[3] Ben Smith (ENG) 3-1 [15] Ruudi Clarke (ENG) 11-7, 13-11, 5-11, 11-5 (46m)
Ruudi : I’ve been a coach here for 4 years, after COVID. I have been gradually taking it more seriously, and Miles Jenkins is now Head Pro, he really kicked on the Squash Program at St George’s, I’m just sort of helping him along, doing a few individuals, a few groups sessions, and I enjoy that.
I don’t do too many tournaments, but if it’s local, I’ll try and turn up.
I love squash because there is so much variations, you can win in squash a million ways, and you can lose in squash a million ways. And sometimes, you can be the better player and lose, sometimes you can be the worst player and win…
Squash is very mental, people look at it and see it really fast paced and physical but I’d say 99% of it is actually mental. Probably why I lost today, I think I got a bit ahead of myself, happy I was tiring him up and then, lost my structure a little bit, and he punished me very quickly…
Ben : “It’s never nice playing in front of a crowd that’s against you. I knew he could cause me problems when I watched a bit of him earlier. I knew I had to be on it today.“It’s always tough in the first tournament of the season, but it’s nice to show that fight in the fourth after he did cause me problems in the third game.“I think the off season is so important. I think you can get into later on in the season and if you haven’t had that mental switch off, seeing family and friends etc, it can make a big difference.“I’ve got nothing to lose against Joel tomorrow. I’ll go out there and enjoy it.”
