Final:
Thierry Lincou (Fra)
bt Joe Kneipp (Aus)
10/11 (0-2), 11/9, 11/2, 11/1 (58m)
TOUT EN CONTRÔLE
Again, no translation needed, I hope …
I didn’t want to be here today, but when Thierry reached the finals, I had
the feeling that today could be the day, and that I had to come.
Thierry has been around for a few years now. In January, he became the
World Number 1, the first Frenchman to get to that pole position. But some
people didn’t take him THAT seriously because although he had won 9 PSA
titles he had never won a Super Series Event.
And that was a huge chip on his shoulder.
As I saw the 80 minute semi-final between the tall John White and the
charismatic Joe Kneipp, I thought that Joe was going to run out of steam
at some point, but I would have never thought that he would run out of
racquets!
The man had 3 racquets in his bag (a bit like me with my pens really,
isn’t it…), he broke the strings of them all, and then was forced to
borrow a Prince and ended up with a Dunlop instead of his usual KLIP.
“After losing the second game, I wasn’t worried about my fitness, but
about how I was going to be able to play the final of the Super Series
with someone else's racquet!” a serene Joe told me after his defeat. “And
by the way, I’m sticking to Klip, no contest.”
I have to say that in the first game, I thought "that's it, he has finally lost it, the poor
man," when I saw him slooooooooooowing down every shot, lobbing every ball
that he was playing. “What is he doing?” I asked Mr McKenzie sitting near
me. And it’s only when I saw him going off court to change his racquet
that the penny dropped.
Oh, come on, French, blond, AND a woman? What do you expect????
During a very close first game, Thierry was perfectly in control, every
shot was played with precision, with length, but also with caution,
caution that may well have cost him the game as Joe dug in deep to win
the 24 minute game 2/0 in the tie-break.
In the second, Thierry went up 4/1, then 8/2, and Joe knew that he needed
to win quickly, as his fitness was probably not going to last a long
match.
3/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, 7/8. Joe was accumulating the points, and I was
blowing into my hands to dry the dampness, not that I was nervous or
anything.
“I knew that I couldn’t afford to lose the second,” said Thierry. “I had
to take a mental ascendancy, I saw in him that he was getting tired. I
also knew that I couldn’t relax, and I was still wary of him”.
Joe was playing a “le tout pour le tout”, “win or lose” kind of game,
placing three beautiful returns of serve that Lincou could only watch from
afar, wrong footing his opponent with a perfect length drive and also a
short cross court. But Thierry’s length was too good, too precise, and as
he started to relax, his game became more and more varied. The Frenchman
finally won the second in 14 minutes.
And the rest was a formality, 11/2, 11/1.
In 58 minutes, Thierry Lincou won his first Super Series Event (making it
his 10th PSA victory).
“In three appearances here, I've finished 2nd, 3rd and now 1st. This
tournament agrees with me I think,” Thierry told me after the final.
“And it makes up for the 4 or 5 finals that I lost over the last year.”
Daniel and Céline were ecstatic; I wasn’t that unhappy about the whole
thing myself, and I must admit that I couldn’t stop the tears rolling down
my face.
“I’m not going to tell you how emotional we are right now, his mum and I!”
said Daniel, Thierry's father. “And it’s a good consolation prize after
his defeat in the semis of the PSA Masters in Qatar against Peter Nicol.
And now that he has been world number one, I just hope that he will win
some more big events once in a while, without having the pressure of the
rankings”.
What you don’t know (and I wasn’t going to tell you, was I…), is that,
right after Rennes, Thierry got very ill, and spent the 10 days between
the European Team Championships and the Super Series Finals in bed. When
he arrived, he had lost quite a few pounds, was very weak, and I didn’t
give much for his chances in this tournament. And as is often the case,
it’s when you don’t expect it that the best comes…
“I came here extremely relaxed, with no expectations at all, I didn’t have
any pressure whatsoever. The presence of one of my 2 coaches, Franck
Carlino, who has been my coach since I’m 14, calmed me and reassured me. I
knew that Joe was going to get tired, but I didn’t expect him to let me
win the last two games so easily. This is a beautiful day for me,
especially to win in front of my parents and my coach.
Yes, it was a beautiful day for Thierry Lincou, for his family, his
support group….
And for me.
Merci mon Thierry.
BROADGATE ROUNDUP
Framboise reflects on a week in the
City |
Frambois reports on
Thierry Lincou's first
major title ...
“I’m very happy about my week” smiled a disappointed
Joe Kneipp. “I’ve played very well, I realised that my fitness was
really strong, as I could see the others guys getting tired before I
did. Yes, I did lose in the final, a combination of tiredness of the
week, lack of racquet, and Thierry Lincou playing very well
indeed. But overall, I’m over the moon.” |
Framboise & Céline
Céline, Thierry &
Daniel Lincou
|