Historic silver for Garcia

MANILA, Philippines — It came down to a battle of nerves as world No. 98 Addeen Idrakie of Malaysia stayed steady in grinding out an 11-7, 3-11, 11-9, 11-5 win over world No. 245 Robert Garcia of the Philippines to capture the gold medal in men’s singles squash at the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Manila Polo Club last Tuesday night.

Garcia, 33, made history by becoming the first-ever Filipino to win a silver in men’s singles since squash was introduced in the SEA Games calendar in 1991. Idrakie, 25, took the silver medal in the event at the 2015 SEA Games, in the process beating Garcia in the quarterfinals, 3-0. Garcia said he hasn’t beaten Idrakie in four meetings but in 2015, the deciding set went to 20-18 and this year, he finally took a set from the Malaysian.

The night before, Garcia was pushed to the limit in defeating Malaysia’s Darren Pragasan, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 11-3, 11-5 while Idrakie whipped Singapore’s Man Chin Chua, 11-3, 11-3, 11-2. Garcia, however, said the marathon five-setter wasn’t an excuse for losing the war of attrition to Idrakie.

The final was marked by 10 strokes, six lets and two service aces by Idrakie. The opening set had nine handouts as Garcia battled back from 1-4 to tie, 6-6 before Idrakie scored five of the next six points to draw first blood. In the second set, Garcia zoomed to an 8-0 advantage and equalized with only three handouts. The third set was a dogfight. Idrakie was up, 9-5 then Garcia tallied three straight points to close in. Garcia saved a set point when he fell on the floor after retrieving a difficult shot off the back wall and Idrakie failed to put it away by hitting the tin on a free shot. But Idrakie won the next point to take it. In the fourth set, Idrakie led, 4-0 and used his deft touch to score on a drop shot in the right corner to move up, 6-2. Garcia saved a match point before Idrakie clinched.

Philippines coach Chad Sunde, a New Zealand native who has worked with the team for six months, said if Garcia played his A-game, he would’ve won. “Not to take anything away from Idrakie,” he said. “I think Robert is capable of playing better. But it’s a mental thing.” Garcia said he expected to win but Idrakie proved to be more consistent. “I’ll work harder to get better,” he said in Pilipino. “It’s not an excuse but I strained my hamstring in the second set, reaching out for a ball at the back and I was careful not to make it worse.”

Idrakie said he’s never trained abroad, staying only in Malaysia while taking up Sports Management in a university. He has a year left to earn his degree then plans to concentrate on squash by training in Bristol or Manchester in England. 

Philippine Squash Academy president Bob Bachmann said Garcia’s silver was historic. “To get to the final, Robert beat players who are ranked ahead of him,” he said. “Our goal is to take a medal in every squash event.  So far, we’re on target with Robert’s silver and a bronze in women’s singles from Myca (Aribado). We’ve got three more events – mixed team, women’s team and men’s team.”