Daryl Selby (Eng) 3-2 Chris Simpson (Eng) 11-5, 6-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-2 (73m)
What a weird match that was between the two English players! They barely never played squash TOGETHER… or one was dominating heavily, or the other… then catching up.. or not!
First game, Daryl in control, 7/2 10/4 11/5, then the second, 4/0 for Chris, 6/2, and if Daryl gets a few points in, it’s still Chris in charge, 11/6.. The third is the same, a good start from Chris, 3/0, 3/3, and then it’s Daryl all the way, 11/4!!! And no mad tinning either, just a complete territorial control…
Fourth, we think that Chris is out, yeah right, 5/0, 7/3, 11/7 for Chris…
And same in the 5th, this time it’s Daryl again at the front, and Chris playing yoyo… 5/0, 8/1, 11/2…. I guess the huge match Chris played against Abou yesterday played a role in the 5th along with the hard work Daryl made him produce… But what do I know…
Daryl
“I’m delighted, I had dinner with Chris last night and he and Adrian Waller both said how well he played yesterday. Abou has been out for a little bit, but they said it was such a high quality match, and I know I know what Chris is capable of quality-wise, it’s very high and the last few times we’ve played with we’ve always had a 3-2.
I think we’ve shared the spoils a little bit, so I knew it was going to be tough but he finished a bit later than me yesterday, so tactically I just wanted to start really fast, really strong and show him that he was going to be in for a hard game and if he had any stiffness or anything from yesterday, I wanted to try and expose that early on.
I did, so I was happy with the first but he changed his game really well. He’s a clever player and he slowed the pace down on me and used his racket skills and dominated the second. It was it was a weird match because we never actually both played well at the same time, I played well in the first he played well in the second.
I played well again in the third, he played well in the fourth and then in the fifth to win 11-2 is so nice because of the amount of nervous energy and stuff you have in a fifth game, for both of us it means a lot. This is a big opportunity for us for for two reasons, one because it’s a quarter-final of a World Series, but two, to play at the Pyramids.
I don’t think either us have ever played on that court and maybe the difference in the fifth was a little bit of fatigue, but also I really wanted it because I’m probably not going to get a chance to play on that court again and it’s so iconic in the world of squash. I just wanted to play on that court so much that I think that’s what drove me to really give everything in the fifth, and I’m so happy to win because it was a tough week last week for both of us in Tring. Both of us have played well this week, but I just I just really wanted to play on that court. Whoever I play, whether it’s Ali or Mazen will be a pleasure to play against an Egyptian on that court.
I’m happy with the rest day but mindset-wise, I played some good squash in that, I just need to be able to do it consistently and I’ve got nothing to lose. I felt like I played well against Ali in the US Open but he was exceptionally sharp as you could see throughout the tournament when he won 3-0 without dropping a game, so I just want to put in a good performance.
I want to enjoy it, soak up the atmosphere. I’m a hard English player, I get stuck in whatever. I’m not going to roll over, I’m going to get stuck into wherever I play so I’m looking forward to it.”
