I keep getting more and more surprised how Olli Tuominen keeps progressing his squash. He has certainly passed his peak years in terms of physicality - for sure he has always been one of the main animals of the circuit - but he has never played with so much variety. Also his racket-technique was a bit square, not natural, not fluid, however, by now, he is almost text-book even in this respect.
Let's have a more close look to the below rally. For example, at 0:10, observe how Tuominen holds the shot to hit a pounded low pace deep drive. Very nice. And even if it didn't create an opening, next time in a similar situation his opponent will be a lot more uncertain whether to expect a drop or a drive (or a boast or a cross kill or even a cross lob...).
At 0:18 however he hits a very loose cross-court and Amr Shabana does not ask twice to go for it: indeed, he goes for three volley-nicks in a row, The first two made Tuominen dig deep, however at the third one, Tuominen, due to his impressive fitness and body strength, manages to get there early enough to answer with a counter-drop; due to the tightness of his ball, Shabana had no other option than to counter-drop again, which not surprisingly ended up being loose enough to enable Tuominen for another time to hold his shot and menace with a kill; that made Shabana stuck on the 'T' and the last counter-drop ended up being a clear winner. Classic stuff.
