AMAZING DEEP DROP by GREGORY GAULTIER

The commentators (Nick Matthew amongst them) just pointed out how much work Gregory Gaultier was doing in the previous rally, and he is 0:4 down and again totally dominated by Karim Darwish. So I think this totally unbelievable deep drop shot was more due to lack of breath and desperation than anything else. This is why we might call it genius, he comes out with the most amazing shot at the least possible moment. Talking about Gaultier, I really feel for him concerning his last year. End of 2009 he finally became world number one which made him lay back and lose motivation in the last couple of tournaments of the year. But except his match against Cameron Pilley in February he came back strong in 2010, played great squash just to lose so many times in the decider. He played 13 tournaments, won one, retired in two of them towards the end of the year (both times against Shabana), in the other tournaments he has lost 3:2 seven times out of ten (only against Ramy four times)! The whole year, he won one sole match that went to five (against David Palmer at Canary Wharf). For sure these losses were not due to lack of fitness, they were rather the result of some tough to guess psychological-mental issues combined with bad luck. I really hope he can work on these aspects and jump back strong in 2011 - like him or not, he is just a great addition on the squash scene.

THE TACTICAL DROP by RAMY ASHOUR

Great rally which I am posting not only because of its high entertainment factor but because of that drop shot played from the back on the backfoot at 0:53, a shot for which in England your trainer would condemn  you immediately to do 50 push-ups, and even unorthodox genius Jonathon Power is shocked in the commentary box by saying "...oh can't believe he dropped  that, that was such a tactical mistake". Considered from a short-term-efficiency point of view of course it was way too tough and risky to execute it rightly and therefore not beneficial to win the rally, but from a longer-term-efficiency point of view I think it's just part of Ramy Ashour's tactics to play any kind of shot form anywhere. It's this tactic that makes his opponents unaware of what will follow, so they will never know on which foot to attend the next shot. It's part of the tactics to risk, or even sacrifice a couple of points - not this time though, as he was so quick to get to Karim Darwish's forehand drop.