HOLDING THE SHOT BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER THE SWING: DAVID PALMER

In this rally I would like to point out two shots. The first one at 0:06 concerns mostly beginners: David Palmer received the loose ball almost in the middle of the court and hit a straight kill off his forehand; to allow his opponent to get to the ball, he avoided to end his after-swing on the other side of his body and kept instead his arm and racket still above his head. It wasn't just generosity from Palmer's side, as his shot was really efficient, it was absolutely in his interest to keep this rally going and not to give his opponent the chance to appeal for a 'let' due to having been hit by a presumed 'exagerated' afterswing. The second shot to be mentioned, at 0:11, is a fine detail for more advanced players: watch the hold of the shot as Palmer prepares his volley. It's this subtle retarding that makes his opponent, Ramy Ashour change direction and stuck for a split of a second in the middle of the court awaiting a volley drop, therefore the long dying length could be played with more probability of success (not to mention if you play it as precise into the side-wall nick as Palmer does in this case).

FROM THE DYING LENGTH SERIES: RAMY ASHOUR

Another fine example for a dying long backhand volley. The volleying player is standing on the 'T', the ball was hit early, well in front of the shoulders with moderated pace, just over the service line, then first bounce not too near to the side-wall just in front of the service-box, second bounce on the side-wall, near enough to the back-wall, third bounce dying in the back-wall nick. Watch El Hindi's expression afterwards, how much a shot like this can hurt. It is interesting to observe that in general Ramy Ashour goes for this shot rather when the loose ball is coming towards him right in the middle of the court - whereas if the ball comes a bit more away from the 'T', he generally goes for his more established trademark shot: the volley into the nick.

2010 AUSTRALIAN OPEN: GREGORY GAULTIER vs. RAMY ASHOUR

It's great that Australia, after a long absence, has had the opportunity to organize a serious squash (Super Series) event. There have been some great matches and Nick Matthew confirmed with some style that he is rightly the world number one. The man hasn't lost for 6 months now, and that's more than something. The live coverage by psasquashtv.com was good too, Joey Barrington had an excellent co-commentator (my apologies, I couldn't find out his name as I was following the event in patches). Unfortunately, there was again an issue concerning the colours: the wall below the tin was white, and as a result the ball was not visible on the screen when a drop-shot was played - apparently this was not only an issue for those who followed the event online, but also for the referees as there were a lots of debates whether the ball was good or not. I have already talked about the court-colour issue in an older post, as an addition I would suggest that even the top stripe of the tin should be other than white - as long as the ball itself is white. To get back to the positives: one of the best pairings on the current PSA tour is composed of Ramy Ashour & Gregory Gaultier; and just like in New York last time, it turned out to be highly entertaining again (with the same result as well, 3:2 to Ramy, and the same scenario, 2:1 lead by Greg). The most interesting news was Ramy's discipline - I don't know if it's lack of confidence or an experiment to change slightly his own style, but he seamed to be rather in the search of the perfect length as of his famous nicks. A beautiful example of a perfect mid-low paced dying length can be seen in the below video at 1:02 - first bounce in the service box into the sidewall nick, second bounce dying in the backwall nick - exactly the shot you wish yourself when you are looking for length and depth.

GREATEST RALLIES EVER I.: GAULTIER - NICOL TOC 2006 QUARTER FINAL

There's not much one can add to this rally I guess. Just briefly, I've counted it: there were 15 quality attacking attempts to go short (drops, counter-drops, volley drops, attacking boasts) and they were all retrieved, end at the end it was a good long straight volley that allowed Nicol to win the point, a shot that Gaultier normally would retrieve even in his sleep, but after 95 seconds of furious attacking and retrieving, having run back and forth the diagonal of the court a handful of times with all the speed and braking required, it was just one shot too much. Gregory Gaultier at the time of this match was ranked only world number 11! and Peter Nicol was just about to retire a few month later. It's also interesting listening to Amr Shabana as a co-commentator: it's rare that a genius at the same time is a really normal and nice guy too.