ToC fireworks

By Brett Erasmus

Rob White Photography

Well, we are down to the final 8 at the Tournament of Champions in New York and it played out like we thought. The best players in the world have entered this event and they are the ones who are left in the main draw. We have the squash players currently ranked world numbers 1 through 8, excluding Englishman Barker (6) who did not enter. In his stead, world number 11 and the best New York based squash professional, Wael El Hindi, rounds out the quarterfinalists.

Wael's route to the quarters was not easy. Tonight, Sunday January 24th he faced a German player, Simon Rosner. The players are both tall and have incredible reach and great shot-making ability. This was a 5 game thriller and was arguably the closest and most entertaining match of the tournament thus far. El Hindi comes out wearing a baby blue outfit that most grown men would never wear. He looked pretty good though, compared to what he normally wears anyway (black sleeveless tops). The first game the players were neck and neck all the way; a no let at the front right for El Hindi at 9-8. He appeals but the ball was stuck to the side wall and too tight to reach, so the game goes to 9-9. El Hindi wins the next point and serves at 10-9 and plays a backhand drop this time. Rosner does not ask for the let but gets awarded it anyway. He refuses to take it and El Hindi applauds his sportsmanship. In the end Rosner digs deep and wins the game 12-10, after some really well executed straight drives.



In the first rally of the second game Rosner did a tour of the court at the end of which El Hindi cupped his face in his hand in a gesture to almost say 'well done, my son'. At 5-4 El Hindi guesses left to cover a straight drive but gets a let. He drops his racquet in disbelief. He clearly expected a stroke. At 7-5 Rosner gets a stroke - he holds his forehand at the back and El Hindi moves across too soon. El Hindi's comment to the refs was basically: 'You don't see a call that bad every day'. The crowd was suitably amused. At 9-7 Rosner is serving and some guy in the crowd shouts out 'step it up' really loudly during the rally - Rosner does that and gets to game ball. 'Niiice!' is the appreciative response from the unwanted guest (whom is soon escorted out by security). This game also goes down to the wire. At 10-10 Rosner plays through interference and then shoots an unbelievable winner into the front left corner. El Hindi literally head butts the wall in frustration, that must have hurt. Rosner wins the game in the same front left corner, on a beautifully executed forehand overhead kill this time. What a nice way to win a game, I thought.

So El Hindi returns this gesture at the start of the next game, by drilling the ball straight into the same nick. Not to be outdone, Rosner does the same again in the immediately following point. It's game on. The pace is furious and serious physical contact now unavoidably ensues in every rally. These guys were all over each other this game. The scores were close again. At 9-7 down the marker was overruled, as Rosner scrambled to a ball that was called down but was good. El Hindi regroups and wins the next rally and the game, the beginning of a great comeback. In the 4th game El Hindi switches shirts and is now in his trademark sleeveless design. I have never seen one of those in baby blue, not on a squash court anyway. At 9-5 down in the 4th Rosner hits yet another forehand volley nick off the serve, a desperate shot at this point, but the only thing he could probably think of that was working well. El Hindi rounds out another incredibly physical game 11-7 and the match goes to 5.

Again the first point of the game was insanely long, and it ended in a let. The players were all over each other again and after the first 3 rallies El Hindi was warned to clear his shots. A few points later the warning went to Rosner for abuse of the ball (like that's possible) as he hits the ball away in frustration, after going 5-1 down. The game is all but lost. El Hindi held strong and seemed more mentally tough in the 5th. The game was poised at 5-2 as Rosner runs into El Hindi and totally floors him. Rosner hits the shot anyway and wins the point. This physical contact does not appear to phase El Hindi at all. In fact, I suspect this is exactly what he wants. He seems to thrive on it. He goes up 7-4 with a nice lean on his opponent at the T as he hits a straight volley kill. The game is all but over, Rosner's spirit visibly broken. After holding a few match points with winners hit out of pure desperation, Rosner hits a reverse angle and the game ends in a stroke right on the T. It was not pretty, but this was the kind of fight we have come to expect from El Hindi. Nobody said playing top level squash would be easy. El Hindi won this grueling match 10-12,10-12,11-9,11-7,11-6. An entertaining match to watch and I suspect only the first in a line of fireworks still to come.

So we have 4 Egyptians in the mix (El Hindi, Ashour, Darwish and Shabana), 2 English players (Matthew and Willstrop), a Frenchman (Gaultier) and an Australian (Palmer). The Frenchman won it last year, the year before it was the young man, Ashour; and in 2006 and 2007 Shabana was victor. It would be nice to see one of the English players win for a change, but I suspect that is not going to happen. If Ashour holds out Gaultier on Tuesday evening I think he will go through to the finals on Thursday and will face another Egyptian, likely Darwish. Both of these guys are looking very strong and relaxed this week. Darwish was walking around chatting to supporters with his usual comfortable smile on this face. Probably because he does not have the pressure of the number one world ranking on him anymore; he has nothing to lose really once he is in the semis. I expect to see him perform at his very best. Ashour is going to be hard to beat though, he recently attained the world number one ranking and is playing unbelievable well. The way he hits the ball is novel, and is very different to how the game is taught - he uses a very closed face and practically no back-swing on certain shots. His style may revolutionize the game actually (more on this later in the week). His talent is enormous and he has actually improved since last time he played here. If he keeps this up I suspect he will hold the world number one spot for many years to come. Winning this tournament will entrench him in that top spot. Of course, he has to beat the defending champ first on Tuesday. We'll see what happens.

Check back later this week for an update. If you cannot wait and need more ToC commentary, check out http://www.squashzag.com/ a comprehensive resource for squash in North America.