The top four seeds are now all safely through to the semi-finals of the Men’s Open of the Trident Insurance Barbados Squash Open after last night?s action at the Barbados Squash Club’s courts.
The match of the night was the clash between national squash champion, Shawn Simpson, and the #2 seed Arthur Poupel, from France. Simpson, a lanky southpaw, is only 20 but looks years older than his baby faced French opponent who is 19 and who showed the partisan crowd why he is ranked at #2 in this tournament. Long, punishing rallies were followed by more of the same throughout this 51 minute match and Simpson appeared to be holding his own after splitting the first two games. Poupel had other ideas however, and after dropping the first point in the third game never trailed again in the match and reeled off the last four points in the final game to win 9/3 5/9 9/6 9/5 and set up a mouth watering semi-final clash with the two-time defending champion, Shawn Badrinath who had few problems quelling the challenge of his Guyanese compatriot, Robert Fernandes, and ran out a winner in straight games.
The other semi-final will match the best local player, Gavin Cumberbatch, against the exciting top seed Johan Bouquet from France. Cumberbatch quickly disposed of his opponent, national Men’s captain, Andy Gill in three straight games, but the match between Bouquet and St. Lucian Charlie Sonson kept the large crowd on court #1 enthralled for nine minutes short of an hour. The top seeded Bouquet had to extend himself often against his dangerous opponent who has always had the ability to fashion winners from almost any position on the court. Sonson?s problem is consistency and once again last night would follow one incredible shot with two ordinary ones. Bouquet simply made far fewer errors and used his agility and speed across the court to recover seemingly lost causes. Again and again he reached shots mere mortals would not have and forced Sonson to play more and more outrageous shots in the hope of an outright winner. After winning a close first game 10-8, Bouquet rushed through the second game for the loss of only one point and held three match balls in the third in which Sonson fought tooth and nail. Eventually, Sonson?s skillful shots paid off and he reeled off the last three points to clinch that game 10-8 but was never in the hunt in the fourth which Bouquet clinically closed out 9-4 to win by three games to one.
In other men’s matches played, in the Men’s consolation plate, all the #9/16 seeds prevailed in straight games against lower ranked opponents with the sole exception of the # 14 seed, John Cumberbatch, who fell apart at 7-1 up in the fifth game against Jamaican under-19 champion, David Patterson, and lost the last eight points in two hands to lose in five games 6/9 9/7 1/9 9/7 7/9 in exactly one hour.
Full results were as follows (all Barbados players unless otherwise indicated):
Men’s Quarter-finals:
# 1 Johan Bouquet (France) defeated # 5 Charlie Sonson (St. Lucia) (3-1) 10/8 9/1 8/10 9/4
# 4 Gavin Cumberbatch defeated # 7 Andy Gill (3-0) 9/3 9/6 9/2
# 3 Shawn Badrinath (Guyana) defeated # 8 Robert Fernandes (Guyana) (3-0) 9/3 9/3 9/1
# 2 Arthur Bouquet (France) defeated # 6 Shawn Simpson (3-1) 9/3 5/9 9/6 9/5
Men’s Consolation Plate 1st Round:
# 9 Marlon White defeated Mickey Armstrong by default
# 15 Bryant Cumberbatch defeated Cliff Nolan (3-0) 9/7 9/0 9/1
# 14 John Cumberbatch lost to David Patterson (Jamaica) (2-3) 6/9 9/7 1/9 9/7 7/9
# 11 Ray Chan-a-Sue (Guyana) defeated Paul Munroe (Jamaica) (3-0) 9/1 9/0 9/0
# 12 Nigel Griffith defeated Norman Rice (3-0) 9/6 9/3 9/3
# 16 Fabien Magne (France) defeated Tariq Williams (Guyana) (3-0) 9/1 9/3 9/1
# 13 Rhett Cumberbatch defeated Alex Garcia (3-0) 9/4 9/2 9/1
# 10 Mark Sealy defeated Kristian Jeffrey (Guyana) (3-0) 9/4 9/1 9/0
Ladies Plate first round:
Sherice MacDonald defeated Edna Corbette (3-1) 5/9 9/0 9/2 9/1
Elizabeth Johnson defeated Alexandra Leacock (3-0) 9/2 9/0 9/0
Ayoni Bradshaw defeated Carolyn Last-Johnson (3-0) 9/7 10/8 10/8
The top four ladies and Men’s seeds are in action tonight (Friday) June 25th at the Barbados Squash Club’s courts in Marine Gardens, Christ Church, in the semi-finals which begin at 5:45 p.m. The second round of the Men’s Consolation Plate will also be played tonight.
Admission to the Barbados Squash Club (BSC) is free and refreshments are always on sale at the bar there. All spectators are welcome.
