R2: James Willstrop 3-0 Youssef Ibrahim

James Willstrop (Eng) 3-0 Youssef Ibrahim (Egy)    11-7, 11-8, 11-4 (24m)

In case you missed it, at 9/9 in the 5th, Youssef fell and twisted his ankle playing against Daryl yesterday. As it was a contributed injury, the Egyptian got 30m treatment, and came back on court hopping away, to take 2 quick points

But he was not moving as he should today and playing against James is hard enough on two legs but on one…

Good, very good effort from the Princeton player but it was a bit of a mission impossible today..

James

It felt really intense in the head. He’s probably the hardest opponent there is when he does have a slight injury and it makes it almost harder. It’s obviously hard for him, but I didn’t know what level he would be, whether he would be fully recovered, or only half way, so I had to idea what to expect.

They’re cold conditions on court, and he was probably thinking that he would try and take a few shots in because he is such a good shot player. Maybe that could unsettle me, the rallies would be short and if I can’t get him moving then I’m in trouble.

I had to get him moving if he had a problem, and it was hard. I tried to keep the intensity and the pressure on him and tried to challenge his movement as much as I could. If you’re not careful you start thinking about all of that and not the match, so it’s a dangerous situation, I had to attack it mentally very strongly, and I think that was how I came through it. It wasn’t an easy situation on a pretty cold squash court.