Howard Harding Reports ... from Madrid.
vendredi 26 octobre 2007
Bottom Half of Round 2 @ Saudi 07
Un Finlandais de 28 ans s'invite dans le dernier octet du Saudi 07. Olli Tuominen (PSA #17) se qualifie aux dépens de Wael El Hindi et rejoint en quarts de finale les 7 premiers au ranking PSA.
jeudi 25 octobre 2007
Round Two, Top Half @ the Saudi
October '07 Global Gallery @ SquashTalk by Martin Bronstein
October '07 Global Gallery
...Jansher ... The Shrinking Dollar ... The shrinking Journalist Pool...
Global Gallery, October 18, 2007
The Monthly Round-up of the Interesting and Inane of Squash this month from Martin Bronstein, dean of the Squash Press
© 2007 All rights reserved.
all photos© 2007, Debra Tessier and Fritz Borchert
THE SHRINKING DOLLAR
Jansher in London Return (Martin Bronstein photo:© 2007) |
Both WISPA and PSA have been boasting about great increases this year of their tour prize money. WISPA prize fund for the year is up a massive 56 percent over last year and the PSA are boasting that their total purse had doubled in four years. I am delighted to hear that positive news because a few years ago the picture looked grim; in England the alleged home of squash, there wasn’t a tournament worth more than a dime and the British Open almost went under through lack of sponsorship. In fact England still struggles to mount a major professionally-run tournament and by major, I mean with prize money in excess of $150,000.
Sharp-eyed readers will note the dollar sign in front of that amount. The reason is that the US dollar has become the currency of major sports events. But here’s the rub: the dollar has weakened considerably over the last few years. Five years ago it stood at around $1.5 to the pound Sterling. Now it trades at two for one as well as being on par with the Canadian dollar. (When I lived in Canada twenty odd years ago, we had to pay C$1.34 for a US dollar). What this weakened dollar means is that players are losing out to the tune of 15 -20 percent on their paychecks.
When I checked this out with WISPA’s Andrew Shelley, he said that inflation and other wage-eating effects are hopefully countered by increasing the ranking bands of WISPA tournaments so that in order to stand still a $10,000 tournament would have to increase prize money to $12,000 next year. But those players who do not live in dollar countries, this will not make up for the loss when trading dollar for pound or Euro. Not being an economist, sorry, I have no solutions.
La suite ...Women's Word 07 @ SquashTalk
MARTIN BRONSTEIN REPORTING FROM MADRID SPAIN
SECOND ROUND OCTOBER 24
KITCHEN DUMPS NICOL IN HUGE UPSET
Shelley Kitchen attacked with power and focus (Fritz Borchert photo:© 2007) |
In the biggest upset for many months, Shelley Kitchen of New Zealand, presently ranked 11 in the world, knocked out the reigning world champion Nicol David in a five match thriller that had onlookers on tenterhooks until the very last point of the 69 minute battle. Her departure was a huge shock; it is the first time in 36 events that she has failed to reach the quarter-finals of a tournament.
Kitchen put in a storming performance, one that will give her the confidence to get back into the top ten, and one that will be remembered for a long time. She started the match in overdrive and was powering the ball as though time was running out. David is a notorious slow starter and Kitchen’s onslought caught her napping. There was nothing she could do about this blitzkreig and Kitchen zipped the world champion 9-0 inside eleven minutes.
In the second game Kitchen continued where she left off and Nicol showed sure signs of nerves as she snatched at shots and tried volleying at the wrong time. Her length was wanting badly and even on those rare occasions when she had Kitchen out of position, her drives died before the short line and Kitchen was back in the rally. Kitchen’s was the perfect strategy and one which would have given an on-form David problems, but she was not on form and is still troubled by nerves before a match. This is a player with huge national pressure, being one of the highest profile sports personalities in Malaysia. Sometimes the pressure simply too much.
mercredi 24 octobre 2007
A l'affiche cette semaine
- Women's World Open Squash Championship 21-27 October 2007, Madrid
Pas de surprise à Madrid, les 16 premières têtes de série se qualifient pour le deuxième tour. Framboise délaisse son site pour assurer la couverture de l'évènement via le site international de SquashSite.
LJ's wait is over ... titre Steve Cubbins pour commenter la seule surprise du jour à Al-Khobar.
- J -3 pour le BJO 07
BELGIAN JUNIOR OPEN 2007
Wanneer? 27-29 oktober
Waar? Vlaams Squashcentrum te Herentals
Categorieën? jongens & meisjes -19, -17, -15, -13
Er zijn 250 inschrijvingen en er zullen op deze 3 dagen ongeveer 585 wedstrijden gespeeld worden. Supporters zijn welkom om onze spelers aan te moedigen.
FLEMISH SQUASH CENTER
(BLOSO SPORTS CENTER)
VORSELAARSEBAAN 60
2200 HERENTALS
BELGIUM
TEL +32 14 85 96 00 (DURING TOURNAMENT +32 14 85 96 05)
FAX +32 14 36 88 55
www.vsf.be
SPORTCENTER 'T BINNENHOF
LIERSEWEG 37
2200 HERENTALS
BELGIUM
TEL +32 14 21 91 00
FAX +32 14 21 91 02
samedi 20 octobre 2007
Next events ...
Programme très chargé ces prochaines semaines : Framboise assure la couverture des championnats mondiaux féminins, Steve Cubbins rédigera ses articles depuis لخبر et les jeunes termineront le mois à Herentals au Belgian Junior Open 07.
N'hésitez pas à cliquer sur les images, votre navigateur vous les présentera de façon plus lisible.
The squash will be spectacular of course, with literally all the world's best here, and all keen to bag the $31,000 winner's cheque, the biggest purse in the history of squash ...
See more at Wikipedia.org... |
lundi 15 octobre 2007
Ladies Day @ City Form, c'est le 20 octobre
Noëlle Tracey et son équipe sont des passionnées du squash. Elles mettent énormément de coeur et d'énergie à promouvoir ce sport qu'elles adorent, elles méritent que vous les encouragiez par votre présence.
Deux possibilités :
- Vous êtes débutantes : le Ladies Day vous attend et la première journée est programmée ce samedi 20 octobre à Gosselies.
- Vous êtes compétitrices : les tournois du Ladies Circuit sont organisés pour vous et le premier tournoi se déroule à Tournai les vendredi 25 et samedi 26 octobre.
mardi 9 octobre 2007
Vlaamse Kampioenschappen 2007 (14-18 NOV)
La VSF (Vlaamse Squash Federatie) organise du 14 au 18 novembre 2007 ses championnats. Date limite d'inscription : le 7 novembre.
AANDACHT VOOR DE VOORWAARDEN:
· lid zijn van VSF
· een Belgisch paspoort hebben
Women's World Open @ Madrid
Nicol David In Hat-Trick Bid In Madrid World Open
Malaysia's world number one Nicol David is seeded to win her third successive title in the 2007 Women's World Open Squash Championships in Madrid, according to the draw which has been announced today by the World Squash Federation (WSF) and the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA).
The sport's biggest ever women's event will be staged adjacent to the Royal Palace (the Palacio Real) in the Spanish capital, from 23-27 October, following qualifying at the city's Pallestra Squash Club from 21-22 October.
La suite et les tableaux sur le site World Squash.
lundi 8 octobre 2007
Résultats Indoor @ Wilson AA
Aan Katrien, wel bedankt voor uw vriendelijkheid en uw efficiëntie.
Aan Jeroen, veel sukses en nog bedankt voor uw beschikbaarheid.
Rappel : n'hésitez pas à cliquer sur les tableaux, ils s'afficheront de façon lisible.
jeudi 4 octobre 2007
TOURNAI Ladies Open # 2 @ Rive Droite
lundi 1 octobre 2007
Clinic day au Squash 22
Nordic Junior Open 2007 @ Malmö
Toke Vanwesemael, Eloide Mathieu, Thomas Mahieu,Tom De Mulder, Joey Verheyen et Sam van Brusselen étaient présents à Malmö ce week-end pour participer au Nordic Junior Open 07. Ils ont très honorablement joué avec une mention spéciale pour Toke, qui termine troisième dans sa catégorie. Tom et Joey font également de bons résultats dans le tableau le plus garni. N'hésitez pas à cliquer dans les tableaux ci-dessous, vous y trouverez le résultat final (les 32 premiers pour les boys U15) de chaque série où des belges étaient présents et les résultats complets de ceux-ci.
Castello was back
Commentaires élogieux à New-York au sujet de Stéphane Casteleyn qui élimine Liam Kenny (IRL PSA #34) et Julian Illingworth (USA PSA #52) en qualifications pour avoir le plaisir de prendre un set à [1] Amr Shabana (EGY PSA #1) au premier tour du US Open 07. Seuls David Palmer (AUS PSA #3) et Anthony Ricketts (AUS PSA #6) manquaient à l'appel des joueurs faisant partie du top 20 PSA. Une seule tête de série ne sera pas présente au deuxième tour : John White (SCO PSA #9), qui relève de blessure, n'a pas pu surmonter les quinze ans d'écart qui le séparent de Omar Mosaad (EGY PSA #37).