History boy Matthew only just passes first test

Nick Matthew, already the only Englishman ever to have won either the World Open or the British Open three times, overcame a shaky start on Monday as he began his bid to make another piece of history.

The 34-year-old is attempting to become the oldest player ever to win the British Open, but cast doubt on his ability to achieve that after an uncertain staccato perfomance in a 6-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-9 win over Laurens Jan Anjema, the former top-10 player from the Netherlands.

Matthew has been troubled with an ankle injury for four weeks, and now looked distinctly ring-rusty as he lost eight of the first nine points, only getting back it by forsaking his normal patient, accurate style, and taking risks to win points quickly.

Anjema, sensing his chance, tried to play consistently, getting to 9-9 in the third game and to 9-8 ahead in the fourth. Had he won either of those he might have been the favourite going into the decider.

"I wasn't fit to play a match a day or two ago, but I decided just to try and see what I could do," Matthew explained. "If this was a tournament on the other side of the world I wouldn't be playing.

"But here I'm just an hour from my home, so that's very different and it's worth trying to see what I can do.

"I am not looking to win the tournament any more, just to see how well I can do. I didn't feel match fit and after the first two rallies I felt like my lungs were going to explode," Matthew added, laughing a little.

"But I decided I should try to break it up, and took calculated risks to shorten the rallies.

"I've not had a match like that for a month, so now I don't know how I will feel in 48 hours time for my next match. But 48 hours can be a long time when you're recovering from injury so I'm still hopeful I'll improve.

- French success -

Matthew's next match is against Gregoire Marche, the 25-year-old who played a significant part in the victory over England which captured the European team title for France for the first time in Herning, Denmark a week ago.

Marche saved two game points in the second game of a very good 11-3, 13-11, 11-5 win over the 21-year-old Mohamed Abouelghar, who is one of a bevy of young Egyptians with top-10 ambitions.

The man from Aix-en-Provence was encouragingly solid when it mattered most and produced a delicious high backhand volley nick to save the first of the game points.

He was followed into the second round by his French team-mate Mathieu Castagnet, also based in Aix, who suggested he too has taken a bounce from the Herning success as he got past the sixth-seeded Peter Barker.

Castagnet may well have been helped by the Englishman's knee injury which apparently worsened and caused his retirement after leading 8-5 and then losing the first two games 12-10, 11-2.

However he struck the ball with great variety and purpose and -- already at a career-high world number 11 -- gave the impression that he could become another of several leading players who reach their best in the years past 28, Castagnet's current age.

"Emotionally it was a help to win that European title," said Castagnet. "It was a bit complicated how we did it," he added referring to the count-back of games that clinched it, "but it meant a lot to us."

He now has a chance of going at least to the quarter-finals and, with Matthew, the other seed in his quarter, clearly struggling, perhaps even further than that.

Meanwhile the number one player in France's triumphant team, Gregory Gaultier, the second-seeded British Open champion, begins the defence of his title on Tuesday against Nafizwan Adnan, a qualifier from Malaysia.
Source: AFP