R3: Diego comfortable against YowNg
[1] Diego Elias (Per) 3-0 Eain Yow Ng (Mas) 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 (40m)
Not much was given to YowNg tonight by the world number one. He kept hammering the front corners, and finding ridiculous winners. And when the Malaysian was playing some superb short shots that should have given him a few points, Diego was just there to pick them up and send them on their way back…
YowNg was disappointed with his performance tonight. Diego won’t be…
Diego : I’m very happy. It’s a tough tournament for me, one of the last of the season and I had Gawad in my first match and Yow in my second, and it’s not easy. I’m just happy with the way I played and am excited for the rest of the tournament.
Gawad actually beat me the last couple of times in the last two months so I knew he was playing amazing squash and having a match like that in the second round can be the worst or the best. I think this time it was the best because I could win and now I’m just ready for the rest of the tournament.
It’s so hot on there. It’s really tough. I was feeling great for the first fifteen minutes and then just had a massive drop off. I think you have to get used to it. The court is bouncy but when you attack it stays short. I really like it and hopefully I can get used to this heat!
YowNg : With insight, it’s 20/20. Going in, watching Diego so much, I knew it was going to be very hard for me to match him at the back. Because in some ways, we play in a similar way, with him playing at a much higher level OBVIOUSLY: we like to control the T, steady balance, hitting a lot of balls to the back.
But from the start, I thought he was controlling in that way so I needed to do something else. And that’s what he made me do: go too soon to the front.
And honestly, I looked at some of the points, I thought I hit some really good shots at the front, he made it look like he was one step! That’s why he is so good right now.
All credit to him, I’m disappointed with my performance, I feel a bit similar to what Victor has been saying about himself, I’m struggling to find the motivation coming into this match to be honest. I prepared well for it, I did all I could for it, but on there, I felt it was one match too many.
There are a lot of events coming up, I need to train and get my game up a level, it’s always pushing up pushing up, it’s all building up mentally. Winning yesterday was a bit of a relief.
Really disappointed today. I was looking at Mohamed’s banner (Shorbagy) on the wall of the event: “if you are not ready to fight, it’s a war inside, and you are going to struggle”. I don’t think I was ready to fight today.
It’s not good enough to be where I want to be at the end of the season. All credit to Diego, he is a very deserving world number one. It’s a good lesson for me. I have to look at it, study all the weaknesses that I have, then work on them for the next two months and come back a lot stronger. That’s going to be my focus now.
