R1: A tense Curtis eventually, 3/2 against Henry…
Curtis Malik (ENG) 3-2 Henry Leung (HKG) 12-10, 11-8, 10-12, 8-11, 11-6 (68m)
“Is that your normal game to make so many unforced errors” was my first question of the English hope. “Yes”, he smiled, then quickly added “NOOOO”! Bless….
On the bus this morning, with my PSA Media colleagues, I was saying that I thought the Curtis Henry could be a very interesting one. I got a polite smile in return. Ha!
I have seen Henry Leung play several times and he is tricky. He loves the feather counterdrop, and even more feathery volley counterdrops. And when that is not enough, he adds a few lobs to make good measure….
Curtis got a bit impatient maybe? Or frustrated? I remember Beng Hee annoying the heck out of a few players, especially David Palmer, with his incredibly clever and subtile squash.
To be noticed, “strokes” start to be given when you take the space of your opponent by stepping slightly towards the front wall, forcing the opponent to go all the way round and arriving too late on the ball. Finally! I guess there is something good, really good coming out the ‘Infamous’ Video Series: refs are starting to finally see akward placement on the court – considered for too long as “minimal”…. “IT IS NOT MINIMAL”, shouted Diego Elias a few months ago. And it wasn’t…
Back to Curtis and Henry. The English takes the first two games, 12/10 and 11/8, looking in control to be honest. 12m each game.
But out of the blue, Curtis decides it’s Christmas time, and offers 8 points to his opponent, 6 errors plus conceding 2 strokes. Still, he nearly got the game and match, down 6/1, 10/5 game ball, he clawed back to 10/10, bowing wht those two strokes I mentioned earlier… 12/10 Henry.
The Hong Kong player takes the next one too, close the whole way, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 8/8. A couple of errors and bad placement of the shoulders and it’s 11/8 in 10m for Henry, we are 2/2 all.
Henry got penalised three times in 5 rallies, 3 strokes to Curtis, while Henry got himself a stroke for hitting his opponent – the famous, it was going to the front wall. Curtis was NOT HAPPY, and they chatted for a while, but nothing bad really.
That got us to 6/3, 8/4, and quickly to 11/6. That was far too close for comfort I would say for the Englishman, who I saw perform much better. Let’s listen to what he had to say:
Curtis : It wasn’t due to anything he was doing, it was just that my arm was so tense today. I normally play with a bit more freedom in the arm. So I was probably forcing too many shots. It’s ok to going for shots but you’ve got to be relaxed doing it, but I wasn’t.
Tactically, he was actually very good today, that’s the hardest he played against me. I wasn’t probably expecting to be that hard, you get stuck in a battle.
The 5th, I told myself just make the first 4 5 rallies very hard, make it hard for him to get on the T, hit the ball away from both of us, getting them in the corners, and then don’t force the position because you will get the openings.
I’m playing Dimitri tomorrow, we played in the Swiss Leagues’ finals maybe four weeks ago, he won three two, so we had some tough battles, so let’s see how it goes.
