R2: Iker 3-0 Seb

Iker Pajares (Esp) 3-0 Sebastien Bonmalais (Fra)  11-8, 11-9, 11-2 (48m)

I haven’t seen Iker play such a clinical and assertive match for a long time. He was calm, composed, intense, fast, accepted the long rallies but never let Seb in control. The first two games were 18m and 17m. And even the last game, 11/2, was still 10m.

Both played superbly accurate squash, patient yet fast at times. Iker was just that little bit better when it mattered. Good match. And he’ll be much fresher in the third round to play Tarek than he was last time they played…

Iker : I had so many ups and downs this season. A very long lasting injury, very hard to recover from. I feel I’m now playing my best squash. The last three four tournaments I played I had some great results. I had some good training lately as well, I felt I was playing well.

Last week in Manchester, I played a good tournament, that gave me a lot of confidence, yesterday I played very well as well so today I played my best squash ever, and I knew it. I was very strong mentally, physically as well, but I pushed very hard mentally.

I’m enjoying my squash so much these days, I hope I’ll keep going.

I’m based in Barcelona, Global Squash, with a great coach, Victor Montserrat. We have amazing coaches, amazing players. It’s good to train with excellent sparring partners.

I’m very happy to be back to my best level, I had a big drop in my rankings because of the injury, let’s see if I can make to the top 20 next season.

Tomorrow, I’m playing Tarek, I’ve been playing him three times already this season. If last time we played I was very tired after two 5 setter wins but this time, 2 3/0, on those very cold, very fast courts. A bit slippery in the front, where Tarek plays a lot on…