Day 3: April 19th, 2014

Last out of the club and return for the first match if the day!   What could be better than that?

9:00 am Nathan Von Hagen vs Neel Ismail 0-3
Neel is a very accomplished player for a 13 year old player.  He has a strong wrist, smooth movement on court and a professional demeanour on court.  The rallies were competitive but Nathan was not strong enough today to neutralize Neels efficiency.  Nathan is now out of the tournament.

9:35 am Kellan O'Neill vs Liam Waterous 2-3
Liam Waterous and Kellan O'Neill played a hard fought match early in the morning.  This was a battle between Liam's thunderous backhand and Kellan's sliding retrieval.  The game plan was to take the sting out of Liam's shots by engaging him in long rallies (Always a good plan when you are fit).  The plan was working except for the odd unforced error from Kellan.  Otherwise good strong play form Kellan but not the result he wanted to have.  Kellan is not out of the tournament.

Next Up:

3:05pm Matthew Henderson vs Adam Vanwyngaarden  3-0

Another day and another match to go.  This time Matt is feeling better as his nose cold  has cleared up allowing him to breath better.  Adam beat Nicolas the day before but Matt was not going fall to the same fate.  This straight forward match require Matt to take the ball in short after punish his opponent to the back of the court.  Adam was unable to keep up with the pressure.  Tomorrow morning Matt plays Hussam Hamour in the consolation Semi-Final.  

5:30pm Grace Thomas vs Tara Shannon 0-3

Grace was on the bike, loosening up her legs, swinging her racquet before stepping onto the court for the Girls U 17 Semi-Final.  During the warm-up Tara pounded the ball crisply cutting it into the corner of the court.  During the first game Tara come out early but Grace fought back and evened up the game around 4 all.  Thing went back and forth for the next 3 points to 7 All.  After which Tara sprinted to the end of the game 11-7.  In the 2 second game Grace found the back of the court on Tara’s Forehand side.  She ripped the ball into the corner and grabbed herself an 8-4 lead.  But to no avail as Tara fought back and levelling the game at 8 all, then finishing the game 11-8.  In the third both players shared point but Tara maintained a 2 point lead.  Tara worked up to 10-7 match ball.  Grace needed to fight 3 match balls to have a chance to take the game to a 4th.  she was able to fight the first 2 match balls but Tara found a winning ball low and fast out of grace’s reach on the back hand side.  Match 3-0 for Tara.  Tomorrow Grace will play Hanna Blatt for the 3/4 position.

After the matches it was time to eat!  Have you heard of Frankie’s?  Italian all you can eat buffet.  Wednesday after practice, a couple of the kids ventured across the street to have lunch at Frankie’s.  When they came back they were crazed with excitement.  Raving about the Italian buffet.  By Friday everyone at the tournament would look at each other, smile and we knew there would be a time to meet at Frankie’s. Where food is plentiful and everyone is smiles.  

So what is so special about Frankie’s?  I keep describing it as a place where buffet meets 5 star italian resort!  As you walk down a narrow twisting italian designed street there are food stations to your left and right.  People wander with plate in hand trying to decide what to eat next!  There first station is the cold salads, directly opposite the garlic bread station (by far the best garlic bread), then pizza, dessert, gelato, chicken and beef, Pastas, and on down an italian street everyone filling their plate till it over flows.  

When you walk out you of Frankie’s you have gone some where special and feel satisfied.

Thank you
Benjamin Uliana

Day 1, April 17th, 2014

The only viewing for courts 8 through 14

Day 1:

Nicolas Vincent started the morning playing Kristian Lethbridge-Hall and won in 20min.  The true excitement starts at 4:25pm when we have 3 matches all playing at the same time.

4:25pm Nathan VonHagen vs Elliot Hunt 0-3:
We can safely say this was not Nathan's best squash match.  When I asked him how he felt about the match Nathan's response was "Bad".  At this point Nathan fell to the consolation draws and will have to win the net 5 matches to finish in the top 8.  This is what we call slogging it through the draw

4:25pm Nicolas Vincent vs Ethan Shoihet 0-3:
Some days you run into a player that is just a bit fast and quicker and more consistent than you are.  Ethan Shoihet explained to Nicolas why he is a 5/8 seed in the Boys Under 17 draw.  Nicolas will be joining Nathan in the consolation draw and will have a bunch of matches through the next couple days.

4:25pm Matthew Henderson vs Cameron Butler 3-2:
To start at the end of the story and work to the beginning, Matt has a cold.  We just finished going to shoppers drug mart to stock up on nasal decongestant.  But as things go Matt did the job he cam to do and won his first match.  He did take the full 5 games to do the job.  I like to think that he was just getting used to the courts.

Matt and his medication supply

5:00pm Kellan O'Neill vs Will Harris 3-0:

Kellan had a very positive match with a kid that could have been trouble.  keeping his cool on court and interjecting changes of pace into the game, Kellan walked away with a clean 3-0 first round win.

Entrance to the courts, coaches viewing for the weekend

7:20pm Grace Thomas vs Chloe Wren 3-0:

After the first 4 points of the game I was surprise to see how much Chloe had improved since I saw her play last year.  The rest of the match was more of what we expected of Grace as she dominated the match with Chloe just getting more frustrated as the match went on.

Mustafa, Grace, Nicoals, Janel, supporting Gavin Maxwell from the only other viewing position of the courts