R2 : [5] Diego Elias (PER) 3-0 [10] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) 11-9, 11-8, 11-6 (45m)
Greg can be proud.
I remember years, years ago, when Jonathan Power took the young Gregory under his wing, and taught him what he knew. And now, that’s what Greg is doing with Diego.
Don’t misunderstand me: Greg is happy to train also with somebody that can give him the rhythm he needs to stay at the level he needs to be. But he brought into Diego’s game what it desperately needed: discipline and consistency. And today, the errors were coming from the Frenchman racquet, 5 in the first game, 6 in the second, 4 in the last one. Diego, 2 the whole match.
If the Peruvian has been known to lose his focus during matches, today, he was on the ball, from first rally to the last. Greg still produced superb squash, superb rallies, good accuracy, but after the first game, he couldn’t somehow sustain the pace he needed to put pressure on his “poulain”. Plus, Greg cannot surprise Diego anymore, 4 months day in day out playing each other, hard for the 37 years old to wrong foot the up and coming…
A very pleasant match, Greg was disappointed, very, because of his number of errors. But like I said, he should be proud of his time with Diego. The Peruvian had put the work in, he has made the changes he needed. Superb result.
Diego
I think it was a good match.
We were unlucky to draw each other after training for three-four months together. In training he was playing really well, I think it’s unlucky for him that there are not many tournaments right now because I think he needs more matches. It’s different than playing practice matches, so I think it’s unlucky for him but in training, it is a different thing. I think when there are more tournaments and more chances to play, he will come back even stronger. He’s still improving after his injury, so I think he will be good next year.
“I don’t know what happened [with the ball]. In the middle of the second, it started to skid, I think it helped me a little bit because I noticed that he was getting a bit slower in his movements, so I was just trying to smash it.
