Hyder First-Round Recap: Faraz Khan Out-Lasts US Team Member Graham Bassett
by Rob Dinerman, for DailySquashReport.com
Dateline May 16th, 2012 --- First-round action for the Quentin Hyder Invitational got under way this evening at Sports Club/LA on Manhattan’s upper east side in what is shaping up as one of the strongest draws in the 44-year history of this tournament. Defending champion Alister Walker and Canadian star Shahier Razik, who met in a five-game final a year ago, are the top two seeds in this 24-man field, with Wael El Hindi and Ryan Cuskelly right behind them. The tournament will run one round per day, culminating in the final late Sunday afternoon.
The first match of court this evening matched Graham Bassett, an S. L. Green quarterfinalist and US team member in the World Team Championships, against current US Under-19 No. 3 ranked Faraz Khan, who qualified into the main draw Tuesday night and will be a freshman on the strong University Of Rochester this autumn. The first three games were extremely closely contested --- Khan went from 8-9 to 11-9 in the first game, trailed 10-7 and eventually repelled five game-balls against him en route to winning the 14-12 second, and had a total of five match-ball chances (on one of which the point went more than 100 strokes) in the third, which Bassett won in exhausting fashion by a 17-15 tally, a Pyhrric victory, as it turned, since it left him so drained that he faded in mid-fourth, by the last few points of which his upper right leg was cramping badly as Khan closed out his compellingly hard-earned victory 11-7.
There were tight-quarters drop/rail exchanges along the left wall throughout, with Bassett, an accomplished player on the ISDA pro doubles tour, throwing in a generous dollop of doubles shots (several skid-boasts and even a few Philadelphia boasts, which created unusual angles and occasionally tilted the play in his favor), and seeming to do his best when he forced the pace by looking to volley, while Khan fared better in the long, rhythmic points where his ball placement and stroke production were better than Bassett’s by just enough of a margin to account for the difference during those match-defining end-portion of the first two games. Khan was also more effective with his aggressive serve-return tactics, most notably at the outset of the fourth game, when there were two instances where Bassett won a torturous long point only to have that effort immediately (and dishearteningly) nullified when Khan slammed Bassett’s ensuing serve right into the opposite-wall nick.
The second game was especially important, as Bassett looked to be in solid control at 10-7, following which he tinned a volley drive, got caught for a stroke call against him on a loose rail and was passed by a perfect-length Khan forehand that died at the back wall and forced the tiebreaker. This seesawed along to 12-11, Bassett, at which stage another trio of Khan winners (the last a deft re-drop with Bassett leaning for an anticipate cross-court) netted him the game and a two games to love lead. Bassett fought back courageously at the end of the third game, where the points were so long and taxing that it would have been impossible for the fourth to have equaled it for sheer intensity, and when Khan (who will now play fifth seed Zac Alexander in the round of 16 Thursday night) forged a small opening, he was able to move out to a commanding 10-5 lead and to close it out on a backhand straight drop with a backpedaling Bassett unable to balance himself enough on his quivering right leg to muster the required dash to the front wall.
In other Wednesday evening matches, Bradley Ball, a Hyder semifinalist in 2011, prevailed in straight games over Mahan Kush, and Sadiq Taiwo, Shahid Khan and Columbia head coach Jacques Swanepoel were 3-1 winners over Lekgotia Mosope, Richard Wade and Sat Seshadri respectively. Three-time S. L. Green finalist (’94, ’97 and ;01) Richard Chin, still going strong in his mid-40’s, out-lasted Jude Odeh, 11-5 in the fifth, and in the closest match of the night, ISDA top-three Clive Leach, a former PSA top-30, barely survived a marathon with Cityview head pro John Musto with a tell-tale stat line of 11-9 11-6 9-11 9-11 11-9!
Round of 16 matches will be held Thursday evening beginning at 6:00.
DRAW
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