Scottish Open Day One: Waring Vows No Fear Against Dalvi
By RJ Mitchell
MATTHEW WARING has promised to play with “No Fear” when he faces England’s No.8 seeded Nadeem Dalvi in the second round of the 2023 Scottish Open qualifiers at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow later today.
The 17 year-old Scottish No.2 came through an at times brutal encounter with another Englishman Rohan Thool, 19-21, 21-12, 21-15, after a gutsy come-from-behind display in the first round.
That victory saw the teenager show real steel in a third set which hinged on a particularly tough attritional mid-set stanza.
Now Waring says he is determined to dig even deeper for Dalvi this afternoon: “It’s Nadeem Dalvi next and he is very good and in the England national team and it will be a really tough challenge but I want more of this and I am going in with no fear and we will see where that takes me.
“This is the type of match which will provide me with a real gauge of where I’m at and I am just happy to be going back out there and facing a player of Dalvi’s quality.”
When it came to a ‘True Grit’ performance against Thool, the Scottish men’s singles championship runner-up admitted he could feel his opponent fading: “I’ve been doing a lot of physical stuff and even though I knew I was suffering I also knew I had it in the tank and that I could keep it going.
“I also could feel he was fading and he played a lot of high clears to buy time and although I was doing the same I felt like I gradually started to get the better in these exchanges.”
Matthew also shared a key part of his game plan which helped him get the better of his determined first round opponent explaining: “I was really focussing on not making mistakes and trying to make him graft. So all the things I’ve been working on in training for so long.
“I took the net early and took it away from him to dominate the rally and that was maybe the key part of the game plan for me and it just about worked!
“All in all I am just really pleased to make it through to the second round.”