R2 : Farag ends Jonah’s run in three

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[1] Ali Farag (EGY) 3-0 Jonah Bryant (ENG)   12-10, 11-3, 11-3 (40m)

When I talked to Jonah at the Optasia Champs, telling him all the good things I thought about him, he gave me the impression he liked the way Ali was playing. And tonight, I was like in the Matrix film, looking at two Ali Farag on court!

And it was a stunning first game, for sure!

Both clever, both volleying, reacting, fluid and flowing squash, hardly any decisions, what a great squash that was. Height, deep, mid pace… Jonah was doing the hard work though, and even if Ali had to play his best squash, it was HIS squash, and he is the best at it, rather logically.

Ali went up 10/8 before the young talented Englishman levelled at 10/10, only to see his hopes crushed as the Egyptian took the opener 12/10.

Farag was ruthless in the next two games though, taking each for the loss of just three points…

Jonah

I think I came out too fast, I kind of run my legs in, Ali is experienced, he realised it early on, and took me on.

He volleys across the middle far better than me at the moment, his ball control is much better, and he was using the lob a lot, and I was always at the wrong end of the rallies, and never settled.

Yes, it’s a great lesson.

Ali : “I was just telling Karim Darwish that I think Jonah is the youngest pro that I’ve played in my career. I remember playing people who were 15 years older than me when I was coming through so I’ve spanned a 30 year generation so thank you for making me feel old but no, I really enjoyed this one.

“He really took it to me. He was upping the pace and taking the ball early and I knew he probably wouldn’t be able to sustain it for the whole match at his age yet, so I just had to contain him and extend the court a little bit by using the full front wall and I did that and then I took control of the next two games.

“I knew I needed my A game tonight. I’ve been following him for a few years now, he was a terrific junior and has been breaking through the ranks and beating some really good players so I wasn’t surprised one bit.”