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The 2000 TOC Event

Site updated on 02/08/2001

The CSFBdirect Tournament of Champions 2001,
presented by NYSC Feb 3 - Feb 9 2001,
Grand Central Terminal, New York

Tournament of Champions Semi finals, Thursday Night

  [draw]           [Squash Canada report]

TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS 2001
Martin Bronstein reporting from Grand Central Terminal Thursday Feb 8 2000. Photos © 2001 Debra Tessier

SEMIFINAL SESSION, THURSDAY FEB 8

NICOL AND POWER PROVE SUPERIORITY
Paul Price and David Evans had a profound lesson in the difference between the world's top two players and the rest this evening as though both went down without winning a game. While it is true that Evans is only one ranking position lower than Jonathon Power, the newly silent Canadian (God! How I miss those outbursts, the jokes and the cries of anguish) demonstrated quite clearly that there is a difference of quality and skill.

While Evans looks so good against most other players, against Power he lacked that extra bit of speed and that extra killer instinct. Power plays a lot of loose shots - two or three feet from the wall - confident in his speed that he can get to anything his opponent does with the ball. Nevertheless, those loose balls must be punished, and Evans will still allow those balls to go to the back wall before playing them rather than stepping in and volleying to apply the pressure.

LIKE ELECTRICITY -SILENT AND FAST
Power is looking good, his almost silent play means that energy that powered his tongue is being used to win rallies. His speed nullified so many of Evans' would be winners that finally the effect was to take the heart of the Welshman. In the first game Power went straight for the jugular and before two minutes had passed He had hit (flicked? Caressed?) five winners to lead 6-2. Evans was slow in getting into stride and played the rest of the first 13 minute game in the catch-up position and lost 15-8.

EVANS TAKES CHARGE…FOR A WHILE
In the second Evans was a little faster and placing the ball well, but balls that are safely placed against other players are suddenly hit for winners by Power. Evans led 5-1 and suddenly we had a fight…..not really. Out came the Power disguised backhand and a similar forehand deeply cut cross court and it was suddenly 8-7 for Power. It was then 9-7 before an impish Power threw the ball at the referee to show it had broken in the last rally - the first ball to break in the tournament.

Back to 8-7 and when play resumed Power took the point again with another backhand deeply cut cross court. The rallies were longer now but it was always Power who stopped any rhythm developing, a tactic that Evans has not found an answer to. The 18 minute game went to Power 15-9 and the likelihood of anything other than a 3/0 result was remote. Power led the third game 4-1 but Evans came back to tie it up at 4-all and then lead 6-4. Power, unflustered, smiling at the referee's decisions, came back to 6-all and then surged to 10-6.

The pace was beginning to tell on Evans and he looked like a man who knew he could not win. Trailing 9-13 he played a superb rally finishing by smacking the ball into the nick but that was really his final flourish and Power finished it all with another sizzling forehand cross court that Evans, like us in the bleachers, could only watch. And so Power will defend the title that he has won three times - the last two in a row, against the player he fears most, Peter Nicol.

NICOL GETTING STRONGER
Two years ago in Grand Central, Peter Nicol fell apart in the second game of the final to lose 3/0 to Power. Last year he was well and truly beaten by fellow Scot Martin Heath, in the semi-finals. This year he is back in the final and looking very good, confessing, after beating the talented Aussie Paul Price, that he was feeling stronger and more confident with each round. He certainly showed he was stronger than Paul Price, which is not surprising because Price spent most of last year fighting a lower back injury and has been unable to put in the training. If he can put together six injury free months, he will be devastating.

WINNERS, WINNERS, FATIGUE
He hit his usual abundance of cracking winners against Nicol and led the first game 9-7, the point in a squash game, that in my mind is similar to the 20-mile wall in marathon running. It is here that Nicol either increases pressure or his opponents pay for their efforts to stay with him. Nicol caught up and suddenly with the help of three Price errors, it was 13-10. Price hit one more patented forehand straight nick to get to 11 and then a stroke to get to 12 before Nicol had the game 15-12 after 16 minutes.

Price started the second in truly staggering style - five outright meteoric winners and he was 6-2 ahead. Perhaps that's the only way to beat Nicol, but nobody can hit winners all night. Five Price errors later Nicol was ahead 9-7 but Price hit an overhead volley into the nick and followed it with a forehand cross court nick to tie it up. He wasn't finished; a sliding ball across the front of the court just touched the wall above the tin and Nicol was stroked in trying to reach it. They then exchanged six cross court smashes before Nicol hit the tin.

Price led 11-9 and surely he could keep the advantage. Nicol came up with three winners of his own - a backhand cross court slam, a forehand cross court slam and a drop. He now led 12-11 and then 13-ll as Price slammed an easy shot into the tin. Undeterred he slammed Nicol's serve into the nick and then jumped two feet into the air to hit an overhead smash into the nick - squash's version of the slam dunk. It was 13-13 and I wasn't alone in hoping Price would take this game to elongate the match - and the enjoyment. Nicol then played a beautiful delayed clip boast to get to game point and Price gave up on the last point, probably because he thought he had hit the ball on the second bounce.

NICOL UP TO OVERDRIVE….PRICE IN REVERSE.
By the third game Price was tired. Nicol stepped up the pace, stepped up the court and put the pressure on. He led the entire 10 minute game to win 15-9 and move confidently into the final. "I was able to put on more pressure in the third game because he was tiring and he gave me more balls that I was able to volley," Nicol said afterwards. "I am getting better and sharper with each round and the two day break just made me more eager to play." I have yet to see Power and Nicol play a five game match. And I have put hard money on that being the case in the final. We shall see.

QUICK WOMEN'S CONSOLATION
In the women's 3/4 playoff, Tania Bailey, eager to make up for her loss to Atkinson on Monday, made quick work of Vicky Botwright, taking home an uneventful three game match.

The Final Friday between Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Vanessa Atkinson pitches two strong players and should be a good exhibition of the best of women's squash.

SEMI FINAL RESULTS:

THURSDAY
Peter Nicol (Sco) beat Paul Price (Aus) ) 15-12, 15-13, 15-9
Jonathon Power (CAN) def David Evans (WAL) 15-10, 15-10, 15-11