Americans at the World Masters Championships: me, Ken Stillman, Andre Maur, Natalie Grainger, Hope Prockop and Will Carlin.
What a match. Today I played Chris Moody from South Africa in the round of 32 on a day when a number of seeded players went down. Chris is a tremendous athlete and competitor, and no lead was ever safe. I was up in the first 6-2 and he came back to win 11-9. In the second I held my lead and won 11-6. In the 3rd I was up 9-6 and he came back again to win 12-10. In the 4th he was up 7-5 and I went on a bit of a roll and won 11-8. Going into the 5th I was ready for war. I knew he would never give up, and seemed to have endless reserves of energy although I was working him tremendously hard almost every point. I started off strong, working him hard and finishing off the points with good straight and cross-court drops. I also used the boast to work him and counter-punched off his drop with deep cross-courts. I rolled off the first bunch of points and went to 6-0. But he was still burning to get back in the game and was being cheered on very strongly by an impressively large South African contingent. The next point he hit a powerful crosscourt volley drop that rolled out of the nick. At that moment I knew that he would capitalize on any bit of momentum and that I had to win the next point. We played a long, long point, and I made a few desperate gets to keep the rally going. I finally got an opportunity with him too far forward and I hit a forehand drive to dying length. I played determined squash the next four points and closed out the 5th game 11-1. I haven’t played match this tough in quite a while, and it felt great to come out this battle with a W. But I also gained tremendous respect for Chris, who never gave up, hit great shots, and was a good sport. I now look forward to my round of 16 match with Germany’s top player who out of the corner of my eye I saw watching my match today.