When you are a professional athlete competing before a paying crowd, you have an obligation to finish every match you are engaged in, unless you are injured.
James Willstrop was clearly hindered by the court conditions last night in Egypt, but by all acounts there was nothing physically wrong with him.
If this was the case, the world number one, of all players, needs to stay out there and finish it off, frustrating as it may be.
It is difficult to picture Geoff Hunt, Jonah Barrington or Jahangir Khan giving up in the finals of a major tournament because of unsatisfactory court conditions.
James shouldn't have quit yesterday.
-TG
I think you might have been a little hard on willstrop in your "shouldn't have quit" assertion. Dangerous court conditions could result in a serious injury and the tournament should have done whatever it needed to to insure a safe floor after what had happened the night before. I know that in my own squash old age I can deal with bad bounces, bad lighting, etc but the only thing I will not allow is myself to play on a floor which for whatever reason is slippery.
ReplyDeleteI think what James did was very smart. If he continued with his match and finished it off then the men in suits get their way. The court clearly is not satisfactory as the world no.1 is the fairest player on the tour and is not trying to complain like a big girl. By standing up to them and retiring as painful as that must have been, he is saying that the surface is not safe and everyone needs to know that. A lesser deal would've been made about the court if he just finished but he was clearly hampered by the conditions that looked below par anyway.
ReplyDeleteIf Willstrop wanted to make a stand he should have done it before the match started, not when the other guy is on the verge of winning.
ReplyDeletehe had to test the conditions didn't he? he said he couldn't believe that ramy and nick played after himself and karim the night before. This shows the conditions could have changed. A stand made before the match has the same result of 'forfeit' as during the match, and at least the crowd got some satisfaction as opposed to none. Either way those tickets weren't getting refunded and I know as a spectator that I would've wanted to watch squash for 2 games than no games.
ReplyDeleteRemember when Roberto Duran said "No Mas Box" when he was losing to Sugar Ray Leonard?
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