TODAY at the British Open

Sat 22nd Sep - Day FIVE        Eight matches to play on the glass court, with a noon start. Easy you'd think. Well, no ... We started with a women's match that was 2/1 8/3 after 55 minutes, was then suspended until after the men's match that was due to follow it - the shortest of the day at 48 minutes - and took a further 20 minutes to finish. So that was Gregory Gaultier and Rachael Grinham through, and we were only an hour late. Time to catch up, surely. Well, no. Natalie Grinham took almost an hour to win three games, then Amr Shabana took a little longer to dethrone Nick Matthew. Not too bad then, the supposed hour's gap between sessions meant we only started the evening session 45 minutes late. No catching up was done by Tania Bailey, who took an hour and twenty, despite winning the fifth 9/0, and nor was any done by Thierry Lincou, taking an hour for his three games. Surely Nicol David wouldn't delay the schedule? Trouble was no-one told Natalie Grainger, so Nicol too won the decider 9/0 as we fell further behind. Starting over two hours late, the David Palmer/James Willstrop match was destined to go to five, and sure enough it did. At 11.30 Palmer needed an extra three minutes' injury break, and at three minutes past midnight, after a 100-minute match, the still-packed crowd saw the world champion end England's last hope for the men's title. So, after twelve hours and three minutes we had the semi-finalists. To say "the top four seeds in both men's and women's events will contest the semi-finals" doesn't really do the day justice, but the fact is that eight of the world's best will be back tomorrow (ok, later today). And there's plenty of time in the schedule ... honest!

Amr Shabana (Egy) bt [6] Nick Matthew (Eng)              6/11, 11/8, 11/9, 11/7 (69m) SO MUCH AT STAKE… One of the biggest fear that Nick Matthew carries in his heart is that his British Open title would be his only prestigious victory. And that’s why this match, this quarter final today, was so vital, so crucial in his eyes. He probably wanted to prove to all that yes, last year, he may have had an easier draw that his opponent in the final, but hey, what about all the times he didn’t, and that he did rightly belong to the world top four by getting to the semis this year, at minimum. And oh my god did he start beautifully, and outplayed the World number one, by mixing pace, style of shots, weight on the ball for the first two games, and especially by counter attacking like I’ve never seen him do before. He was like a man on a mission, finding nicks and winners that even Shabana, used to training with Legend Ramy, couldn’t retrieve. And that says it all. But was it experience? Was it fitness? Or was it the pressure getting to the Englishman? He started to get to Shabana’s attacks just a fraction of a second later, and the counter attacks became less sharp, and he had to cover more and more ground to stay in the rally. And the third. 3/0 for Amr. Then 4/3 for Nick. 7/5 for Amr. 9/7 for Nick. Shabana’s attacks are getting more lethal by the shot, but Nick won’t let anything go, he just gets the “un-gettable”, and hangs in there, and weathers the storm. We all know what the Prince of Egypt is like, as able of brilliance as he is of platitude. So, who knows… … “If only I can stay in there, clinch the third, everything is possible”, Nick must think. But a backhand drop shot that finds the tin, 9/8. A superb winner for Shabana. 9/9. And that famous out of court lob, 10/9. And with a trickle boast, the Egyptian walks out as Nick throws his racquet in disgust as he climbs down the stairs. He will never recover. The Prince of Egypt is never as dangerous as when he is ahead. And if the Englishman stays with him until 6/6 in the fourth, the Warrior Shabana will only take three minutes to reach his second and final match ball to win the game 11/7. But Nick is there. He is. As he says in his after match interview, he just needs a bit more consistency in the challenge. Because for a game and a half, Nick Matthew was a better squash player than the world number one. He was. "From when I won my British Open title, I’m definitely a better player. I have that all around game now, it’s time for me to maximise my weapons, like a Shabana, who when we get to 9/9, he doesn’t think twice, he can just put the ball in without thinking a split second. "The third was crucial, but at 9/9, I put a lob out of court, and I can’t say that I missed my chance, that I lost the match there, but it was such an opportunity, and after that, coming back from 2/1 was a different story… "I just need to get better at what I’m good at, and add new dimensions to my game, to be able to challenge consistently for the titles…"

"I didn’t have the best of draws this week… But then again, last year, I lost in the first round, so I couldn’t do much worse this year… "Nick is an incredible player, I just beat him only 3/2 here in the Super Series Finals, so I knew that it was going to be so close. He has improved a lot, there is much more variation in his game, and having won the British Open gave him a lot of confidence. "Today, I felt a bit edgy, I was so nervous, my arm came sort of static. So I told myself to calm down, which I did in the end. "I played better, but I still need to improve, there are some lapses, like in the third, which was crucial, I took a good start, then I let him run away with five points. But it gets better as you win more matches. "It’s so different to have the crowd by you, and the English players, you can feel, they really love and are ready to play when they have the crowd by their side. "Now, for tomorrow against Greg, last time he beat me 3/2, I was up 2/1, so I hope I can win just one more game this time. To beat him, like with any of the top 10, you’ve got to keep pushing until the end. The minute you stop pushing, you lose."