R3: Ali Farag 3-0 Leandro Romiglio

Leandro

I’m really happy about the whole week overall, even if I lost today against Ali. He is in a great moment, he is winning a lot of tournaments, he is sort of unbeatable right now. But I’m really happy with the way I played in my first two matches, against Miguel and against Rui, I won in three, it was very important for me, because the round three of the world champs means a lot.

I was living in Argentina for most of my career and it was tough for me. There are not many people in Argentina who play high level squash. So I would win one, two, three tournaments, and then I would come back home, where the squash is good but not enough to put me under constant pressure and be competitive.

I moved to Prague three years ago, I’m training with Greg Gaultier, Joan Lezaud, who is my coach. We have a good group of players there, there is always about 6 to 10 players, sometimes, Mohamed comes to train, Diego comes as well when he is around. So after a tournament, when I come back to Prague, the level is still competitive.

So I’m always playing at a good pace, and now, I feel it’s starting to pay off. I’m getting more confident, I feel more comfortable on court. I used to be able to play only one match, but now, I’m getting used to the pace, and also I am getting used to play in different venues, from challenger tours to playing on glass, very different conditions. So I think it was a good decision to move to Prague.

Ali :  “It’s always tricky playing someone for the first time even though both of us are older in age. We never got to play against each other but we practiced together at Black Ball last month and after I got off court I thought ‘why is Leandro not higher up in the rankings?’

“His level is definitely higher than his ranking and he’s been showing that this week and he’s been showing it the last few months.

‘At the beginning, my length hitting was a little bit too high and he likes to hunt the volley and I watched a bit from his match with Miguel [Rodriguez] and he wasn’t hunting the volley as much today and then he was hitting those low kills right from the start. I had to be wary of those two things, get my crosscourts a little bit wider and be a bit cleaner.

“I had to take a step forward to do these skills and when I did I felt like I was in control for the rest of the match. Karim Darwish doesn’t usually agree that my length hitting today, but he gave me the thumbs up after the first and second and that gave me a lot of confidence.

“With the sweat drops here [the museum], the glass flooring much better. It doesn’t sit on it, so even if it does you don’t slip on it as much. Leandro wanted to wipe the court, but I wasn’t fussed because I knew it was hard to slip on this glass floor. The way it plays, if you were to blind fold me and ask me if this was a wooden floor or a glass floor, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. This court has delivered a lot of good moments for me over the years and really has delivered for me over the years.

I am so happy to have tonight someone who made a very special delivery for me three years ago, Dr Michael Howard, he is the one who delivered my baby Farida in Chicago, and he is sitting right here, it’s quite emotional playing in front of him and now he sees Farida for the first time all grown up. Very proud to play in front of him tonight.