Action across the City
Martin Bronstein, Squashtalk reporter on the scene in New York City.

by Martin Bronstein, Live at the New York Athletic Club, New York, 20 Feb 2003
All content © 2003 Squashtalk, photos: © 2003 Debra Tessier

[view the mens qualifying draw/results]    [women's qualifying draw/results]

From Martin Bronstein at the Yale Club and the New York Athletic Club

WOMEN GET STARTED - JUST

To a constant racket of treadmills being pounded and weights being clinked, the women's tournament got under way with the first round qualifying at the Yale Club, just a lob away from Grand Central station where the main even begins tomorrow. The organisers, optimists all, allowed 45 minutes per match, all eight matches being played on just one court. Even in the top echelon very few matches seem to last as long as 45 minutes - the average, I would guess is about 30 - so unlike th emen - which always go much longer than the timetable allows, at these qualifying matches, there was a lot of thumb twiddling going as we waited for things to start happening again. Action started at noon and by 12:35 the first match was over with Omneya Abdel Kawy beating American aspirant Meredith Quick - I'll spare you the puns on the surname.
The sweet young Miss Kawy, an angelic looking figure off court, is becoming quite ruthless on court. This si a player who is expected to walk away with the world junior title in her home town of Cairo next June. But she is already a season senior player and, according to the WISPA rankings, is the 14th best female squash player in the world.
She will have to beat Dane Ellen Petersen to get into the main draw and Kawy's sophisticated approach should certainly get her through that obstacle. Petersen beat England's Vicky Lankester in three in a match that had very little brainpower at work. Lankester can whack the ball with authority, but still fell to 'juniorism' - making silly mistake and going for shots when they are not on. Petersen's experience got her through but I doubt if she will be able to cope with Kawy's shots, deception and superb court craft.
The slightly notorious Vicky Botwright has shown everybody lately that she can play squash in normal clothing and has some very good results. After a hesitant start, allowing Eman El Amir to push here to 10-8, Botwright settled down and buried the young Egyptian girl, losing just three points in the next two games, the whole match lasting less than 30 minutes.

NO SHOW FOR US GIRL -EMBARASSING
Madeline Perry's match lasted a lot less. In fact her opponent, Lilly Lorentzen, a leading US junior, never turned up and Perry got a walkover, which was fortunate for Vanessa Atkinson who had turned up to do a bit of training but never had a partner, suddenly Perry was available and the two had a hit.
The very red-headed Annelize Naude, the South African Netherlander, looked good for one game, beating England's Jenny Duncalf 9-4 and then for no apparent reason fell apart as Duncalf won the next three games with ease for the loss of nine points. Naude who now trains in Amsterdam with Liz Irving looked great in the women's team champs in Denmark four months ago, but today was right off the boil, errors and bad shot selection helping her opponent to a very easy victory.

The other American hope, Julia Beaver, seemed to lack real motivation as well imagination in her match against Isabelle Stoehr of France. Neither player showed any real guile, but at least Stoehr was there to compete and run while Beaver, who can really play far better squash, did not have her heart in a match in which she earned just six points.
[On the next court two old Yalies, their combined age certainly in excess of 150 years, were playing a game of squash where three shots constituted a long rally and three steps to the ball was pushing the fitness barriers. Strangely, these two oldsters got more spectators than some of the women's matches. Linda Charman was sitting next to me and she was mesmorised.]

Finally Pamela Nimmon, a swathe of dark red hair perched in a wiry body, beat Heidi Mather, an Australian who had the great Rodney Martin coaching her between games.
It really was very one sided with Mather still making far too many errors and unable to sustain an attack for any length of time.
Nimmo's father was there and said that they are still trying to get some muscle on his daughter's slim body. Since her bout with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) caused by too much flying, when she lost a lot of weight, he says they have been trying to get her back to her former weight with only very slow progress. But Nimmo still played well and won at a canter.

BACK TO THE AHTLETIC CLUB - IN DISGUISE
With the women's action over early, I took a cross town bus to the new York Athletic Club, dressed in a trilby pulled low over my eyes and an overcoat buttoned to my chin so they couldn't see if I was wearing a blazer and tie or not. I walked boldly through the front entrance, which faces Central Park, straight to the bronzed and wood panelled elevators and was whisked straight to the squash courts to find two titanic battles in progress.
On one court James Willstrop, the great English hope, was leading Canada's Shahier Razik by two games to one. Which was a surprise to me because I had reported that Razik had been beaten yesterday. I had the referee's score card in my hand and, according to my reading, Mark Heather had beaten Razik. Sorry about that?Razik had won and now he was basing his strategy on the fact that Willstrop was looking very tired. In the fourth Razik kept to very safe, very basic squash and waited for Willstrop, forced by fatigue, to go for winning shots and make the errors. At thirteen all, Razik's strategy paid off and two more silly errors - one of them causing Razik to blow a kiss to the heavens - gave Razik the game 15-13.
In the fifth he continued his strategy while Willstrop just kept going for winners and dropping the ball at every opportunity. His success rate kept him in the game and from 8-all, it became apparent that Razik was the more tired and Willstrop's constant use of the front of the court became too much for Razik and after 100 minutes of nail biting play, Willstrop won 15-9. And on the basis of his constant attacking, he deserved the win.
On the other court, another young English hopeful Adrian Grant was having a painfully long battle of wills with Peter Genever. The courts suited Genever's style: the last time they met it was on a glass court and Grant won 3/0 because on the glass court Grant could use his shots to put the ball away. On the courts in the Athletic club, the balls were dead, it was very hot and the ball just kept sitting up.
"I had to break the pace up, because Peter is like a machine and these courts suit him very well. So I couldn't let him get into his rhythm, so we'd have some fast rallies and then I would slow it up and chip the ball,`' Grant said later. He is a very discipline young player and England coach David Pearson has enormous hopes for Grant's future. He showed just how tough he was in the four when he came back from 8-12 down to win the game and the match - and a first round tie against kareem Darwish of Egypt, which should be very interesting if played on the glass court.

WOMENS FIRST ROUND QUALIFYING.
Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) bt Meredith Quick (US) 9-6, 9-4, 9-1
Ellen Petersen (Den) bt Vicky Lancaster (Eng)9-0, 9-7, 9-7
Vicky Botwright (eng) bt Eman El Amir (Egy) 10-8, 9-2, 9-1.
Madeline Perry (Ire) w/o Lilly Lorentzen (US)
Jenny Duncalf (Eng) bt Annelize Nasud (Ned) 4-9, 9-2, 9-4, 9-3
Shelley Kitchen (NZ) bt Salma Shabana (Egy) 10-9, 9-7, 9-1.
Isabelle Stoehr (Fra) bt Julia Beaver (US) 9-1, 9-4, 9-4.
Pamela Nimmo (Sco) bt Heidi Mather (Aus) 9-3, 9-1, 9-6.

Men's second round qualifying
Olli Tuominen (Fin) bt David Bianchetti (Ita) 15-7, 7-15, 15-1, 15-10
Wael el Hindi (Egy) bt Viktor Berg (Can) 15-9, 15-13, 15-10.
Del Harris (Eng) bt Liam Kenny (Ire) 15-7, 15-9, 15-8.
Rodney Durbach (RSA) bt Jonathan Kemp (Eng) 15-11, 15-9, 15-8.
Mohammed Abbas (Egy) bt Jean Michel Arcucci (Fra) 15-9, 15-8, 15-13.
Adrian Grant (Eng) bt Peter Genever (Eng) 16-17, 15-13, 15-2, 15-12
James Willstrop (Eng) bt Shahier Razik (Can) 15-8, 13-15, 15-8, 13-15, 15-9 (100 mins)
Gregory Gaultier (Fra) bt Dan Jenson (Aus) 16-17, 15-2, 15-5, 15-13.