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My
Greatest Match
My
2012 British Open win over Ramy Ashour at London’s O2 Arena is, I
believe, the finest performance of my entire career. As I admitted
earlier in my book, I’d previously become obsessed with Ramy after a
succession of losses to him during 2011 and 2012. I’d heard stories
of how Peter Nicol had once adapted his training specifically to
beat Jansher Khan and I’d tried to do the same for Ramy. The key
difference, and where I got it wrong, was that Peter looked at how
he might hurt Jansher. I on the other hand focused on what Ramy was
good at and how I might stop him, instead of concentrating on my own
strengths. This was approaching the problem from the wrong way
round.
In
the build-up to the 2012 British Open I worked with my sports
psychologist Mark Bawden who encouraged me to focus on my own
strengths. He got me thinking about how I could hurt Ramy rather
than how Ramy could hurt me. I needed good length on my shots, and I
needed to hit extra-wide cross-court shots because Ramy was so
strong in the middle of the court. But these strategies alone were
not enough. They would limit Ramy but not defeat him. I still needed
to dominate the middle of the court by pushing him deep and
controlling with my volleys. Then I needed to attack with more
variety and deception than I usually did.
My
coach David Pearson had just returned from a trip to Brazil with
Chris Gordon, an American player he coaches. Over in South America
they’d become friendly with an eccentric Brazilian player called
Rafael Alarcon. Over dinner one night, Rafa said to DP that when I
played Ramy I “didn’t play enough to the eight corners of the
court”. DP had no idea what he was talking about. Eight corners?
Surely, even in Brazil, there are only four corners to a squash
court.
Rafa explained that he considered the areas on both side walls, just
in front and just behind the service box, to be corners of the
court. Eight corners in all. If I was to use these extra corners, it
would slow Ramy’s speed to the front of the court and would limit
his counter attack because of a lack of angles. Most crucially,
though, it would give me more variation in my attack.
The O2 Arena was a fantastic venue. I loved the feeling of playing
in it. But even by the time I’d reached the final I still hadn’t hit
full stride. I was lucky to overcome a slightly tired Peter Barker
in the semi-final the day before. Perhaps I was saving my best for
last.
In
the final itself, Rafa’s eight-corner plan dovetailed perfectly with
my new mental strategy. Not only did I frustrate the Ramy into
making a succession of errors, but I managed to attack him too. It
was my third British Open title, more than any other Englishman had
won.
Sweating Blood: My Life In Squash - Nick Matthew Official
Autobiography
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