TODAY at the British Open

Thu 20th Sep - Day THREE   It's the busiest day, with all seven courts at the National Squash Centre in use from 10am to 10pm - 16 men's first round matches, 4 women's qualifying finals, and a host of Masters ...

Wael El Hindi (Egy) bt Cameron Pilley (Aus)               11/9, 10/12, 5/11, 11/7, 11/7 (81m) “BOTH THE SAME”… Oh boy. A long 81 minute match, with so many interruptions, so many lets, so many discussions (very polite I must stress) with a ref who did his best to handle a difficult encounter between the young, tall and hungry Australian Cameron Pilley and the cheeky and experienced Egyptian Wael El Hindi. As the man in the hot seat said as one of the players argued the let awarded to his opponent, “you are both the same”. Some “get on with it” were heard a few times from the crowd, and we were a few to wish for more squash and less chatting…. Wael seemed a bit out of it, mentally I mean, and sometimes didn’t seem to try even, which gave wings to a Cameron who didn’t need more incentives to try and create an upset. The Australian was controlling a lot of the rallies, but failed to win too many of them, and he made a few too many errors at the crucial times And when the Egyptian starting really putting his mind into it in the fifth , Cameron, maybe a bit tired from all the work he had produced during the whole match, wasn’t able to find an answer to Wael's short game …	"I always start very lazy in the first round, it's good to get rid of all the tension and bad shots but it can work against you, I might have lost. I can’t feel my shots at all, my mind is not in the match. For example, I was 2/1 down, and I felt like we were playing up to 15 or something… "I never felt tired in the whole match, which gave me more confidence, but at 2/1 down he started playing attacking shots and I had to work hard to stay in there, it could easily have slipped away. And in the fifth, I knew that it had to be done, if not in the fifth, when??? "I'll just have to have a better start tomorrow …"
"I thought I was playing pretty well, and it was quite clean, but when it gets tight he starts his usual tactics and the game starts getting very messy. "You have to play so well to beat him, you might be playing well enough to beat some other guys, but it makes it really difficult … "I'm really happy with the way I'm playing, pity I couldn't win today but I'm looking forward to the US Open now, where I play Greg for the first time ever."

Karim Darwish (Egy) bt Aamir Atlas Khan (Pak)       11/13, 11/5, 11/9, 11/8 (46m) THAT WILL DO FOR NOW… A slightly out of touch Karim, playing a bit too short a game for his own good, against a fast and furious Aamir, and we nearly had an upset today. That junior is so determined, he moves so well… Once he understands that he’s got to get the length before playing at the front, he’ll be lethal, as he makes very few unforced errors. Karim’s experience paid off tonight, but he knows he’ll have to raise his game tomorrow against James Willstrop… "I felt comfortable on there, I was playing well. There was a call in the third, 9/9, the ball was down, and the ref saw it good, to finally give a let, but that should have set me up for game ball for a 2/1 lead. That was the turning point. "All credit to Karim, he played well, but I’m glad I had a chance to beat him today, which would have been very good for my confidence."

"The first game was very tough, Aamir is an excellent junior player, he’s got a good chance to win the World Junior title…. "Not happy with my performance today, mentally, that was not good enough, I was flat, and I’m hoping that I’ll play better tomorrow. I took a late flight yesterday because I was injured up to now, my wrist, but I felt good and I decided to come, and I’m glad that tonight, I felt fine. "To beat somebody as fast as him at the front easily, I need to be more aggressive, and today, my shots were not deep enough…."