GREGORY GAULTIER vs. AMR SHABANA NETSUIT OPEN 2012 SEMI-FINAL FULL MATCH REPLAY

As a follow-up to yesterday's full match replay of the final of the 2012 Netsuit Open in San Francisco, here is another great performance by Gregory Gaultier and mighty Amr Shabana at semi-final stage (you surely remember their PSA Masters final last January at the Queen's Club in London, one the greatest matches ever). It's atypical for our blog to stage full matches, but since Squash TV was unfortunately absent from the event, we thought this might be useful for the hard core squash fans.

first game: Gaultier 11:7 Shabana


second game: Gaultier 12:10 Shabana 

 
third game: Gaultier 11:8 Shabana 


So a 3:0 win to Gaultier against an in-form Shabana (just coming off a 3:0 win against world #1 James Willstrop in the quarters). Did you notice Gaultier's new, more relaxed attitude since the birth of his first child? He now won within two weeks against four fellow top8 players -  3:0 against world #1 Willstrop, world #2 Matthew and world #7 Shabana, and only dropping a game to world #4 Darwish. Ramy Ashour remains the only scalp missing.

GREGORY GAULTIER vs. NICK MATTHEW NETSUIT OPEN 2012 FINAL FULL MATCH REPLAY

Exceptionally we offer a bit longer stuff. As Squash TV was unfortunately absent from the $70k Netsuit Open 2012 squash tournament, I thought it makes sense to publish under one post the full replay of the final between Gregory Gaultier and Nick Matthew. It's about an hour, so you probably will want to swap your favorite DVD for this tonight? Quality stuff all around and good video quality.

first game Gaultier 11:7 Matthew


second game Gaultier 13:11 Matthew


third game Gaultier 11:9 Matthew


So at the end it's 3:0 to Gaultier. Great tournament both from the organizers and for the Frenchman. Let's hope next year Squash TV will cover it!

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME: RAMY ASHOUR vs. JAMES WILLSTROP - BRITISH OPEN 2012

Basically this blog was born out of two things: 1) watching and observing pros playing 2) trying to adapt those points that are possible to adapt on a club player level. Well, throughout the two-year existence of the blog, we have pointed out a few things that we club players can aim to copy and to stick to whilst we train or play. But there are also things that we shall not try to copy, because it would require the amount of training and the physical strength level that only a pro might have. So we always have to understand what we can and what we can't copy from the greats. But in certain cases, we don't have to think at all. Things are simply too surrealistic, and we understand with grace and gratitude that the players and the game that we witness are from another planet. Like this one here between Ramy Ashour and James Willstrop at the semi final of the 2012 British Open:

THE SHOT OF THE (PREVIOUS) CENTURY - BRETT MARTIN vs. PETER MARSHALL

So who said squash has been boring back in the days? Maybe back in the days with the tiny-headed wooden rackets on cement courts, but already 20 years ago players like Brett Martin (in white in the below rally) were capable to make the game look very much entertaining. The author of this blog does not know much about the squash world from before the year 2005, but Brett Martin definitely seems to have something of Jansher Khan's calm and economy of movement (bit more square though) coupled with this incredible eye (and hand) to go short from anywhere. The concluding shot of the second rally is pure magic: body language deception and flick of the wrist at its pure best; Jonathon Power and Ramy Ashour would any time subscribe for it.

By the way, if you ask Peter Marshall (in red in the below video) - and you can bump into him in the UK for example at Bath Cup events - he will always be happy to confirm that back in those days the two most talented guys out there - at least in his eyes - were not the two famous Khans (Jahangir and Jansher) but the Martin brothers: Brett and Rodney.

US OPEN 2011/2012: AMR SHABANA vs. NICK MATTHEW

Amr Shabana won the 2011 US Open vs. Nick Matthew in an unconventionally short final (19,8,8 and 6 minutes the four games). At this year's US Open they already meet at quarter final stage, tonight.
How come? Well, Shabana is only ranked 7 in the world and does not have other great results (the World Series title at Queens not counting into the PSA rankings) in the last 12 months, whereas Matthew is steadily world #2. However, everybody (Squash TV commenators as well as the players on twitter) is talking about how lean and fit Shabana looks after the summer break. Let's look forward to an absolute blockbuster. Games start at 19.00 local time Philadelphia, 24.00 London, 01.00 Paris/Milan/Berlin)