QF: Youssef delights the crowd 3-1 against Paul

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[6] Youssef Ibrahim (EGY) 3-1 [2] Paul Coll (NZL)  11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8 (65m)

Ridiculous Squash from Youssef tonight, yet again. It’s hard not to enjoy his matches… Not sure Paul would say the same, mind

You always play 200m/h, and he hits the ball very hard, most of the time reaching his targets to the front or to the back, and sometimes, he can also reach the tin a few too many times for his own good.

But tonight, unfortunately for Paul, he didn’t.

0 error in the first game, Paul 3. Only 3 errors in the second – low number for him – and playing 9 winners, against 0 winner from Paul… for a score of 11/4.

For those two rallies, the NZ was rushed out constantly, the time on the ball was taken away from him, and he just couldn’t control the rallies at all, always on the backfoot, only reacting to whatever Yous was throwing at him.

The third, we had a match on our hands, when the Egyptian – quite logically – started to slow down a bit. Finally, Paul was able to have his say. He slowed down the pace, and controlled the middle more. Close game throughout, but Paul with his nose in front, 9/7, 9/9.

A great deception from Paul – yes, he can play them as well – and a ‘lucky’ nick at the righthand back corner that rolls on the floor, and it’s 11/9, 18m game, the longest game of the match.

In that game, Yous gave away 5 points, Paul 1. 8 winners for the Egyptian, 6 for the NZ.

In the 4th, Youssef is in control, 5/2, 6/3. Or so it seems. Four unforced errors later and a few winners from Paul, we were level 8/8. A few too many calls/video decisions at that point for it to be a classic, but it’s 4 points in a row for Youssef, from 7/8 to 11/8, 13m game.

Youssef : “It feels incredible. I think it was my goal this season to push those top guys and get some wins against them.

“Today, I felt my game was very disciplined and I was very focused from the first point.

“i’ve just tried to take my shoulder day by day. I’ve tried not to think about it too much. I thought I would start playing better as the tournament went on, so I had no worries about that. My shoulder felt good tonight. I think high on the backhand it is still very sore, but I just tried to handle it as much as possible.

“I had to pull out of those backhand volleys a couple of times. I tried to change my swing a little bit, not playing too much with my shoulder, so I think I did that pretty well.

“It was a lot of wrist and short swings instead of preparing too much, as that movement is still very sore.”