Jamie Maddox is excited at the prospect of the return of top squash, and the addition of the Men to the Manchester Open …
The Top half of the draw for manchester is just fascinating… let me tell WHY…
Starting with Mohamed…well..he lost to Kandra last time they played, who himself beat Marwan in the BO and firing on all cylinders in Prague at the moment….If Mo is tight then I can see him winning but he will have to work for this one as Kandra is lethal at playing short winners and not allowing his opponents to get any rythm…
Miguel is pretty efficient early doors so shouldnt be any trouble there…..
Now then…GG v Dec James is mouthwatering…mainly because after GG’s lay-off etc its an unknown quantity…and..even if GG is in good form an on-form Dec James could cause him a lot of problems…can’t predict that one at all…
Elias should do the business against Tom but could be close for the first half an hour…DE has grown on me since those fab hardball matches during lockdown he had with the legend Jonathan Power!
Superman Paul Coll will be chomping at the bit after his in-form season last year….not sure about his opponent..in fact dont think ive seen him play so i predict a feisty start but then PC coming through as he gets back into his stride..
Dessouky and Clyne should see Godzooki come through….he really is the man who can look perfect for periods in his matches but somehow someway seems to find an angle to implode….still see a Dessouky win here..
Next up is James Willstrop..the Marksman from Pontefract who continues to defy the ageing process with some fabulous performance in his last competitive outings including that thrashing of Gawad which not many people saw coming and also the British closed final win against Joel…his opponent ..the talented and smooth Abouelghar…who he beat in the Worlds in Qatar last year, also a player who can look almost perfect for long periods but seems to lose his bottle on the vital points at the business end of games….
Finally Tarek Momen….what can you say about Tarek…I was over the moon when he became world champion…so thoroughly deserved..he still seems very fit and if his game is on he is probably the least likely player to suffer a shock in the first round….
Tamimi I think was coached by the legend Geoff Hunt and now by Rodney Martin so he will be prepared of course….still..a TM win for me as long as the ASDA ads he’s been doing haven’t damaged his preparation…
