[1] Mostafa Asal (EGY) 3-0 [2] Paul Coll (NZL) 11-4, 11-4, 11-8 (54m)
As Mohamed mentioned yesterday after losing against Paul, Asal was going to be very tough to beat today.
The presence of James Willstrop, who seems to be able to calm the Bull and keep everybody in line, was the cherry on the cake for the young Egyptian. When I saw James, I immediately thought ‘well, that goes the match for Paul’.
Paul on the other hand can be very proud of reaching the final. He found tooth and nail to beat the Bagies, and left all the energy he didn’t have to start with in those two matches, both emotionally draining matches, on top of the physical exhaustion that Mohamed also mentioned yesterday.
I feel that Paul won the quarters and the semis because he had three of his best friends in the crowd that gave him a huge boost. But they couldn’t do a miracle. Mostafa today was basically unbeatable, and he never ever let our Superman to have a sniff at it.
Mostafa is back to world number one, with the controversy, the nastiness, the drama. Just his talent and explosive power. I like that very much.
James Willstrop – coach to Mostafa : I thought the squash from Mostafa point of view was excellent. He was stopping Paul in the areas where he is very good at. He did that very well early on.
Even if Paul was not at his best physically, Mostafa stamped out any authority from Paul early on, which was good and gave Mostafa a lot of confidence having won a two love lead.
There is a little bit of intensity, edginess, as it is to be expected.
As for reaching again world number one, it’s a remarkable achievment, isn’t it? He wanted it very much. I was trying to help him forget about it really over the last few days. Play every moment, and not worry too much about on the exterior stuff and the stuff that was at stake.
But it’s very hard when you want it so badly, and he is 23, the experience is not quite there to understand that, you just want it. I remember being like that. So I was just trying to give him a bit of perspective, it’s just another match, all the usual stuff, held it together…
Paul : No excuse, he was just too good today. No making excuses, I’m proud of my start of the year, it’s been long but he was too good today, impressive actually.
Mostafa : “I’m really happy and proud of myself to bounce back after all of the controversial things in the past.
“I’m really happy with myself and to be World No.1 again. It just hits different.
“I’m super proud of myself today. Paul is such a legend of the game and for sure I knew that he had been touring in New Zealand and Australia and he had had some tough matches here. But still, Paul is so fit and he can manage to do this, so this match will give me a lot of confidence.
I was talking with Jimbo (James Willstrop) before the match about the number one thing. The pressure that I am having during the match for the past three tournaments, thinking about world number one each tournament, and I felt I couldn’t play my squash. He has so much experience, he was there and he knew how you can change my head to try and get the mind back on what’s important. So I really want to thank him for that.
Also, so happy to have him and Mick Todd (Pontefract Owner) after they drove 5 hours to come from Pontefract. I need to thank them for everything.
Of course, I want to thank my father, who seemed to have disappeared! And of course, Bassim Aidar for what he is doing for squash, for sponsoring this tournament. And my own sponsors, Tecnifibre, Eezsteel, Physiocure, Palm Hills and Egyptair.
“I wanted to give it 100% today and I knew that I could get back to World No.1. It was unbelievable pressure throughout all of the tournament. I was going to be out against Joel yesterday, I was 2-0 down, but I’m really happy with the comeback yesterday and to bounce back on court today.”
