Matthew Lai (HKG) 3-1 Rowan Damming (NED) 11-6, 5-11, 15-13, 11-3 (50m)
A very intense, messy, lots of contacts, calls. The ref was kept busy, far too many calls for the match to be a great classic, but intense enough for me to remember that 3rd game! Those two are very close in the WR, and it felt it – both in the ’90s, Rowan slightly better, but only 3 seat difference.
Those two battled so hard, it was the turning point for sure, 22m. After losing the second game, the HK player took a superb advantage, 5/0, only to see his opponent clawing back to 5/6, 7/8. Thanks to a stroke and a winner, Matthew got his first game ball, 10/7. Rowan saved the three of them, and we were level 10/10!
Rowan got his chance at 11/10, saved by a winner. The seesaw battle went on, and it’s only on his 6th game ball that the Hong Kong player was able to clinch the game, supported by a “deliriously loud” Hong Kong crowd, 10 of them (8 players and 2 officials) that had taken over the venue! The emotion that Matthew left out at that point was surreal!
The last game saw Matthew cruise through in 7m, from 2/2 to 10/2, 11/3. Matthew, 26, was more surprised by his win than than happy! Bless him.
Matthew
I’m so surprised! As I told you yesterday, I didn’t expect those results in the tournament. I just wanted to do my best, for myself, and fight for every point. So I’m very surprised.
I didn’t play well in the first half of the year, so I took three months to train and train and train. So I’m happy to see some progress.
Ivan Perez (ESP) 3-2 [6] Yannick Wilhelmi (SUI) 5-11, 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8 (90m)
I didn’t get to see much of the match, except the last game but just have a look at the length of the game: 15m, 14m, 16m, 18m and 20m to finish! That tells you how hard those two worked.
Ok, I need to stress that there were a lot of stoppages in the last game, as the court cleaners were kept busy, to the point I thought we would save time doing a three-quarters and leaving them on the court!
I felt that the energy was with the Swiss at the start of the decider, with the momentum, I thought he was going to clinch it. But quickly both players were neck to neck, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 7/7, 8/8. A crucial unforced error from Yannick at that point – he didn’t do many the whole match – and it’s 9/8 for the Spanish.
A very very very tough intense fought run retrieved attack defense rally, ending for a stroke against the Swiss, destraught. Match ball, 10/8. Another identical rally, when out of the blue, Ivan goes for the weirdest shot I ever saw: apparently, it’s called a skipped boast, such a weird shot that got NgYow commenting “Whaouh, playing that shot on match ball, I would have never dared. Respect”.
Happy, chuffed, ecstatic, doesn’t even remotely explain how Ivan was feeling as he scored that last point….
Listen to Ivan chatting to Fram at the end of the match
