major pluses in Rotterdam has been the quality of the Women’s Championship, highlighted by the outstanding match between Nicol David and Kasey Brown.
Holland will be represented in today’s Semis by Natalie Grinham, who faces David, Grinham has been outstanding, looking as good as ever, but David will be a severe test for her.
Jenny Duncalf has recovered form at an appropriate time and her opponent Samantha Teran, thrilled, no doubt, to have made the semi finals will not fail for lack of trying, that is for sure.
A final between the top two seeds looks the likely outcome.
The men’s is hard to predict. Gregory Gaultier and James Willstrop have been the men in form recently, and they meet each other.
Holder Nick Matthew does not look quite as secure as he has in the past. Karim Darwish, who looks injury free, will present a major challenge with his silky racket skills. Not my style, perhaps, but on the fence for the men’s semi finals.
Semi-Finals Preview
Coming up in Rotterdam, the World Open Squash 2011 Semi-Finals:
16.00
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) v [15] Samantha Teran (Mex)
[1] Nicol David (Mas) v [12] Natalie Grinham (Ned)
18.30
[1] Nick Matthew (Eng) v [3] Karim Darwish (Egy)
[4] James Willstrop (Eng) v [6] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
Final places up for grabs
We’re down to the last eight players, out of 190 who set out eight days ago on the quest for the World Open Squash 2011 titles. There are many familiar faces here, as you would expect, plus one who is making her first appearance at this level.
England’s Jenny Duncalf has been world number two for almost two years, and will be making her second World Open semi-final appearance in her 11th outing in the event, having gone out at the quarter-final stage for the past three years. Her opponent, Samantha Teran, the recently crowned Pan American Games champion, has never been as remotely far as this in her seven appearances.
They’ve never met before, so this is new territory for both, but especially for the Mexican.
By contrast Nicol David and Natalie Grinham are no strangers, and they are well experienced at this level, playing in their 10th and 12th World Opens. David has dominated women’s squash in recent years, amassing five world titles and staying at the top of the rankings since August 2006.
Grinham, until she took time off to become a mother, was David’s main challenger for the best part of 2006 to 2009, rock solid ant number two and contesting virtually every major final with the Malaysian, including epic World Open finals in Belfast and Amsterdam.
Their rivalry goes all the way back to 2000, 31 matches of which Grinham has won just seven, and none of the last 13 since her last win in Seoul 2007. But the last two, the World Open final of 2009 and the Cayman Islands quarter-final this year were close, very close, and both look on good form this week – as has the crowd which is sure to get behind the Dutchwoman – so a good match is to be expected.
Nick Matthew and Karim Darwish are no strangers, to the event or to each other. Matthew, the defending champion, is playing his 11th World Open, Darwish his 10th.
Both have appeared in one final, the Egyptian losing out to compatriot Ramy Ashour in 2008 in Manchester, Matthew beating fellow-Englishman James Willstrop last year in Saudi Arabia.
They’ve met 10 times, Matthew holding a 6-4 advantage but one of those was a walkover and Darwish won their last match, in Qatar last year. If you’re a betting man you won’t find much advice here.
An even longer rivalry exists between James Willstrop and Gregory Gaultier.
The Frenchman had the edge over Willstrop (5-0) in their junior days, even though it was the Englishman who became World Junior Champion – in 2002, after Gaultier had lost his final in 2000 to Darwish.
As seniors they’ve met 15 times with Gaultier only just ahead at 8-7, but the last three have all gone the Frenchman’s way including the Qatar Classic final just days ago.
Both are World Open veterans, both appearing in their 10th event, and both have had the experience of losing in the final – twice for Gaultier, in 2006 and 2007, and once for Willstrop, last year.
Again, don’t expect a short match …
David Palmer – after his last match
Video of David Palmer’s interview after playing his last PSA match, and the accolade of the crowd at the Luxor Theatre in Rotterdam
Quarter-Finals, Afternoon Roundup
[15] Samantha Teran (Mex) bt Dipika Pallikal (Ind)
11/6, 11/8, 11/9 (36m)
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) bt [5] Laura Massaro (Eng)
11/9, 11/7, 11/7 (45m)
[3] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt [8] David Palmer (Aus)
11/9, 11/7, 11/1 (42m)
[1] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt [7] Peter Barker (Eng)
6/11, 11/8, 11/8, 11/5 (71m)
Teran advances to semi-final
Having already beaten her Indian opponent twice in March this year, and having collected Gold in the Pan American Games just a couple of days Samantha Teran would have approached her first-ever World Open quarter-final with a measure of confidence.
The unforced errors that came from Dipika Pallikal’s racket in the first two games will only have helped that, with the Indian struggling to get a foothold in the match.
She did that in the third, but couldn’t get far enough ahead and Teran, continuing to play steadily and strongly as she does, came back to take the game with a delighted shriek (facing completely the wrong way, of course) as the PamAm Games champion moved into the semi-finals.
Duncalf breaks the spell
Having lost the last three matches – all this year – to her English rival Laura Massaro, world number two Jenny Duncalf was understandably keen to reverse that trend, as well as to advance to the semi-finals after losing out in the quarter-finals last year.
And in truth she was always on top in the match, leading from the outset, with Massaro never quite able to get up to speed, always the one chasing while Duncalf was, if anything, forcing the issue.
It was close, it would only have taken a couple of points to go Massaro’s way at any stage for her to get really involved, but it never quite happened, Duncalf stayed on top, and her relief at the end was palpable.
Darwish puts an end to Palmer’s career
He hadn’t told many people, but this was David Palmer’s last PSA tournament. He gave it a good go against third seed Karim Darwish, but as Palmer said afterwards, he’s “a little too old and slow to compete with these guys on this type of court these days”.
He nearly got the first, but a couple of errors at the end didn’t help, and Darwish assumed more and more control as the match wore on.
“My aim this week really was to make the glass court, so I’m glad I’ve done that but Karim was just too good today,” said the Australian two-time world champion and four-time British Open champion. “He’ll take some beating this week playing like that.”
And that was that, Vanessa Atkinson had a chat with David about his career and he made an emotional lap of honour around the Luxor Theatre to meet his wife and children … video, and lots lots more, to follow.
Matthew back on track
Nick Matthew stayed on course to to defend his world title with a solid win over compatriot Peter Barker to conclude the afternoon session. Barker played well to take the first, but lost out as Matthew held firm at the end of the second, as he often does, and with Barker’s movement hampered in the third and fourth Matthew always looked the likely winner.
Quarter-Finals at the Luxor – Today’s Schedule
Quarters at the New Luxor
Another eight matches at the New Luxor Theatre, to decide the World Open Squash 2011 semi-finalists … little previews to follow …
From 13.00
[15] Samantha Teran (Mex) v Dipika Pallikal (Ind)
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) v [5] Laura Massaro (Eng)
[3] Karim Darwish (Egy) v [8] David Palmer (Aus)
[1] Nick Matthew (Eng) v [7] Peter Barker (Eng)
From 18.30
[1] Nicol David (Mas) v [6] Kasey Brown (Aus)
[12] Natalie Grinham (Ned) v [16] Low Wee Wern (Mas)
[4] James Willstrop (Eng) v [5] Amr Shabana (Egy)
[2] Ramy Ashour (Egy) v [6] Gregory Gaultier (Fra)
