THE FINAL - DAC PRO SQUASH CLASSIC

Day 5

November 9

The stands were packed again. In fact, the members were trickling in up to an hour before the start of the match to secure their seat. By the time the final started, it was standing room only, seat sharing, lap-sitting, neck-craning, toe-tipping viewing left. The court area was energized, famished for more pro squash. Despite the world class quality of the play since round one, the first four days of this event had not satiated their seemingly inexhaustible appetite whatsoever.

[1] Olivia Blatchford Clyne (USA) v [2] Nele Gilis (BEL)

With world number 18 and world number 19 on court, to have 2 top 20 players for our first DAC Pro Squash final was a tournament dream. It was interesting to hear how the members were split on who they thought would win… which is no surprise really considering their current ranking and they both have fairly similar playing styles. Leading up to this match, I thought Olivia had the edge - simply based on her first three matches.

The match started off with literally nothing between them. Long, long rallies. It was a game of attrition, both girls working the length with considerable pace. Pounding the back corners, trying to maintain the front position, playing the cat-and-mouse spiel, not terribly willing to take the ball in short in the early stages. The third rally was close to 30 hits each, enough to put most of our members in hospital for a week, one actually quipped that they expend more calories per rally then they expend in an entire season (!)… and it ended in a ‘let’. It was the pattern for game one. It was a duel that kept the crowd on the edge of their seats (if they had one!) - who was going to break first? To my surprise, as clean as Olivia and Nele play, the referee was called upon numerous times. I will not sit here and say that I understood all the decisions awarded - because I didn’t - but it did appear that the calls were mentally affecting Nele more than what they did Olivia. I will say, the calls were fairly consistent, which is most important. At 18 minutes in, Olivia had survived the challenge and had the first game in the bank, 12-10.

 

It was a blow to Nele. This match could have been - and no doubt would have been - very different had the first game fell to the Belgian. But pro sports is such a mental tight-rope: if you falter ever so slightly, you are likely to fall off. Nele found it difficult to regain her game and uncharacteristically - compared to performances in the first 3 rounds - the unforced errors were creeping into her play. Olivia’s game plan was clear - simply stay the course. She didn’t need to change anything. It would be up to Nele to find the adjustments, but her rhythm and psyche was now wavering. The second game ended in less than half the time of the first - Olivia 11-4.

More resistance at the start of the third, Nele had to fight her way back hard. It is never easy to come back form 0-2 down, but she was not going down without a huge effort. Back to basics, the game started off in similar fashion to the first, the two exchanging points, a little more pace injected into the hitting. It was the right thing for Nele to do to get herself back on even footing, but in order to gain even a fraction of ascendancy, she needed something a little extra to break the American’s resolve. Olivia wasn’t flinching. No matter was the Belgian threw at her, Olivia was up to the task and at 6-5, she broke the resistance. Dropping only one more point, Olivia took the third 11-6 and with it, the first ever DAC Pro Squash Classic title!

So there we have it. Episode 1 is in the history books. We are looking at running this event - building on it - annually. I hope the players enjoyed Detroit and the DAC as much as we enjoyed hosting them, we look forward to welcoming many of them back in 2020.