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| 28-Apr, DAY ONE: GOOD START FOR ENGLAND & FRANCE |
 Framboise
Gommendyreports from Rennes... |
| Below: Reports on France's win over Denmark in the women's, and a real problem for the world number one ...
FRANCE: FRANCE 4-0 IRELAND ENGLAND: A WALK IN THE SWEDISH
PARK ENGLAND 4-0
SWEDEN FRANCE 4-0 IRELAND Below: |
PLEASE, A BIT OF RESPECT FOR THE PLAYERS… L’Hermine Squash Club is a beautiful club, but it has a little inconvenience: the courts are facing each other, and the exhibition court is at the beginning of a large “corridor” with courts on each side. The bar and entrance is on the left, and the other side is a cul-de-sac. So people have to come in and out in front of the exhibition court. You would think that with the number of players around, people would think before passing in front of a match being played… Think again. I even saw some people continuing to pass in front of a court with a match on, when the opposite court was free. No brain whatsoever!
Sorry, but it’s
extremely disturbing for the players and spectators to have an incessant
flow of players, refs, official, spectators, children, bla bla bla… in
front of games.
Alex has a hard day
tomorrow, as his team will playing Ireland in the morning, and France in
the evening.
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FOR FRANCE! Yes, I know, sounds weird, doesn’t it? You’ll see later why this title. A very large crowd came to see the French ladies play the Danish team. The French were loud, but believe me, so were the Danish! What support! In particular, we had a whistler that has to calm down, or the whole of Rennes will soon be deaf! Anyway, Corinne Castets won her match against Julie Dorn-Jensen in 3 games 9/4, 9/4, 9/0 while I was catching up with my sleep. Yes, I know, I got it wrong, yet again. I thought we were starting at 2pm, but no, it was 1pm. So I went back to the hotel, slept for 20m (yes, I had only 4 hours of sleep last night, so…) and by the time I came back, I was told that the French number 3 had won. OK, bad timing again. But I did succeed to see the next match between Laurence Bois and Line U Hansen. Quite straight forward, I’m afraid to say (oh come on, with a title like that, I’m sure you must have guessed that we were at one all at some point, didn’t you?). As the French player told me afterwards: “I couldn’t stand the pace. If I had succeeded in taking the second game, especially mentally, everything would have been possible. But I just couldn’t stay afloat. She was just above my level”. Yes, 9/1, 10/9, 9/5. Just a bit too far stretched. And that’s when I heard in the crowd behind me a French voice saying “C’est un partout pour la France”, “It’s one all for France”, which I thought was very funny indeed. And then came the Number Ones. Isabelle Stoehr, for France (world 13), and Ellen Hamborg Pedersen (world 49). Looking at the rankings, you would think that it would be an easy match. NOT! 8/2 up for France in the 1st game. So far so good. Then the Medical Student about to graduate started to come back. 3, 4, 5… But the French player won on a beautiful back hand drop shot, 9/5. Isabelle made some strange tactical choices in the first two games, too many drop shots in particular, whereas her opponent was playing some perfect length shots, and in particular cross court lobs that pressurised the French player into making some mistakes. A lot of mistakes. In the second game, the two players gave us some long rallies, predominantly drop shots and cross courts, very few straight drives. Isabelle was going for some flamboyant shots, but the Dane was volleying everything, not moving from the T. The French girl was leading the rallies, but she was also making a lot of mistakes. Once again, France was up 7/4, and once again, the Danish lady came back. 7/7. The Danish girl saved her first game ball with a lucky nick rolling from the back wall. 8/8. Every rally was a festival of retrieving and front court battle. All good things coming to an end though, and France got the last word 10/9. But the Danish warrior hadn’t said her last word, and came back in the 3rd to lead 7/1. And that’s when Stoehr decided to change her tactics radically. She starting lobbing, cross-courting and playing length. And it worked. Point by point, she clawed back to 7/7, and on a magnificent backhand volley kill nick, she gave her country the winning match in 3 games. “I was struggling physically”, said a delighted Isabelle after the match. “I have been injured, and I lack match practice. So I went deep in my mental strength to make the team proud.” And proud they were. DENMARK 1-2 FRANCE ELLEN H/PEDERSEN 0-3 ISABELLE STOEHR 5/9 9/10 7/9 LINE U HANSEN 3-0 LAURENCE BOIS 9/1 10/9 9/0 JULIE DORN JENSEN 0-3 CORINNE CASTETS 5/9 4/9 0/9 More Results On the next court, the English ladies didn’t stay long, I have to say. 3/0 every time, just a nice sweat, against some extremely motivated Germans who, unfortunately, couldn’t do much against one of the best teams in the World (not to say the best one!). ENGLAND 3-0 GERMANY |
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JOHN WHITE: IS HE GOING TO PLAY NAKED? After the Austrian team's problems, Air France has now lost the World Number One's bags! So this morning, the Scot arrived with a black dustbin bag containing a few t-shirts and basics. No racquet, no shoes…. “I arrived very late last night”, said John, “and my luggage is still out there, somewhere… I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to play”! “Are you going to play naked then?” I asked? Oh come on, couldn’t miss that one could I… “No, you don’t want to do that”! said a cheeky Peter Nicol, sitting with his colleague. Oh well, Air France is now on the top of the list at Rennes for this event…
NO, HE DIDN’T…. SCOTLAND 4-0 ISRAEL |
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Next
on was Martin Heath against Ron Levy. There again the score
was not very close, 9/5, 9/0, 9/3, but the rallies were longer, and most
of them were in front of the court, with lovely “I drop you, and you drop
me, and let’s do it all over again”.
