NASH Cup 2018 Day 1 Recap
Nash Cup September 18th 2018
Men’s Round 1 Results
Opening night of 2018 Nash Cup saw an absolutely packed house at London Squash & Fitness Club in Ontario; an amazing turnout for a 1st round evening – though nothing new for the LSFC members.
1st round matches can throw up some quick straight forward wins, or some surprising battles. Tonight saw both!
Ahad Raza vs Vikram Malhotra 2-11,10-12,7-11(26mins)
Addeen Idrakie vs Cameron Seth 12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9(79mins)
Fernando Magdelano vs Michael McCue 11-7,2-11,4-11,3-11(45mins)
Lyell Fuller vs Jean Pierre Brits 11-7,11-8,11-8 (37mins)
Dave Mills vs Nick Sachvie 2-11,2-11,3-11(24mins)
Thomas King vs Ashley Davies 6-11,6-11,9-11(31mins)
Matt Henderson vs Juan Camilo Vargas 9-11, 7-11 7-11(28mins)
Andrew Schnell vs Mark Broekman 11-6,11-4,11-8(30mins)
Ahad Raza vs Vikram Malhotra 2-11,10-12,7-11(26mins)
Reported by Amit Shah
This match featured two great players with equally great back stories.
Vikram played for Trinity College, and is now based out of New York. His training partner roster includes none other than Ramy Ashour. Vikram has some 10K wins under his belt, and is coming off of a finals appearance last week at an invitational in New York. He was victorious over Nash Cup #1 seed Nathan Lake in the semifinals last week, and a win tonight would get him a second round rematch with Nathan.
Ahad’s story will resonate with every squash aficionado. He didn’t start playing until he was 15 years old. Falling in love with the game, he started training heavily in his free time, and career-wise pursued a Masters in Economics and eventually a banking job. At the age of 31, he decided he had enough of the corporate world, and he would give PSA squash and fitness his full attention. In the last 18 months he has trained heavily, also become a fitness coach, and taught high level juniors. This reporter was sorely tempted to emulate Ahad’s pathway, until I remembered that I hurt my back tying my shoes yesterday. And it may be a crime to teach someone my backhand technique.
The first game was a quick lesson from Vikram and finished at 11-2. As Ahad settled into the experience, he began to stretch the rallies and put some pressure on Vikram. Vikram’s focus moved to tomorrow’s match and Ahad was able to take a lead in the second game. Vikram returned to form, and he wrestled back control to put the game away in extra points. Game 3 gave Vikram an opportunity to showcase his crisp technique, athleticism and length. He dominated the T and kept Ahad moving. Ahad elevated his game further, and demonstrated patience and resilience. Vikram prevailed with a combination of steady length and impressive retrieval. His match with Nathan on Wednesday will be an afternoon delight at 3 pm.
Addeen Idrakie vs Cameron Seth 12-10, 8-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9(79mins)
This on paper should have been a really comfortable win for Addeen, but Cameron has been improving immensely over the last 2 years now that he’s playing more full-time squash. A summer of training came forward.
This was your total contrast of two players Addeen kind of a small nimble quick Malaysian player against Cameron who is a lot taller larger build with a bigger reach.
This was definitely the match of the night every game, every rally being highly contested some mammoth rally’s lasting 60, 70, or 80+ shots. What a way to get the crowd going!
Cameron will feel that he let a chance slip by as he was playing some of his best squash he’s probably ever played.
Quite simply there was nothing to separate these two players over 80 minutes of brutal squash at 10-9 in the 5th game Addeen hits a crosscourt nick off the serve return to win the match.
Cameron next time hit a better serve! J
Dave Mills vs Nick Sachvie 2-11,2-11,3-11(24mins)
Both players are well known and well loved by the Nash Cup crowd. Nick is a scion of the Sachvie squash dynasty, former US Junior Open Champ, former top ranked Canadian player, and multiple year Nash Cup participant. He has been rehabilitating from a shoulder injury and undertaken an intense rehab and training period over the past several months. He has come back in true Bionic form – faster, stronger, smarter, and is hungry to regain his former world ranking.
David is a key member of the stellar Western University Squash team, originally hailing from the Windsor region. He has incredible dedication and a legendary work ethic, and this is propelling him into his early PSA career.
Game 1 started as expected — two heavy hitters pounding each other with drives, cross courts, smashes. Sachvie pulled away quickly and early with consistency and length.
Game 2 saw David growing in confidence. Long rallies were punctuated by thrilling gets at the front, lobs, and a number of topspin boasts from Nick that died just past David’s racquet head.
The final game showcased Nick’s physicality on the court combined with his touch with the ball. It was a road map for where David is headed with his game. David put forth a superb effort against a Canadian squash icon. He was unable to overcome Nick’s speed, strength and experience, and the superior coaching that Nick received from his billet.
Nick will play Wednesday at 7 pm against the current No. 1 World Junior, Mostafa Asal (Egypt). This should be an amazing ticket.
Reporting Amit Shah
Another report from a relatively new squash player:
Two young Canadians went at it tonight in a very fast paced, electric game. Mills, one of the local favourites, played a high energy but nervous first game at times leaving the ball in the middle leading to winners by Sachvie. Too many mistakes by Mills leads to a first game that went to Sachvie 11-2
In the 2nd game Nicks speed starts taking over wearing Mills down in some hardworking rallies early in the game. Mills wasn’t able to take advantage of his opportunities and the 2nd game went similar to the first with an 11-2 Sachvie win.
The hardworking rallies continued into the third with Nick leaning on his experience, using holds and deception to keep Mills on the run proving to strong in the end. 11-3 Andrew Zanatta reporting for the PSA.
Lyell Fuller vs Jean Pierre Brits 11-7,11-8,11-8 (37mins)
This was a tight battle throughout, but Lyell maintained control and pushed through to a 3-0 win.
Fernando Magdelano vs Michael McCue 11-7,2-11,4-11,3-11(45mins)
Fernando came out quick in the first game surprising Michael taking it 11-7, with some really good disciplined squash. Mike’s shots were a little off catching the red line more than he would like. He didn’t look comfortable.
Mike woke up in the second game and from that point on was in total control of the match, 45 minutes for the games also tells the story of some long, gruelling rallies! But after the first game Mike was never really in any trouble.
Thomas King vs Ashley Davies 6-11,6-11,9-11(31mins)
Thomas put up a solid fight, but Ashley proved to be too much and will advance to the second round.
Matt Henderson vs Juan Camilo Vargas 9-11, 7-11 7-11(28mins)
The young Western player Matt was up against Juan tonight, who is an incredibly quick Colombian player. Matt played well at times probably not quite handling the shot choices correctly, but was in every game with a good performance. But at the end of the day Juan was way too fast and experienced and towards the end of every game managed to pull away and cut out errors or loose shots to win the games.
Andrew Schnell vs Mark Broekman 11-6,11-4,11-8(30mins)
This on paper could have been a tricky match for Andrew – Mark has great hands and can shoot winners from anywhere on the court – he’s an incredibly tall guy but the lack of playing full-time recently definitely showed up. Andrew’s pace and speed really started to wear Mark down; twisting and turning him and retrieving balls that kept surprising him. At the end of the day he couldn’t quite keep up the pace even with flashes of brilliance there were too many errors thrown in as well.
Tomorrow will feature 15 Matches beginning at 3pm. All will be streamed live.
<br>