Thierry and Azlan have played 4 times on the PSA ranking tournaments and Thierry has won all 4 meetings. The last meeting they had was in the Kuwait Open 2008 (a few days back actually) where Thierry managed to squeeze it out 3 games to 2.
 
Game 1: 11-8 to Lincou
Attritional squash is alive and well in these attack oriented modern squash times. These two players have a similar style of play as in they both like to 'create' their points by out positioning their opponent. No one in the squash world doubts their ability to hit amazing winners from all over the court, but I personally believe that this is not their preferred style of play. They're both quick and they're both very intelligent on the court and follow good basic squash to reap their rewards. This is exactly how the first game started. Both playing exceptional length and width and trying to outmanoeuvre each other in that confined arena. Azlan finished off the first rally of the match with a beautiful backhand drop into the nick. Thierry answered with a superb straight backhand kill finish to the next rally and it was 'game on'. Azlan came up with the same kill but this time on his forehand side to which Thierry had no answer, but then on the next rally Azlan sends a ball flying out of the side wall boundary lines and puts Thierry back in charge. Thierry then proceeded to display that he had indeed found his marks on this new glass court and played some wonderful dying lengths and tight low kills which helped him leap forward on the scoreboard. Not only that, but Thierry also displayed that his short game was also well polished up as he played a quick dying boast which went unanswered and also a drop from the back left corner of the court which totally humbled Azlan. Azlan came back with two of his own winners, both on the forehand side but then slipped trying to recover a ball from the deep left corner of the court & looked a little jaded by this. This gave Thierry game ball at 10-5, but Azlan fought back furiously and really got into the game at this stage. He played two immaculate backhand drop shots to score two more points and then a tight forehand drop, which in an attempt to retrieve saw Thierry slipping in the front right corner and Azlan put it away for a winner. But Thierry hung in and muscled out the game at 11-8.
 
Game 2: 11-7 to Lincou
Lincou came out ready for the challenge Iskander would be readying up for him during the 2 minute break. Sadly there was none from Iskander as he embraced the tin a total of 3 times plus hit the ball out 3 times during this game and that is practically gifting a game to someone like Lincou. Azlan had a tough time adjusting the height of his lobs and repeatedly hit them out and increasingly grew frustrated with it. His evidently weakened mental state gave Thierry an extra incentive to grind it out and he controlled his error rate quite well. Thierry left the court the winner of the second game at 11-7.
 
Game 3: 11-8 to Lincou
Azlan came out fighting but Thierry wanted to close it out in three. Thierry was jumping and pouncing on the ball, constantly trying to punish it to the deep corners and pushing Azlan on the backfoot. It seemed as though during the break before the game, Thierry had gone off and gotten an extra pair of legs to make use of during this game, for he was omnipresent on that squash court, picking up everything and returning every attacking shot with interest. At 1-all, they had a huge rally where both of them retrieved everything the other threw at them. During this rally, one got to see everything, beautiful low sharp boasts, recovered with swift high floating lobs, tight drives followed by tighter drives and drops countered with drops and crosscourt smashes till eventually a situation arose which warranted a 'let' and the crowd cheered loudly in appreciation of the efforts of these two gladiators of the squash arena. Sadly though, this seemed to have hurt Azlan more than Thierry and Azlan followed this amazing rally with two consecutive tins, giving Thierry the scent of blood which only facilitated his objective to move in for the kill. From this point on, Thierry was moving so well and picking up the pace brilliantly that it was impossible to see him loosing this game. And impossible it was indeed. Though Thierry managed 6 errors in this game, which is excessively high for him, he closed the game out with the help of 4 errors from Azlan, the final point awarded to Thierry again on a tin by Azlan. Azlan must be disappointed with his performance as it was his errors, especially his lobs that cost him some crucial points in all the three games. Thierry on the other hand can take solace in the fact that he got a top 15 player off the court within 45 minutes and will be fresh for tomorrow's semi-final against the imposing challenge of the only Englishman left in the draw i.e. Mr. James Willstrop.  Should be some great SQUASH...

About the Author (in his own words)
I am just a student here at the University of Buffalo (undergrad-electrical engineering) and as you may already know I am a total squash fanatic and a student of many aspects of our wonderful sport.