HOT SHOTS: BORJA GOLAN vs. RAMY ASHOUR

We have had two amateur filmings so far on the blog of this intriguing match between Ramy Ashour and Borja Golan, second round at the 2012 British Open. Ramy has been asked by someone on Twitter what he thought when he was totally outplayed in the first two games. He replied simply that "Borja was on fire". That's totally true, but as you might know, I also think that Ramy was playing club-squash, and swapped to pro-squash only in the very last minute at 6:8 down in third, as it can be seen in this video. Nevertheless, let's enjoy now some of Borja's hot shots as registered by squashtv. It is an extra pleasure to see these delicate shots coming off someone who has got a very particular, slightly square racket preparation and movement. Just another proof that there are no dogmas in terms of technique in squash. You have to find your own ways how to combine precision and accuracy with economy of space and time.

ATTACKING AT THE WRONG MOMENT II.: CAMERON PILLEY vs. BORJA GOLAN

Yesterday we had a similar example where Ramy Ashour went for the high pace forehand low kill in the wrong moment (at 0:13). Today it's Cameron Pilley's turn to commit a similar tactical error.

Yesterday, Ramy had little space for a decent backswing which resulted in finding the sidewall early, which made the ball bounce out towards the middle. In the current example Borja Golan (in white) hits an excellent near-dying length at 1:26, the ball bounces off the backwall just, hence again there is little room for a natural, free-flowing backswing; at this moment Cameron Pilley (in blue-black) opts for a hard paced low drive (not quiet a kill) which, just like yesterday Ramy's ball, ended up being very loose and enabled Golan to go pretty evidently for an attacking boast that Pilley could not retrieve yet. 

The only real difference to yesterday is that Ramy's ball hit the sidewall too early whereas in today's example Cameron's ball was simply too straight, not fading at all towards the sidewall - in both cases the result was a loose shot and being stuck in the back, far off the 'T' whilst the opponent goes for his next shot. 

The common error in both cases was the idea itself to go for a high pace low shot under those circumstances: if room is limited, if there is no space and time for a free-flowing backswing, you better avoid high paced shots as there is a good chance to miss-time your shot and also miss the sweet-spot of your racket, and as a consequence lack precision/accuracy; in these situations you better just lift the ball straight, or even cross-court, as Amr Shabana demonstrates it in a recent video at 0:17, and more importantly and beautifully at 0:32.

ATTACKING AT THE WRONG MOMENT: RAMY ASHOUR vs. BORJA GOLAN

I have published recently the rally that has swivelled this match between Ramy Ashour and Borja Golan at the 2012 British Open, the rally where Ramy has switched to 'Pro' mode, where every shot was a pressure shot without risking too much, without knowing in advance which will be the winning one, taking it step by step, but each time a more severe step. 

The below rally is to demonstrate the opposite: how you get in trouble if you attack in the wrong time. At 0:11 Borja Golan plays a tricky semi-lob from behind his body on the backhand side, which takes Ramy by surprise; the shot is deep and soft enough to force Ramy to play the ball before its bounces on the backwall. At this moment, at 0:13, Ramy decides to go for a kill, but the ball hits the sidewall straight after the frontwall, it hence comes off loose in the middle and Borja can chose form a few options, he goes for the trickle boast, Ramy dives, scraps it off, just, offering Borja to conclude easily with a drop. 

I think that Ramy's kill-attempt is an excellent example to demonstrate a wrongly chosen attacking shot. It was not only badly hit, but also in the wrong moment. From so far back, with so little space for a decent powerful backswing, going for a kill is really risky - unless it perfectly fades towards the sidewall, it will just take away time from yourself and allow your opponent to pick it up with plenty of options. 

Ramy is a master of the lifted shots from the back - just check out this beautiful and classic example - and this time it should have been just another occasion to play a basic shot, high and deep enough, possibly also tight, to allow himself to get back to the 'T' and see what kind of options he gets from his opponent's next shot.

I know on a certain level you have to be able to turn defence into offence, but it doesn't mean you can do it in any time, in any situation.  

THE RALLY WHEN RAMY SWITCHED BACK TO PRO-MODE: INTENSITY, ACCURACY

Yesterday we had a squashtv highlights and a bit of pre-match report of the Ramy Ashour-Borja Golan second round match that ended 3:2 to Ramy at the 2012 British Open.

Today I would like to publish the rally which swivelled the match totally. The rally starts, from Ramy's point of view at 0:2 down in games and 7:8 in the third. Up to this point Ramy was playing very messy, very much up and down, and more down than up. I have described some details of the mess in my yesterday post.

But the below rally has changed everything. The predator-artist that Ramy is came back all of a sudden (really in the last possible minute) and beyond the raise of quality in both his length and short game (every single shot in this rally by Ramy was near perfect) it was very evident watching in the first row how much this affected Golan mentally, who started to doubt suddenly and even suffer - apparently - physically in the fourth game that he lost 11:1. 

No way the reason of this apparent tiredness was due to the length or the intensity of the match that hasn't even lasted 25 minutes at that stage, that Borja dominated mostly and was full of short rallies with forced and unforced errors by Ramy. I presume that Borja's leggs suddenly started to tire because of the overdose of adrenaline that the very near possibility of beating Ramy Ashour at the British Open (and failing to do so by being so near to it at 2:0 and 8:6 in the third) has generated psychologically. 

Going into the match Golan was a clear underdog and I think his focus is excellent in general., but a bit less at crucial stages of the game. At the gate of such a big result, the stress can cause even cramps (do you remember that Argentinian tennis player, Guillermo Coria, who was leading type of 6:1/6:1 in the final of Roland Garros and started to cramp in the third so that he could hardly walk in the rest of the match and ended up losing it). Golan was not quiet there, but visibly his amazing reach, that beautiful last long lounge preparing tough-to-read ponded held shots has altered dramatically.
But let's get back to what Ramy was doing in this rally. Being three points away from defeat he avoided high risk shots (they were anyway not working very well during the match) but managed to apply more and more pressure with each shot. At 0:10 and 0:16 he played two near perfect - very deep but not overhit - backhand drives in situations where in normal circumstances he would have gone for drops. Then the two drops that he played at 0:13 and 0:21 were both low-risk (not too low, not too short) but highly accurate shots (tight and fading into the sidewall). Ramy, in this rally, pulled out the traditional squash-player of himself. He did not know when he was going to win the rally, but he knew he had to make sure to keep on the pressure.

RAMY ASHOUR vs. BORJA GOLAN - REPORTING FROM THE 2012 BRITISH OPEN

(2012 British Open, second round, Ramy Ashour - Borja Golan 3:2). 

I was in the players' lounge saluting Borja Golan who was already doing his dynamic warming up procedure in preparation for his match against Ramy Ashour. I went then to one of the O2's many Thai restaurants a few corners away from the glass court and as I was sitting and eating there for a while I noticed Ramy coming with his huge squash bag from the tube's direction, stopping and chatting in a relaxed spirit with some people out there. He was on his way to the site, whereas Borja has been warming up for more than 40 minutes by that time. 

I don't know if it was down to the difference in warm up, but in the first two games Borja Golan looked like a top5 player and Ramy like an amateur. In the beginning of the second game, after losing the first couple of points, Ramy even turned hysterically to Amir Wagih, the Egyptian national coach in the second row of the viewers area, indicating him to get him a new grip for the next break between games. Indeed, Ramy's grip was as dirty and old as it can get. At that point he seemed a mixture of an amateur and a primadonna. 

Well he got his new grip and a few suggestions from the national coach and things got better. It was still not straight forward, as at 6:8 Ramy was just three points away from losing in the second round of the British Open. But from that point onwards he won 27 points to 8 only from Borja. 

Ramy got away with his nonchalance for another time. I am sure he will give Shabana a lot more respect Friday 12.45 Uk time in their quarter-final encounter. It could be a hell of a match. 

And well done to Borja, the first three games were top5 stuff for sure. However winning matches is the real art, and that's what the very top guys know how to do even on the so-called off-days.

UNORTHODOX I.: BORJA GOLAN

Let's say, historically there are 7 great squash nations: Egypt, England, France, Australia, Pakistan, Malaysia and Canada. These nations have produced at least one world number ones each and they keep producing players regularly inside the world top 50. Outside of these countries, it is really tough to come through to the highest levels. First of all, there won't be many great coaches around, and secondly you will face the lack of serious training partners. Nevertheless, some guys have made it through and managed to become the lonely representatives of their nations in the top 50: Borja Golan from Spain, Laurens Jan Anjema of Holland, Olli Tuominen from Finland, Simon Rosner from Germany, Nicolas Mueller from Switzerland, Mark Krajcsak from Hungary, Rafael Alarcon from Brazil, Julian Illingworth from the USA (even though newly joined by Gilly Lane) and Davide Bianchetti from Italy.We are going to have a look at each of them in the near future. Let's start with Borja Golan, who has reached the highest ranking of them all. He got to world number 10 in September 2009, and basically at the same time suffered a serious injury. He now is back and starts to win again all the smaller tournaments that he has to go through because of his dropped rankings. Golan proves that you can make it through to a very high level even if technically - let's say body language wise - you are totally out of the conventional patterns. Look at his backswing, the way he waits for his opponent's shot, the way he lounges to the ball. Everything is strange, though still accurate and effective. I guess it's above all in the head, and only after comes the body(language).