|
Punj
Lloyd PSA Squash Masters 2009 |
||||||||
|
Click here for Press Articles
|
||||||||
|
Ramy
Masters Matthew in Mumbai Over the last week, Ramy Ashour has won many admirers with his courageous, inventive and remarkable stroke-play. On Thursday, he conquered Englishman Nick Matthew 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 to win the $152,500 Punj Lloyd PSA Masters title at the Bombay Gymkhana in Mumbai. Fourth seed Matthew is enjoying the form of his life and arrived in the final of the penultimate PSA Super Series event of the year without dropping a game. Meanwhile Ashour, still smarting from his straight games loss in last month's World Open final in Kuwait, had avenged that defeat by beating fellow countryman Amr Shabana in the semi-finals - and was ready to tip the scales in his pre-final three-all head-to-head count against the Englishman. The 22-year-old from Cairo led from the outset in the opening skirmishes soon moved a game up. But it was Yorkshireman Matthew who was in the ascendancy throughout the second game and levelled the score after 41 minutes. It was neck and neck throughout third – with Matthew mostly in the lead. But, a point away from game ball at 9-7, Matthew saw the third seed romp away with four points in a row to reclaim the advantage. Ashour maintained the momentum to go 3-0 ahead in the fourth – but Matthew led twice thereafter at 5-3 and 7-5. The Englishman went on to save two match balls from 7-10 down – but Ashour converted his third attempt to record his 11-6, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9 title-winning triumph after 79 minutes. The win marks Ashour's first Super Series success of the year, but the 13th PSA Tour title of his career - of which, remarkably, eight are Super Series! "I’ve got great respect for Nick - he played so well tonight, he’s really improving his attacking game, and he mixed up his pace really well," Ashour said afterwards. "I think Nick and I really play well together, we seem to have a complementary game, and to keep pushing each other up. "This is my first win of the year - I’m so happy and I hope I’ll just keep on playing like that in Saudi, and after that. Win or lose, I just want to play well." Matthew, who reached a career-high world No4 last month, is widely being tipped as a future world number one back in his home country: "I guess there was a lot at stake today - the PSA Masters title, the world number one. It was a lot to handle, and maybe I was thinking about it too much," admitted the 29-year-okd from Sheffield. "I’ve learnt from this, and I’ll be keeping challenging for the number one spot. "But he was playing better squash than me today, that’s about it. I’m disappointed with my performance, my movement to the front was not good enough, and of course, all credit to Ramy, who was 80% responsible for it - his racquet skills, his movement, his shots. "But I still lost 20% of it, and that made the difference." All Results: FINALS: Semi-finals: Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt Amr Shabana (EGY) 11-9, 13-15, 11-8, 11-2 Nick Matthew (ENG) bt Peter Barker (ENG) 13-11, 11-6, 11-5 Quarter-finals: 2nd Round Results : Amr Shabana (EGY) bt
Saurav Ghosal (IND) 11-6 6-11 11-5 12-10 Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt Anwar Reda (Egy) 11-6,11-8,11-3.
day four diary The Egyptians gave a squash treat. And coaches like Vaman Apte and Dushyant Singh in the commentators' box said this was the squash Indian juniors ought to watch so that they would go forward. The amazing court coverage, the feigning and deception, the lobs, the drops, the tickle boat that Shabana played and the dribble-type shot Ashour did reminding us of our great game Hockey where Indians' and Pakistanis' dribbling was a class apart. You need someone on the other side for a dribble here Ramy had only the wall and the tin and yet he did it beating his opponet who was lurking behind ! Now only shot remaining to be seen is the cork-screw seve! ......................... Up there in the commentary position was James Willstrop sharing the mike with me and later Dushyant Singh.He gave insights into the All-English semi-final clash. He commiserated with Barker when the decision didn't go with him at 8-6 in the first. He was all praise for the way Nick read the game and was hardly hustled hard even as Barker tried with sidewall shots and ones into the nick. ............................ The entertainment continued between matches and we had people making martial arts sounds with the mouth and emcee Shayriyar having quiz questions for the kids whose right answers were rewarded with a prize of new racquets. ........ There was a quiet dinner for the players earlier in the week. There was a noisy one on Wednesday night. Players, officials, refs, mediamen, VIPs got the chance to interact. Birthday boy Alex Gough was getting feedback on how to take the game forward on the lines of other successful players. He was for regimenting players about some things like media interaction for the better coverage of the sport which is trying for Olympic recognition. Paul Selby was lamenting why a junior programme wasn't flourishing in UK where the sport thrived at club level. Gough's lament was that in the US the Ivy League was the be-all and end-all of squash. ................ One got see Misha Grewal, India's squash queen of the 90s. Delhi-based Misha was recently seen with the Commonwealth Games torch in London. She plays more badminton than squash at the Siri Fort complex. Her son Neil was busy taking autographs. She admitted she had put on weight and squash would be tough. She has another baby and that takes up all her time. She was happy to meet up with players of her time like Manish Chotrani, Akhil Behl. Ritwik's mom Rani gave Misha company. Mumbai squash fans
keep players motivated as in Cairo: PSA chief |
||||||||
|
Click
below for other press article links :
|
||||||||
|
ON
MY MIND Article in Mid-day :
9th December 2009
New
State sports minister Shetty moots sports policy
He met the local squash officials like Ranjan Sanghi, Shiv Malhotra, Mahendra Agarwal and Bombay Gymkhana officials and sought from them names of worthy people for the projects he had in mind. Shetty said his second priority would be to have two committees. "One will be of sportsfolk, administrators, coaches who would advise on a policy that would be in place for the next ten years. The other committee would be for sports infrastructure, to improve the existing one and set up new ones. We all know that the Balewadi complex is under utilised and we will try and make a difference.’’ Asked if from his experience in the Cabinet whether sports had any kind of priority in the state, Shetty said,``We have a young CM who is interested in sport. He will be there for sport.’’ About
the poor per capita participation in sport Shetty said,``Schools don’t
have grounds so it is tough to motivate the young. We will try and have a
programme for the schools also.’’ RAISING
THE BAR
|
|
THE LAST time the city hosted a mega squash event — the Mahindra International — way back in 1997, Ritwik Bhattacharya accompanied the then world number two Rodney Eyles and helped him carry his bag at the venue of the competition. Twelve years down the line, the five time national champion will find himself in the thick of the action both on and off the court. RARING TO GO THE 30-YEAR-OLD who is currently ranked 75th in the world has been given the only wildcard entry into the the prestigious Punj Lloyd PSA Masters that will take place between December 5-10 at the Bombay Gymkhana. “Although I have missed some tournaments due to niggles, this year I have been training hard. And I am very excited about the Masters which we will be hosting next month,” he said yesterday. With the world’s best 32 players participating in the tournament, Ritwik felt it would not be prudent to predict the eventual winner. “There’s little to differentiate between the top 10 players and I feel all of them are capable of winning the tournament,” he said. Ritwik also hoped he and Saurav Ghosal, the other Indian in the draw would do well enough to keep the Indian flag flying. |
 |
Top
stars for city squash tourney
Article in Times of India, Mumbai : 4th November 2009
We’ve had to wait 12 long years, but world class squash is finally returning to India. With a field that boasts of the world’s top 32 players, including the hugely popular Egyptian duo of Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour, the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters will be held at the Bombay Gymkhana courts here from Dec 5-10.
Not since the glorious days of the Mahindra International which saw the best in business travel to Mumbai (the last edition was held in 1997), has India seen top flight action in the racquet sport. “It will be organised on a similar scale. Mumbai has hardly seen good squash recently and we thought we’ll get something for the fans this time,’’ said senior pro Ritwik Bhattacharya, who alongwith former player Raj Arora is the brain behind the tournament.
The Mumbai event is a new entrant in the international squash calendar. It is a Super Series Platinum event (the highest category in the sport) with a prize pool of about $150,000. While the Egyptians will be the ones to beat, the Indian challenge will be led by the top-two—Saurav Ghosal (ranked 33rd) and Ritwik (75th), who has been given a wildcard.
“I’m sure the fans will have a great time watching Shabana and Ramy play. They are a class apart,’’ said Ghosal.
