Simon Herbert and Robin Gadola to compete Mozart Open final on Saturday

It’s England against Switzerland at Mozart Open Final! There were to great matches played today at a very busy EUROPARK Salzburg shopping mall. It was the beginning of the easter school holidays which meant that there were many spectators around to watch.

The first semifinal was between topseed Simon Herbert (ENG, WRL 78) and unseeded Miko Aijanen (FIN, WRL 159). It was interesting to see if the Finn could cause another upset after defeating the number six and three seed of the tournament already.

It was a very tough fought match, both players not giving much space to each other which meant there was a lot of traffic around the middle of the court.

But Simon and Miko also showed great racket and retrieval skills. So often it went point by point and no one could really create a big enough gap to relax. Also the games were split equally after every game.

It was quite a logic that it had to come to a deciding fifth game which was even decided in the tie break. Unseeded Miko already had two match balls at 10/8, which Simon could save to reach the tie break and even turn the match around.

He converted his first match ball to win the match 12/10 in the fifth game after 62 minutes of play.

The second semifinal was an all-swiss affair between fourth seed Yannick Wilhelmi (WRL 100) and fifth seed Robin Gadola (WRL 108) who took out local favourite Aqeel Rehman in the quarterfinals the day before.

Both players of course know each other very well and it was even a repeat match from last year’s quarterfinal. As then lower seeded Robin had a better start and had a 2/0 lead in games. Though most rallies were very tight and close.

In the third game Yannick came back into the match after winning it comfortably 11/5.

The fourth game became a close encounter again and tension started to build up. There was hardly more than one point between the two Swiss. Eventually Robin was able to get a lead towards the end of the game and it was then no way to come back for Yannick and Robin won this game 11/7 and the match 3/1 after 50 minutes of play.

18:00: [1] Simon Herbert (ENG, WRL 78) – Miko Aijanen (FIN, WRL 159) 11/7, 9/11, 11/9, 7/11, 12/10 62min
19:30: [5] Robin Gadola (SUI, WRL 108) – [4] Yannik Wilhelmi (SUI, WRL 100) – 11/8, 11/9, 5/11, 11/7 50min

This means the final tomorrow, Saturday at 16:30 will be played between Simon Herbert and Robin Gadola.

The following prize giving ceremony will be attended by vice-mayor of the city of Salzburg Mr. Bernhard Auinger.

Final Saturday 1st April:

16:30: [1] Simon Herbert (ENG, WRL 78) – [5] Robin Gadola (SUI, WRL 108)

But before that it will be the VIPs that show their squashskills on the all-glasscourt. Four ladies and four men, most of them famous for amazing sport achievments, will play in a fun exhibition event against each other. More information can be found here.

On top of that the big raffle takes place with more than 100 amazing prizes to win!

Of course all day long there is free admission!