Dubai doffs its hat to Matthew

Egypt's Ali Farag defeated Englishman Nick Matthew.

Nick Matthew ended up on the losing side against Egypt's Ali Farag but it was the Englishman who got a standing ovation, for close to 10 minutes, a scene that left many feel a choke in the throat and teary-eyed.
A storied career of one of the greatest ambassadors of squash, had just come to an end during the ATCO PSA Dubai World Series Finals.
It was not to be a fairytale ending to a 20-year career, with the 37-year-old coming up short in the semifinal. But the standing ovation at the Emirates Golf Club was nothing short of a fairytale with even his younger opponent Farag graciously taking a backseat to allow Matthew to have his well-earned moment.
And Matthew, the most successful male English squash player of all time, with 35 PSA World Tour titles that included three PSA World Championship crowns and three Commonwealth Games gold medals, was lost for words.
"The crowd were amazing. It's one thing to get that in front of your home crowd after the British Open last month but here in Dubai, I just felt that love and appreciation from everyone," said Matthew.
"It's been an amazing journey, 20 years on tour, I started playing aged eight and I'll still continue to play but 20 years as a pro, a few people have called for me not to retire after the way I played this week but 20 is a nice round number, so I think we'll quit while I'm ahead," he added.
Matthew wouldn't have been in Dubai in the first place as he had failed to qualify for the World Series Finals following his defeat to Germany's Raphael Kandra at last month's Allam British Open.
And he was about to walk into the twilight before he got a late call-up after World No.3 Marwan ElShorbagy suffered a hamstring injury.
Matthew grabbed that second chance with both hands by winning all three of his Group A matches to make the semis.
A title would have been the icing on the cake, so to speak, but it was not to be.
"I dared to dream for a second that I could go all the way but Ali was slightly too good tonight. Even a week ago, if you'd have offered me a semifinal place here I wouldn't have believed it," Matthew said.
Many people tried to talk Matthew out of retirement following his stellar run but he said that this was indeed the end.
"A few people this week have been trying to talk me out of retirement but that's not happening. I'm 100 per cent going to stay in squash, I'm going to have a rest this summer, I've got some camps in the US and I'll have a lot of family time and regroup," he said.
Meanwhile, Farag was emotional too, to see one of the players he looks up to, end his career. "It's extremely emotional, I knew that if I was close to winning that they were going to be the last few points of Nick's career," said Farag.
"I didn't want to talk about it at all because I think the more I talked about it the more it would have gotten into my head. Only such a legend would get a standing ovation for around 10 minutes.
"I always grew up watching Nick and looking up to him in every aspect of the sport. His professionalism, his will, his fighting spirit, his tactics, I even went to him at the British Open and said that he never stops amazing us and giving us more reasons to respect him. He's had an unbelievable career and it's his day today," he added.
james@khaleejtimes.com