[2] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 3-0 [3] Paul Coll (NZL) 11-8, 11-4, 11-3 (45m)
At the end of the match, I went to Paul, who was in a pool of sweat, and smiled “May I say that you are finally officially tired”? Without moving he went “that is an understatement”….
I wrote yesterday that Karim was playing at such a level at the moment that very few players could beat him. Even on a warm court…
Talking of which: Karim is pretty adamant that this court suits his game to a T. Weird, as I see his winners being retrieved again and again, but as he said, he knows he’s going to have to work hard, he accepts it and actually is more patient than on a cold court!
Karim played again out of his skin today, and like Tarek in the final of the worlds, was able to twist and turn him enough to finally, finally, FINALLY Superman run out of Kryptonite. And that my friends, doesn’t happen often. I guess Karim can send flowers/chocolate to Joel Makin, that planted the nail in the coffin in the quarters…
Excellent start for the Kiwi, 4/1, but quickly caught out, 4/4, 6/6. Some gruelling rallies will take the Egyptian to 9/6, then 10/7, to take the game on his second attempt, 11/8 in 16m.
Stats: 4 errors Karim, 3 strokes (a lot of shots shooting off left corner in the middle of the court), 8 winners. Paul 0 error, 2 strokes, 2 winners
The second and third will be pretty onesided scorewise, but the battle raged on, believe me, and it was at no point easy, or comfortable for the Egyptian. A couple of surprising calls at 4/0, with a Let confirmed by the ref should have been a no let against Karim, to have the next rally an obvious no let (Karim going to the body, miles away from the ball) being given as a stroke to Karim, with the poor Kiwi with no appeal left…
Apart from that, pretty straight forward, Paul working extremely hard in the second, no error yet again, 4 winners, no errors from Karim either – that is more unusual – and 9 winners, 11/4 in 14m of hard rallies.
The third, Paul making a few tired uncharacteristic errors, 3, Karim, 1, and it’s 11/3 in 12m…
Both Shorbagy and Karim will be fresh tomorrow for the final, which should be a cracker Insha’Allah…
Karim
I just want to congratulate Paul for such a great achievement last week in the Worlds and to play tournament after tournament is very tough on the body, so to be able to compete here and play a 90-minute match like he did yesterday shows how athletic he is. He is very professional and very good physically and at his squash tactics and everything.
I just tried to be as patient as I could, when you play your best squash you don’t have to do too much because you can force some errors.
This court, although pretty warm, seems to suit my game very well. Last year, I played well as well, I beat Saurav and Lucas 3/0, so in a strange way, I like that court. Maybe also because in Egypt, most of our courts are warm, we are just used to it….
Also, I seem to find my length better than on any other court. And because I know I have to do a lot of work when I start, I am more patient as well and I think that’s why I play my best squash.
It’s all a question of confidence. I have been playing very good squash recently, at the US Open, even if I didn’t win it, I was happy with my game, and in Al-Ahram, I really played some good squash. In the worlds, I was pretty tired from the Egyptian Open, and somehow, I felt a lot of pressure there.
But arriving here, with the knowledge I actually play well at the moment, I am playing with no expectation other than playing my best squash, not thinking about losing or winning, really, no pressure and that makes all the difference…
