Wow! Bit of a breakthrough for Hesham. Can't remember Coll struggling to retrieve crosscourt drives before. Hesham is generating such power and deception.
Although I think Hesham is a great player... I can't ever see him being number 1 (maybe for a brief moment) because he's too mentally AND physically inconsistent.
Mazen doesn’t have the complete game to take the world number 1 spot. He makes too many bad decisions over the course of the match, gives up too easily when it doesn’t go his way, and doesn’t have the physicality to back it up in back-to-back tournaments. He’s showing great form here, after bad form recently, I’d expect a drop in form again over the coming tournaments
The choice of the ref to not call a stop to play when Coll (edit) asked for it after diving and then slipping when trying to get back to his feet is just plain ignorance by the ref. As another person said in their comment... "If the ball however bounces in the area where the sweat is, the ref can stop play if they think it’s dangerous." The fact that Coll (edit) slipped on the wet spot made it absolutely obvious that it was dangerous... And Hesham hit the ball back to that area. This simply makes me shake my head at the poor level of reffing that is taking place in professional squash. That aside... Coll (edit), in my opinion, has always been a one-trick pony in his gameplay... It works against some players, but not against other types of players... Such as Heham... When he is fit... And not playing his silly shot game. Hesham in this game was more constricted in his play, only interjecting a few of his odd shots every now and then. This is what throws players like Coll (edit) through the loop... Take a look at Coll's (edit) movement... He was getting his feet all screwed up. Because Coll (edit) is an early position player (tries to get in position early) he commits himself to a particular positioning early in the rally... But Hesham holds his shots and then does the opposite of what Coll (edit) positioned his feet for... And keep in mind... Your hips and feet are in coordination, which makes it even more difficult to recover and change direction. As long as Hesham does not go walkabout in his mind, he will always be a problem for someone like Coll (edit)... And even someone like Asal - although Asal is a better player than Coll (edit). Hesham's biggest problem has always been between the ears... Hopefully, he has somewhat sorted this out.
So great to see Hesham's talent, even genius, sustain itself for a whole match of such importance, over an opponent who must have quite a record over him.
Hesham is right up there as one of the most skilful and entertaining players on the tour. So often in the later stages of tournaments, he loses to less exciting, but more consistent and attritional opponents. Really pleased to see him win this! Great match, but the atmosphere seemed to be rather flat, which I think is a shame. Perhaps it was a problem with the mics, but there seemed to be a lot of murmuring during the points and then nothing much more than a ripple of applause at the end of a rally. From what I've experienced, it doesn't normally take much in US crowds to generate lots of whooping and hollering. Perhaps if one of these players was American it would have been different but I like it when audiences cheer on good squash, whoever is playing it.
Good to see the more talented player win. Hesham is an unbelievable player and he’s finally gotten his strength, conditioning and mentality to similar levels of the top dogs. Hope he breaks into the top 3 soon.
Yeh, if you dive and leave a skid mark, it’s up to your opponent to stop the play. If the ball however bounces in the area where the sweat is, the ref can stop play if they think it’s dangerous. I think that’s partially what Coll was complaining about. Hesham also kind of stopped running which made it look like he stopped but he technically continued the play.
Very dangerous for the ref to have let that rally continue I feel. Two more shots into that area of the court after the dive and tons of sweat on the floor. If there was ever a need for the play to be stopped for safety then this was a prime example.
Yeh I agree, but I think a lot of players tactically do it. If they’re losing the point they sometimes dive just to create the sweat patch and then hit it into the sweat to make sure the play is stopped. Bit of a tricky one as I agree they don’t want a nasty accident but I feel like you should be at a disadvantage in some way if you’ve dived to ensure you’re only diving coz it was your only option
That’s weird, I did an England squash marking course and that’s what they said, they also did explain it on SQUASHTV. I’m fairly sure after a big Rodriguez dive, I’ll see if I can find it in the rules maybe
What? People do this at the junior level. If I’m down 9-1 in the 4th set and it’s a close match, am I really going to waste all my energy on running to extra balls? You’ve never played a sport in your life.
