The Qatar Classic was won by Nick Matthew in a pretty impressive display against Karim Darwish. He won 3-0 and never looked like losing. I, unfortunately went down to Darwish in the 2nd round where he turned on an impressive display against me!
My next event is the Dutch Open which starts Thursday. I've had 4 days since I arrived back from Qatar and I've use it to just get back in the grove of things. A lot of ball hitting with a practice match thrown in there too. It's a matter of keeping sharp between events both physically and mentally. It's probably easier to be sharp physically to be honest. Mentally you have to keep yourself motivated which can be hard if you're not used to playing so many events back to back.
I will post my results on twitter (campilley) and at the end of the event I will post a summary on here. Good luck to me!!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Qatar Classic and 2nd round predictions!
I've started the Qatar Classic well this year with a solid 3-0 win over Chris Ryder. As expected, it's bloody hot out here but the air con brings the court back to a somewhat normal temperature. Being based in Europe a lot of the year, it's good to come to these countries sometimes to see a bit of the sun!
I played well with very few unforced errors. Next up is the No.1 seed Karim Darwish at 5pm local time. If anyone fancies watching live web streaming, go to http://www.247.tv/. There were a couple of upsets in the first round but no amazing results.
Here's mine and room mate Stewart Boswell's predictions for the 2nd round:
PILLEY BOSWELL
Pilley Pilley
Lincou Lincou
Ramy Ramy
Tarek Willstrop
Boswell Boswell
Matthew Matthew
Barker Barker
Gregory Gregory
So there you have it folks! Obviously there's no favourtism for room mates here. I've thrown in Tarek as a bit of an upset against Willstrop - big call, I know, but the little speedster is playing out of his skin lately and could move the big fella around.
I played well with very few unforced errors. Next up is the No.1 seed Karim Darwish at 5pm local time. If anyone fancies watching live web streaming, go to http://www.247.tv/. There were a couple of upsets in the first round but no amazing results.
Here's mine and room mate Stewart Boswell's predictions for the 2nd round:
PILLEY BOSWELL
Pilley Pilley
Lincou Lincou
Ramy Ramy
Tarek Willstrop
Boswell Boswell
Matthew Matthew
Barker Barker
Gregory Gregory
So there you have it folks! Obviously there's no favourtism for room mates here. I've thrown in Tarek as a bit of an upset against Willstrop - big call, I know, but the little speedster is playing out of his skin lately and could move the big fella around.
Monday, November 9, 2009
World Open and current training
Word Open.
Amr Shabana. 4 World Open titles to his name. I saw him play Hindi in the Quarters and he was in absolutely stunning form. I thought, he's either peaked too early or he'll go on to win the event. It was the latter and he wrote his name into the history books with a 3-0 win over compatriot Ramy Ashour in the final.
For myself, I made the last 16 in the tournament before losing out to Nick Matthew 3-0. That's the best he's played against me for a long time and he was sharp, taking the ball in short very well. I managed a 3-0 win over Joe Lee in the first round then came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Mohammed El Shorbagy in 5 games in the second round. I was really pleased with how I changed my game after the 2nd and then went on to dominate him in the last 3 games (3,4,3). The first 2 games were a bit scrappy. Both of us were taking it short and opening up the court for the other guy. Even though they were close (9,8) he won them both. I straightened up, gave him nothing to hit, and shut him down.
Training.
I have roughly 10 days to prepare for Qatar. It's a big event and I want to consolidate my new Top 16 ranking (15) by putting in a strong performance. It's good to be injury free again (touch wood) and I'll be going back to basics in my training in the next period of time. I'll be playing no more than 3 practice matches, instead training with my coach on structure in my play and trying to back up day after day from hard training.
Amr Shabana. 4 World Open titles to his name. I saw him play Hindi in the Quarters and he was in absolutely stunning form. I thought, he's either peaked too early or he'll go on to win the event. It was the latter and he wrote his name into the history books with a 3-0 win over compatriot Ramy Ashour in the final.
For myself, I made the last 16 in the tournament before losing out to Nick Matthew 3-0. That's the best he's played against me for a long time and he was sharp, taking the ball in short very well. I managed a 3-0 win over Joe Lee in the first round then came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Mohammed El Shorbagy in 5 games in the second round. I was really pleased with how I changed my game after the 2nd and then went on to dominate him in the last 3 games (3,4,3). The first 2 games were a bit scrappy. Both of us were taking it short and opening up the court for the other guy. Even though they were close (9,8) he won them both. I straightened up, gave him nothing to hit, and shut him down.
Training.
I have roughly 10 days to prepare for Qatar. It's a big event and I want to consolidate my new Top 16 ranking (15) by putting in a strong performance. It's good to be injury free again (touch wood) and I'll be going back to basics in my training in the next period of time. I'll be playing no more than 3 practice matches, instead training with my coach on structure in my play and trying to back up day after day from hard training.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Update
It's been good to have about 2 weeks between tournaments, seeing as though the next 6 weeks is going to be ridiculous! I've been getting back to basics in training and also trying to get my hip right. It's been in pretty bad shape since half way through the World Teams so I've been attempting to get that sorted out.
It's a shame most of the major events of our season is packed into about 2 months but that's the way it is. If someone is unfortuate enough to be injured as the most important 2 months of the year is about to kick off - ala Borja Golan - it can destroy their ranking in the blink of an eye. Obviously people get injured all the time and it's just a matter of trying to recover as best they can, but it's sad that we don't have a proper season where major events are spread out over the course of the year.
The biggest, most important event of the year starts next week and all players involved will be gunning for the title of World Champion. Kuwait is the host this year and it promises to produce some entertaining matches. Hong Kong finished a week ago so everyone has at least had a few days to repair their bodies and head to Kuwait refreshed and ready to roll! Bring it.
It's a shame most of the major events of our season is packed into about 2 months but that's the way it is. If someone is unfortuate enough to be injured as the most important 2 months of the year is about to kick off - ala Borja Golan - it can destroy their ranking in the blink of an eye. Obviously people get injured all the time and it's just a matter of trying to recover as best they can, but it's sad that we don't have a proper season where major events are spread out over the course of the year.
The biggest, most important event of the year starts next week and all players involved will be gunning for the title of World Champion. Kuwait is the host this year and it promises to produce some entertaining matches. Hong Kong finished a week ago so everyone has at least had a few days to repair their bodies and head to Kuwait refreshed and ready to roll! Bring it.
Monday, October 5, 2009
World Team Championships
Australia just finished 3rd at the World Team Champs held in Odense, Denmark last week. Seeded 4th at the start of the event, we managed to better our seeding again (2007 - seeded 4, finished 2nd) after defeating England in the 3rd/4th playoff. Egypt won the event to claim the title for the 2nd time. Their team consisted of 3 of the world's top 4 players, not a bad line up really.
Our team consisted of David Palmer (World rank 6), Stewart Boswell (16) myself (17) and Aaron Frankcomb (39). We finished 1st in our pool by defeating Wales and The Netherlands. We had a close call against the Dutch but managed to pull through. In the round of 16 we beat Ireland with relative ease then dominated Pakistan in the Quarter finals. In the semis we faced the No.1 seeds Egypt. Two years ago in the same event we caused a major upset by beating them 2-1 so we knew we were capable of another upset this time. I was up first for Australia against current World Champ Ramy Ashour. Ramy took the first after I had 2 game balls then I squared it up taking the 2nd. He killed me in the 3rd with some ridiculous squash and he got the 4th 11-9 in a tight game. Next up was Palmer against Current World No.1 Karim Darwish. It was a great game of squash which had everything. Dave is the most passionate player I have seen play for his country. Up until this event, Palmer had never lost a match in the World Team Championships. An awesome record. In a gruelling match Darwish came out on top with a tough 3-1 win.
We got back to our hotel after our semi at 12:30am with the 3/4 playoff scheduled for 10:30am. Interesting. Everyone involved with the Aussie team knows what it means to play for our country and how important every single match is. After such a dissappointment in losing to Egypt, there was no way in the world we would roll over easily for a 3rd/4th playoff - especially to England! Palmer - feeling the effects of his match about 12 hours earlier - put up a strong fight against Willstrop but went down 3-1. I managed to steady the ship with a big 5 set win against Ali Walker. We always seem to go the distance. It came down to Bozza against Pete Barker. The big Bozman came through with the goods to win it for Australia and it felt like we had just won the tournament!
All the boys were stoked and it was such a good team spirit during the whole week. Rod Eyles brought an incredible amount of experience to the table and it was great to have him involved with the team. He has been there and done it so many times before he can easily relate to how the players are feeling and what they're going through. I hope he is involved for many years to come.
Next event is the Hong Kong Open next week.
Our team consisted of David Palmer (World rank 6), Stewart Boswell (16) myself (17) and Aaron Frankcomb (39). We finished 1st in our pool by defeating Wales and The Netherlands. We had a close call against the Dutch but managed to pull through. In the round of 16 we beat Ireland with relative ease then dominated Pakistan in the Quarter finals. In the semis we faced the No.1 seeds Egypt. Two years ago in the same event we caused a major upset by beating them 2-1 so we knew we were capable of another upset this time. I was up first for Australia against current World Champ Ramy Ashour. Ramy took the first after I had 2 game balls then I squared it up taking the 2nd. He killed me in the 3rd with some ridiculous squash and he got the 4th 11-9 in a tight game. Next up was Palmer against Current World No.1 Karim Darwish. It was a great game of squash which had everything. Dave is the most passionate player I have seen play for his country. Up until this event, Palmer had never lost a match in the World Team Championships. An awesome record. In a gruelling match Darwish came out on top with a tough 3-1 win.
We got back to our hotel after our semi at 12:30am with the 3/4 playoff scheduled for 10:30am. Interesting. Everyone involved with the Aussie team knows what it means to play for our country and how important every single match is. After such a dissappointment in losing to Egypt, there was no way in the world we would roll over easily for a 3rd/4th playoff - especially to England! Palmer - feeling the effects of his match about 12 hours earlier - put up a strong fight against Willstrop but went down 3-1. I managed to steady the ship with a big 5 set win against Ali Walker. We always seem to go the distance. It came down to Bozza against Pete Barker. The big Bozman came through with the goods to win it for Australia and it felt like we had just won the tournament!
All the boys were stoked and it was such a good team spirit during the whole week. Rod Eyles brought an incredible amount of experience to the table and it was great to have him involved with the team. He has been there and done it so many times before he can easily relate to how the players are feeling and what they're going through. I hope he is involved for many years to come.
Next event is the Hong Kong Open next week.
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