10 January 2011

CROSS DROP FLICK by MOHAMMED ABBAS

It's a shame, but after more than seventy posts in this squash video blog, this is just the first time to feature Mohammed Abbas. What a beautiful player he is though, such a fluent striker, hits the ball like 'knife on butter', has a deception second to none and reads the game so well... and still, never made it beyond world #13. I shall have maybe entitled this post "The greatest ever non-great players I.", and have opened a series about players hardly known by the masses due to the lack of great results and high rankings on PSA level, but highly appreciated by the fellow pros. The prototype of this 'type' could be Marcus Berrett; few know who he is, but just ask the kinds of Nick Matthew, Lee Beachill, Alex Gough, Ong Beng Hee, Stewart Boswell or many other pros who used to play him in Yorkshire, they will all confirm the great respect they have and tell you that it was pretty tough to get a game off him on his home-court.Getting back to the rally: they both tried to keep the ball as much as possible on the backhand side, avoiding completely to go short on the forehand side. Therefore it became a 'rhythm' rally, and it was exactly the applied rhythm that was broken at the right time by Abbas with this funny cross flick. If I have seen it right, even Palmer was expressing his appreciation with a brief clap.