[7] Tarek Momen (EGY) 3-2 Fares Dessouky (EGY) 11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 10-12, 11-8* (82m)
Fram reports
“Dont shoot the messenger”.
I’m sure you heard by now, ref Roy Gingell penalised Fares with a conduct game – costing him the match as we were in the 5th -at 8/8. Why? Because the new PSA directives are clear to the refs: any repetitive comments, trying to influence the ref’s decisions, dissent, etc, will be penalised: warned, conduct warning, conduct stroke, and conduct game.
Rewind.
I arrived in the second game, and already there, Fares was penalised for going on and on about a decision (he wanted Tarek’s ball to be called out but only got a let), we started game 3 at 1/0 for Tarek.
It was not a nice match. By any stretch of the imagination. Fares’ movement was not great – his shots were though. As the match went on and on, Tarek started having not too nice of a movement either. Still, the conduct stroke seemed to have a positive effect on Fares’ squash. As he kept his mouth shut, his squash became more and more lethal, and the games more and more intense – 12/10, 12/10 in the third and fourth.
And in came the 5th.
Didn’t start well I have to say, as Fares literally pushed Tarek off balance, being only penalised with a stroke, that for me should have been a minimum of a conduct stroke for dangerous play.
From 4/4, Fares seems in control, but at 7/4, on the way to the front, he gets hit in the mouth by Tarek’s racquet. I failed to see the contact. Blood injury, little break. Both players are probably happy to have a little rest/breathing time. Back on court. 7/7. 8/7 Fares leading.
At that point, Fares gets a no let, and if he managed to not comment for 2 games, he can’t help himself. And he goes, “that’s a stroke, that’s a stroke”. Roy warns him to stop commenting, “that’s a stroke ” he keeps going.
And the penalty falls “I’m giving you a conduct game, it’s a conduct game and match”. Fares is stunned. “I didn’t say anything!!!”. “You kept saying it’s a stroke, it’s a stroke, when I asked you several time to comment.” “But it’s not a bad word!”
The conversation went on, with Roy maintaining his decision and Fares getting louder and more frustrated. To be fair to him, he made a comment that struck a chord with me: “Yesterday, all the players were speaking all the time, and nobody told them anything.”
I have to agree. Since I arrived, I have seen some excruciating bad refereeing and some superb in-control refereeing. I saw refs who don’t even bother to call “10/10, player to win by 2 points,” letting players chat away, shout. And on the other hand, perfect pitch matches, with more experienced refs.
“The directives are for everybody, to make sure everybody is on the same page,” Lee Drew told me yesterday. Yes, on paper, all the refs should make the same decisions and follow the same rules and directives. Problem is: they don’t. Lack of experience, mostly.
Fares shouted that he might retire over this incident. I just hope he doesn’t. Once again, he won when he didn’t speak—only saying….
PSA report
In the first men’s match of the day, Tarek Momen overcame Egyptian compatriot Fares Dessouky in a close encounter that was brought to an early conclusion after Dessouky was penalised with a conduct game in game five.
Momen went into the clash with form on his side, having won all three of their matches last season, with the last of those a 3-0 win in the semi-final of QSF No.4.
Things looked to be going smoothly for the No.7 seed, with Momen taking the lead in the physical encounter with a pair of 11-9 wins.
[Dessouky started the third game 0-1 after being docked a conduct stroke for dissent at the end of the third]
The 2019 world champion began game three well, and appeared to have one foot in the quarter-final after opening up a 9-6 lead, only for the determined Dessouky to wrestle his way into the contest with a tie-break 12-10 win.
Dessouky then forced a fifth game with another hard-fought win, taking game four by the same scoreline to level the contest.
Throughout the contest, match referee Roy Gingell had warned both players of the importance of following WSO directives on communication and dissent, with Dessouky receiving conduct warning and strokes for attempts to influence the referee’s decision.
With emotions at boiling point at 8-8 in game five, Dessouky argued [that a ‘Yes Let’ decision in his favour should have been a stroke], with the match referee then awarding a conduct game against the former World No.7 for repeated attempts to influence a decision.
That victory for Momen sees the 36-year-old into the last eight of the Egyptian Open for the fourth consecutive time.
Tarek : This was a brutal mental test for me.
As you know, it’s only the beginning of the season, first two matches of the season, I had two tricky customers [Leo Cardenas yesterday], and against Fares today, as you saw, it was not not a clear cut, freeflowing, it was very challenging mentally before anything else.
I thought I did pretty well handling all this at the beginning of the season. Usually, when you just come off summer vacation, and you are put into a test like this, sometimes you are not able to close your head.
I managed to keep my focus, keep pushing until the end, thankfully, I got the result, that’s all I needed from today.
