Karim El Hammamy (EGY) 3-2 Timothy Brownell (USA) 7-11, 2-11, 11-7, 13-11, 11-3 (71m)
What a weird end of match. Karim down match ball 10/6 in the 4th, Karim very unhappy with the ref, an blood injury on Tim’s little finger at 8/10, little stop for treating it, and Karim getting all the way from 6/10 to 13/11.
Tim didn’t seem to be playing in the last game, when I chatted with him at the end, he stated that “it’s not the kind of squash I want to play, with chats and heavy contact throughout, and that I just lost the desire to be on court.”
Karim
I’m really sad to say this, but the ref got me really furious.
I was really angry, to the point I thought to myself ‘Ok I’m not going to lose another match that way, because I have been suffering for the whole of the last season’. Weird decisions, I’m 100% sure it’s nothing personal, maybe it’s my luck, maybe every time, the ref is having a bad day. At crucial points, I get very very weird decisions. When you are 5/5, 6/6, you can’t be given two cheap strokes, that gets you mentally down, your opponent on the other hand gets mentally strong, and suddenly, in the 4th, I found myself down 10/6 down, match ball, from nowhere, having done nothing wrong. I got the ball from the centre of the court, a simple drop, he is out of position, he tried to fabricate a let, and was rewarded a stroke!
So I got really furious, if I’ve got to lose, it won’t be because I speak to the ref. I’m just going to play and execute my game plan, which was play with Timmy on his backhand, because his forehand is really lethal. I have been watching his matches, and for the past 48h, I was amazed by the quality of his forehand boasts, and I was scared to death today of those shots. So I was trying to avoid this side as much as possible.
So I went back to shut everything he played on that side, and it paid off.
Tomorrow, I’m playing Mazen for the 120th time! So, 2 years ago, I was able to say I had a good track record against him, like 1/1, or 2/1, but now, it’s 6/1… So I can’t say I have a good record against him anymore…
But I play good matches, it’s 3/2 or 3/1, a couple of times 3/0 but most of them were tough, I think I have a good chance but he is number 5 in the world now, all the respect to him, I’ll try to do my best tomorrow.
