Ezkurdia and Jaka will face each other on Sunday in Eibar. /
Jaka has rhythm but would have liked to have had a break, and Ezkurdia is going through the opposite situation for Sunday’s semi-final in Eibar
After four consecutive games, Jaka would have accepted a rest week before playing the Manomanista semifinals on Sunday at the Astelena fronton in Eibar. Ezkurdia, for his part, would not have minded playing another game after three weeks without feeling the tension of a duel of these characteristics due to injury to his rivals. None of them are where they would like to be, but the new format of the most demanding tournament of the season has these things. However, the prize is too big, and both will exhaust their resources to be in the Navarra Arena final on the 29th.
The Gipuzkoan striker has the rhythm of the competition and is “happy” because, after months of searching for a continuity that resisted him after suffering from pericarditis, he has achieved it. «It seemed that he started, but he played two good games and then he fell again. The last few weeks I have felt much better on the court. I see myself with more spark and more confidence. The results are accompanying me and that is what gives me joy and the desire to continue.
Playing has allowed him to know how he is, but after the beating he suffered in last weekend’s clash at Bizkaia, he will barely have time to prepare well for the match against the Navarrese. He has carried out different activation sessions to recover his tone, and before Sunday he will do a little technical training on the fronton. “I am satisfied to be back with the best and I have the illusion of standing in another final, so I will go out and fight with my best game”.
Joseba Ezkurdia is in full physical condition and hands. He has had more time than he would like to prepare for the match, “but you always have that doubt about how I will compete, although I have planned everything as best as possible.” He has only played one match in the quarterfinals league and he clings to him to assess his sensations. Against Zabaleta he showed “decision when things got complicated. I grew up I knew what I wanted and that gives me confidence.”
difficult to manage
He admits that a semifinal “is always a very complicated duel mentally” because he is on the verge of being able to fight for another txapela. “You have to manage many tensions and emotions. You have to be focused and very involved in the match from the beginning. Arbizu’s would be “specially excited” to play his third top clash in a fronton like the Navarra Arena.
The background favors him. The two times that Jaka has been measured in the Manomanista -in 2018 and 2019-, although with a lot of work, he has managed to get his meetings forward. However, he never came in the same situation as now. Lizartza downplays previous commitments. “In recent years I have grown as a pelotari and if I do a good job I can beat him.”
