TODAY at the British Grand Prix
Sunday 10th, Day THREE
  
Steve Cubbins reports from Sportcity ...

Matthew & Darwish into Final

Day three started with the Gerrard Group showdown, and it was Nick Matthew who won through to his second successive Grand Prix final with a win over world no. one Amr Shabana.

Renewing their long-time junior rivalry, James Willstrop and Peter Barker put on a determined show for the crowd, with Peter getting his first-ever win over James.

The first match in the Manchester group was a humdinger as the world numbers two and three battled it out. Thierry Lincou pulled himself off the bottom, leaving Karim Darwish and Lee Beachill to play an effective semi-final to decide the group winner.

In the final match of the day Karim Darwish came from 2-1 down to deny Lee Beachill a place in the final. Second place in the group went down to points difference, with Beachill on +6 and Lincou -11.

Waters takes women's ...

It was a tough three games in the women's final, but they all went to Alison Waters leaving Jenny Duncalf in second place.

In the women's playoff Tania Bailey consigned last year's champion Vicky Botwright to fourth place.

One day to go, with the men's finals set to start at 6pm on Monday ...
  

Players and guests at Saturday's Gerrard British Grand Prix Players' Championship Dinner,
held at courtside with each table hosted by one of the players.

Matthew Makes the final ... again

The introduction billed it as an effective semi-final, a theme which the marker picked up on as he announced the match ... "What, not the final, then?" quipped Amr.

No, and it was to be no final for the Egyptian as Nick Matthew, looking shark, keen and focused, won this Gerrard group shootout to make his second consecutive Grand Prix final.

The Yorkshireman edged a close first game, pulling away from 7-all, but the world number one stepped up a gear in the second to level.

The third proved to be decisive. Matthew quickly opened up a 5-0 lead, but Shabana again raised his game, and in a series of fast, sharp exchanges he narrowed the gap.

He could never quite equalise though, as Matthew, volleying where he could and not afraid to take it short, pulled away again from 8-7 and took the game on his second game ball.

That was that, as Shabana let the fourth go and settled for the 3rd/4th playoff, Matthew going through to the final.

"I was a bit fortunate there but you can see that the guys who were most disappointed with their performances in the world open, myself, Karim and Lee, are all doing the best here, trying to give the best of ourselves. "I was really up for that though. Amr's given me some good beatings so you have to try to make sure it doesn't become a pattern, you don't want anyone becoming your bogey player." Nick Matthew

Third for Tania

From champion last year to fourth this, but it's not all bad news for Vicky, as this was a much-improved performance from the  Lancashire lass.

National Champion Tania Bailey took a close first game before opening up a winning lead in the second

Vicky fought back strongly, most of the rallies were strongly contested, but a handful of errors from the local favourite was enough to keep Tania just out of reach.

"I felt much better than yesterday, and managed to play quite well today. It was tough though, much harder than two-nil suggests. "I'm glad to get a good game in, and I'm looking forward to Nottingham and then the World Teams in Edmonton. "The boys won the world teams last year so we're hoping we can emulate them. We've got a great team spirit and everyone's really looking forward to the next few weeks." Tania Bailey

I don't want to lose ...

Neither of these two had performed to their highest expectations so far, but when you get the defending champion and world number three up against the new world champion and world number two you'd expect something special ... and they duly delivered.

The Frenchman was on top in the first, but once David found his range it became a real battle in the second. Hard rallies, great variety from both, determination to spare and plenty of work for the referee and the court sweeper with his magic brush.

From 8-all in the second Thierry doubled his lead as David committed some costly errors, but Thierry returned the favour in the third, again from 8-all.

An early lead for Thierry in the fourth proved just enough, with the crowd ooohing and aaahing as they traded some fearsome rallies. It may not have been for a place in the final, but neither wanted to lose this one, that as obvious.

So, Thierry could still make third if results go his way ...

"It seems weeks ago that I won the World Open! I tried my best on there, my mind's fine but the body wasn't quite doing what I wanted. "At 2-0 down I really got stuck in and even in the fourth I thought I still had a good chance to come back. "I was getting a bit frustrated with myself and the referees, but sometimes it's just good to get it out of your system." David Palmer

Peter gets his win

This may have been a match to decide the minor placings in the Gerrard Group, but it was as hard-fought as any encounter here this week.

Renewing their junior rivalry from when James beat Peter in the 2002 world junior final, the match swung one way then the other, before Peter edged ahead from the middle of the fifth, and hung on during a tense finish to clinch a first-ever win over James, and a first win in the Grand Prix.

"That's the first time I've ever beaten James, I lost ten times in juniors, I was always number two behind James, the closest I got was 3-2 and I thought it was going to happen again today. "He's such a strong player, even when he's not fully fit and I'm at 100% he's still so tough to play. It took me a long time, but a win's a win, I'll take it! "It's been great to get these matches here, proper competitive matches but not PSA so you can try some things out, enjoy it and hopefully learn from it all." Peter Barker

Three hard games to Waters

It was a tough match to finish three-nil. Two of the world's top ten, the England team-mates battled it out for 49 minutes to determine the Grand Prix champion for 2006.

They both played well, constructing the rallies, taking their time and picking off the loose shots when they could. The first was close. 5/5, 7/7, Alison just squeezed home.

The second didn't start well for Jenny. A couple of winners from Alison, a couple of errors from Jenny and suddenly it was 7-0 and the match appeared to be running away from the Yorkshire girl. But she dug in well, lengthened the rallies and clawed her way back to level. Alison reached game ball 8-7 after a particularly tough rally, and when a crosscourt died deep in the forehand back corner Jenny's comeback was thwarted.

The third was close all the way, and Jenny had three chances to extend the match at 8/6, /7 and 9/8, but on her first match ball Alison worked her opponent out of position before putting a dropshot way out of reach.

A harsh three-nil, but a deserved trophy for WISPA's most improved player of the last two seasons.

"It could have gone either way, Jenny came back really well in the second and I was a bit lucky to win the third. "I've had a good last year, and I've been training hard, changing a few things in my technique to enable me to compete with the top girls. "I'm feeling in good for for the British Open next week and after that it's the world teams in Edmonton where hopefully we'll win!" Alison Waters

Darwish wins Manchester shootout

The earlier Lincou/Palmer result took the uncertainty out of this match - whoever won would be in the final, so just as in the first match of the day we had a de facto semi-final.

Lee, who would have been hoping for a quick finish, let leads of 8/4 and 9/7 slip in the first before squeezing home on the tie-break, but it was evened up when Karim, who held a narrow lead throughout the second, capitalised on his fourth game ball.

Lee might have been tired after two hard matches very close together, but he didn't show it as he worked Karim around the court in the third. Come the fourth though, it was the Egyptian's turn to make his opponent work.

So an intriguing fifth was in prospect, but somehow it all just went wrong for Lee.

A couple of uncharacteristic tins at the start, a mishit that looked a winner all the way but just clipped the tin, a drop that Lee thought was good, a simple drop into the tin ... suddenly he was 7/3 down and looking up the mountain when he could so easily have been approaching the summit.

Karim needed no second invitation, put in some lovely cross-court drops and flicks and from 10/6 all it needed was a final tin from Lee and Karim was in the final on three wins out of three.

It took countback to separate the rest, all on one win. Palmer was fourth on games countback, and Beachill just edged second place with a +6 points difference compared to Lincou's -11.

"I expected it to be tough, so I'm really happy to be in the final. "I thought Lee would be more tired than he was, so I was taking it in too early to start with. I started to play longer and move him around more in the fourth and it paid dividends in the fifth. "I didn't play Nick at all last year, but he's one of the toughest players on the tour so I'll have to play well again tomorrow, but I'm really looking forward to it." Karim Darwish

TODAY at the British Grand Prix
Saturday 9th, Day TWO