Gregoire Marches Into Second Round In Hull
Another stunning comeback stole the show at The Allam British Squash Open on day two as World No. 33 Gregoire Marche advanced to the second round for the first time in his career after besting Australian Cameron Pilley in a five game thriller.
The 24-year-old qualifier rallied from two games down to turn the match on its head, taking three consecutive games to seal a dramatic win.
“I was thinking about the match before between Nicky [Nicolas Mueller] and Miguel [Angel] Rodriguez,” Marche said afterwards.
“Miguel came back from 2-0 down as well and when I won the third it was close at 9-9 so I thought I had a chance. I kept fighting and it worked.
“I think he [Pilley] is a big guy, a strong guy and it was tough to put him in the back of the court. It was especially tough to see what he was doing on his forehand. I was just trying to put the ball into the back and just had to wait sometimes because I was not feeling too great with my racket.
“It is a great feeling to qualify, especially at this tournament, because it is one of the biggest on the tour so it is just a great feeling to play in it and I may go up against [Amr] Shabana in the next round who, for me, is one of the best players in the world, so I hope I can be as good as I was today and maybe I can go through to the quarter-final.”
The first game was a close encounter with both players seemingly having the measure of each other before Pilley pulled away to win it 11-9. The Australian national champion remained dominant in the second, taking advantage of the 24-year-old Frenchman’s mistakes to take a 2-0 lead.
But Marche responded to turn the match on its head, playing some terrific drop shots into the nick to haul himself back into the match by winning the third game 11-9 before taking the fourth to set up an exciting finale.
Buoyed by his comeback, Marche refused to take his foot off the pedal and unleashed a barrage of tight drives and clever drops which brought him an 11-4 win to ensure he completed a dramatic upset.
[Q] Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt Cameron Pilley (AUS) 3-2: 9-11, 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-4
