d effective. This great match is definitely one to watch & learn from before heading to the court.
9. Anthony Ricketts Vs Graham Ryding
Graham has a remarkable array of shots, he trains extremely hard and he is one of the tour’s best movers around the court. These qualities should have been enough to keep him within single digit ranking his entire career, but it wasn’t to be for some reason.
If you haven’t had the chance to see Graham push another top player in the ropes then this is your chance. He started the match blazingly fast mixing pace and shots that Anthony just couldn’t handle. But as mentioned earlier about Anthony in his match Vs Power, he can and will run all day if it’s what it takes to take his opponent’s will to fight away.
We can all wonder how many matches Anthony won in his career over more talented opponents just from the influences he conveys on court through his highly energized body language which sends the message to his opponents that he wants to win at any cost.
A great clash… and a psychology 501 case study maybe also.
10. James Willstrop Vs Karim Darwish
Karim and James both won the Junior World Championship two years apart and respectively in 2000 & 2002, so they’ve both proven that they can rise to big occasions. Karim reaching # 5 two years back and James # 2 last year is a testimony to the high level and consistency of their games, and this has to be a sign of great things to come on the rivalry end of things.
If Karim hasn’t produced the big wins that James has over higher ranked player in the last year, then we suspect that his training regiment off court has been so incredibly intensive that he may not have had enough left in him to take on the best once reaching the main draws. We all know that there is such a thing as over training so let’s hope that experience will have taught him to pace himself more effectively just so he can eventually collect the fruit of his labour. (Since he beat both David Palmer and Lee Beachill in the event that followed this one (ToC06) then it appears his time may have come).
Once you will have seen this mach and the others here above, then you may reflect on the amazing fine line that separates top players such as James and Karim. The punishment one player can inflict on another can just as easily be inflicted back on him by another player in the following rounds, or by the same one in subsequent events. Not knowing who will be the sharpest on any given day, and why, is where the real pleasure lays for us spectator; what a treat!
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