The most dangerous scoreline in squash. 

It should be good to be 2-0 up. After all, you’d rather be 2-0 up than 2-1 up and it’s certainly better than being in a losing position. Yet I don’t think there is a more dangerous position to be in than 2-0 up. I’d go as far as to say when players are 2-0 up, they tend to play their worst squash. Even when players go and win the third, they frequently make the third game harder than it needs to be.

How do you handle being 2-0 up? 

We’ve talked before about ignoring the score and that is something you have to do again here. You really have to treat every point like it’s 0-0. When you’re winning you will often find yourself slipping into bad habits subconsciously, even when you have no intention of doing so. Your movement becomes a bit slack and you’re less alert and naturally everything else quickly follows suit until your play is unravelling. You have to do your best to focus only on the game in hand and ignore all that has come before.

Challenging yourself

It might be advisable when 2-0 up to even set yourself a challenge. Avoid thinking about scores if you can but instead focus on seeing how long you can go without losing a point. Simply bust a gut and do your best to see how far you can go without letting the ball bounce twice. This is a good mindset to have in general; if you lose a rally in the third game, or at any time, go flat out to win the next rally. If you have an attitude of preventing your opponent winning two rallies in a row, you will be able to re-focus more successfully and also when successful, you’ll stop your opponent building up too much momentum and racking up a run of points.

When you’re 2-0 up in a game, recognise and understand that you are 2-0 up. Really acknowledge it and plot how you’re going to beat the ‘2-0 up syndrome’. Give yourself something to focus on, whether it be the mantra, such as running yourself into the ground to stop your opponent winning the next point after they have already won a point, or an action, such as making sure you Volley everything you can or get back to the T-Position after every shot. Being 2-0 up should lead to positive squash, not bad squash.