With all players well settled in Cairo and a routine established, morale was high, writes junior performance coach David Noone.
Paying particular attention to avoiding certain food types and being extra careful with water consumption, navigating breakfast correctly was important. The hotel provided good food, but the breakfast left a lot to be desired. Not a coffee machine in sight… but it did the job.
At the Black Ball club, there were designated staff dispensing bottles of chilled water – a nice touch. There were lots of complaints from the huge entourage of American coaches about the warm climate, and giant air conditioning units were installed. Another nod to the hospitality of the Egyptian people, trying to deliver the best event possible.
The Irish team cared solely about their squash, and they gave due attention to each match, preparing as best they could. A very professional bunch.
Christian Dromgoole had two matches, his first in the title round of 64 against an Indian seed. With good structure to his game and tough to break down, Yusha Nafees proved too strong for Christian, but he wasn’t too far away in a lot of areas.
His second match, in the Super Plate round of 32, was a humdinger against the South Korean, Chanyoung Kim. This went the distance, and Christian put enough work into the legs of his opponent that he was cramping in his quads from 8-6 onwards in the fifth game. Christian pushed super hard to make sure he closed out the match and got an impressive win under his belt.
Nathan Hann played Darcy Hayes of Australia. Needing a little physio work from Breanne Flynn just to get him on court, Nathan started the match with a strained neck. It wasn’t ideal, but he fought valiantly and did much better as the match progressed. It was a tough loss.
Conal Jackson got a Plate round of 64 walkover on Tuesday from South Africa’s Juan-Corne Brand, who rolled an ankle.
This was the worst feeling, as you don’t want to travel all this way to Egypt and not play, but he made up for it on Wednesday with a massive performance to come from 0-2 down against Mika Von Aesch of Switzerland to claim a 3-2, five-game victory. This very gutsy effort keeps him playing and keeps the challenges coming.
Aaron Knox lost his second-round title match to an impressive Indian player. Arihant KS had an attacking style of squash, with exceptional racket head speed, and he pushed the ball to the front left relentlessly.
Aaron struggled early on, but his tempo got higher as the match grew, creating a good battle, and the 0-3 loss was a good show. He backed up his performance on Wednesday with a solid 3-0, Special Plate round of 32 win against Samuel Winkler.
Danny Lynch played a fit and solid South African in his Plate opener, and a nail-biter of a first game went Danny’s way 12-10. Momentum looked like it was swaying towards him, but Judah Phillips somehow turned the tables and neutralised Danny. It was a bit of a shock 3-1 loss, but Danny fought hard and will have a chance of redemption on Thursday.
Frank O’Flynn played Maximus Mathews, a Kiwi as tall as himself, and it left little space around the centre of the court. There were some top-quality exchanges from the two, and it could have gone either way. Frank has shown so many signs of improvement, and he put in a fine display of quality squash. It wasn’t to be this time in a 0-3 loss, but he will be back at it on Thursday.
Riley Slade played the Canadian, Salma Hassan, who was close to 6ft and could hit the ball as hard as anyone in the event. It was a somewhat daunting task for Riley in this Plate match, but she was remarkably resilient, fighting hard in every point and growing into the game. But it wasn’t to be as she lost in three.
Ella Walsh, what a warrior. Even though she was our first player to show signs of some Cairo sickness, she decided to play. Her Russian neutral athlete opponent, Maria Spirina, was a quality ball striker who fiercely contested every point.
This match had the makings of a five-setter, and it went all the way. Ella held off her stomach illness as best she could to fight all the way. Pushing hard on every rally, she won the appreciation of her watching teammates before losing valiantly in the fifth.
Zoe Yeomans had the quickest turnaround on day one, with two matches played. One day, two she faced an impressively accurate and casual Canadian, Tsz Ling Alyssa Ho, who had a wicked serve and seemed to be able to place the ball in the right area almost every time.
She was a very tough opponent, but this didn’t stop Zoe from troubling her in each game before losing 0-3, arguably an unjust scoreline for the quality of the performance.
