TOC Preview by Team Kneipp
The Kneipps are in New York for the TOC.

by Daniel Kneipp, Live at the New York Athletic Club, New York, 22 Feb 2003
All content © 2003 Squashtalk, photos: © 2003 Debra Tessier

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

Tournament of Champions Preview
by Dan Kneipp

If you are betting on the winner of this tournament, and it seems that the world’s population of squash betters appear to be concentrated on the east coast of this continent, you would be foolish to put your money on a player who wasn’t Nicol, Palmer or Power. No major tournament last year went to another player. But White and Boswell both made two finals and have made it clear that a fourth person is due soon on the victory dais. Here’s what to expect from the first round matches.

Peter Nicol versus Omar Elborolossy

Nicol is the World #1 and is always expected to at least be in the final. He hasn’t played a PSA match since receiving such a thumping from John White in the World Open that he was made to look like a beginner. Which obviously had more to do with White’s game, but would still lead to the former World Champion having some fresh squash demons to deal with. Winning the British National title last week would have helped Nicol get back into his groove and prepare mentally for this tournament.

Elborolossy is the third best Egyptian and is currently ranked 20 in the world. Most of his good results last year where at the smaller tournaments in Pakistan and Egypt. Which was also where he had the unfortunate honour of being Jansher Khan’s only real scalp during his stalled comeback attempt.

Elborolossy volleys well and puts the ball away well especially with his backhand. He’s one of the biggest guys on the tour, and not just in height. His lower torso is very strong, muscular and thick set which helps with his volleying, but is detrimental for his game fitness. Moving those huge legs around the court mean that he can tire out easily.

These two have played four times over the past couple of years. In the 2001
TOC, the 2001 Scottish Open, the 2001 Al Ahram and last year’s Hong Kong
Open. Every match Nicol won in straight sets, but each time there was at least one game that Nicol only won by a point or two. So you can expect Nicol to move through, but Elborolossy is due to push the match to a fourth or fifth set.

Joseph Kneipp vs Nick Matthew
This quarter of the draw was amusingly and very befittingly called the quarter of death. The eight players in this quarter include World Champion David Palmer, two times British National champion Lee Beachill, Malaysian Champion and former World Junior champion Ong Beng Hee, and all round hell of a nice guy who you’d love to have a beer with and can play amazing squash Joe Kneipp. If all four of these players get past their first round
hurdles (don’t put the family farm on it) then Palmer plays Kneipp and Beachill
plays Bengy. Keep that afternoon free and bring some popcorn.

Back to the Kneipp vs Matthew first round match. Matthew has gone from #39 to #24 in the world over the last twelve months. He is the second last player to get a position in the main draw – not having to qualify, which makes this event the first time he has been in that position. Simon Parke spent ten or so years ranked in the top ten and never had to qualify for a tournament. That changed last year while he recovered from injury. He was
interviewed on why he did so well in the World Open, upsetting Kneipp and
Boswell. He explained that as he didn’t have to qualify he was so much more
fresh and able to sustain the long matches. Matthew will have his first taste of playing in a big tournament being on an even keel with his opponent.

Joe Kneipp has recently moved from #11 back to #16 and will be hoping to
use this tournament to get closer to single figures. These two have never
played each other in PSA or league. John Nimick has had to stage the first round
so that half of the matches (the top eight seeds) are on the glass show court at Grand Central Station, and the other half (seeds 9-16) are at the New York Athletic Club. Club courts in the states are very unique. Unlike most courts which are usually brick that have been plastered over, most US courts are made up of walls that are lots of medium sized panels (2m x 1m).

Unlike normal courts the walls, particularly the front wall don’t dampen the pace of the ball at all, instead creating a small trampoline effect. What this means for the players is that it is harder to hit a winner. It’s a less exaggerated version of playing in Summer compared to Winter – where you can’t put the ball away, everything comes back to the middle and it’s a running game. Most players given the choice would prefer to play on a glass or panel court.

We don’t know much about Matthew’s game, so don’t know what to expect with this match.

Lee Beachill versus Renan Lavigne
Pakistan player Mansoor Zaman is ranked 15 in the world and would be a seeded player at this tournament (meaning his first round match isn’t against a fellow top 16 player, instead against either a player ranked 17 – 24, or a qualifier). But Mansoor isn’t here. As I’ve already pointed out this is probably because as a Pakistani player he can’t get a visa to come to the states. While this is an unfortunate situation, three people will
be rubbing their hands together with glee and thanking the squash gods. Those three would be: Alex Gough who is ranked 17. As a player outside of the top 16 his first round match was potentially Nicol, Power or Palmer. Instead he has had a complete reversal of fortune becoming a seed and drawing a qualifier in the first round. Renan Lavigne is the other player who benefits from this. Ranked 25 in the world he should be the #1 qualifier, but instead becomes the last main draw player. The third happy person is the last player to get a spot in the qualifying draw. A local who was wise to turn up just in case there was a place left.

Lavigne (no relation to Avril that we’re aware of, although similar hair) spent most of last year being at different numbers in the 20s. Lee Beachill is currently ranked #8, spending most of the last year around the 10 mark. These two have played twice recently. In 2001’s March & McLennan Beachill won their first round encounter in four. Then nearly a year ago they played in the first round of the Pakistan Open with Beachill winning 15-9, 17-15, 15-10, so he had to work for it. Lavigne’s most notable result last year was
in the first round of the British Open where he took Nicol the eventual
winner to five sets.

I think this is to do with the type of game that Lavigne has. He is very fit and fast and is good at scrambling, which is also Nicol’s game. The Frenchman can hit winners, but tends to be more of a grinder. Which is a strong contrast to Beachill who tends to be more of a
shot maker.

Simon Parke vs Chris Walker
What could be one of the best matches of the first round. Parke is currently
ranked 18 and is closing in on the crucial top 16 position. He probably
won’t see this draw as being that bad – it could be much worse (Palmer,
White, Nicol) but it could be easier (you can come up with your own names
here). Walker plays well in the states with his pseudo home advantage. The current world #12 has one of the harder first round draws. Parke and David Evans are probably the two player outside the top 16 that are the hardest to beat at the moment.

Parke has taken a while to recover from injury, but showed with style at the
World Open that he was back to the top of his game. Parke is less of a
shotmaker of the two and tends to have a reputation of a bit of a grinder, but I was surprised with his December game against Joe how often he put the ball into the nick, particularly with his forehand drops. Walker has a wristy shot playing game. It’s a shame this match isn’t on the glass court as it would create many more winners. Being on a panel court would probably been seen as an advantage for Parke, but as Walker uses Greenwich as his training base, no player in the top 50 is better prepared for the type of
play these courts demand. Surprisingly for two successful old war horses like these blokes they haven’t met in a PSA match in nearly four years. I have no idea who will win this, but I will be surprised if it doesn’t go to four and probably five.

Thierry Lincou versus David Evans
Lincou is currently #6 in the world, but only made the 2nd round of this
tournament last year. He just won the French national title, which is becoming one of the most hotly contested national titles. Only Australia, England and Egypt have their four top players ranked higher than France’s best. Evans from Wales was the British Open champion of 2001, but is struggling to regain that form and was one of the biggest backwards movers of the past 12 months, going from being ranked 8 for last year’s TOC to 22 this year. But he almost upset Palmer in December’s World Open eventually being only a few points away from taking the match. He made the quarter finals of last year’s event and will need a similar result to stop his ranking blowing out to about 30 in march.

These two haven’t played in a PSA event before.

John White versus Nick Taylor.
White is currently ranked four, one position more than he was this time last year, and Taylor is #19. The last time these guys played was in 2001, where White won both of there encounters. Taylor has recently been told by English Squash that he will not longer be funded on the lottery scheme, presumably because he’s over 30 years old. Considering he’s in the top 20 this insult will surely put some extra fire in his belly. White is always entertaining to watch.

Mark Chaloner versus Paul Price.
Chaloner is currently ranked 13, but spent most of the last year between #7 and #10. Joe considers him to be the most consummate athlete on the pro tour. He doesn’t have the best racquet skills, but his fitness and attention to his body strength and movement is unbelievable. And he would vie for the title of the player with the best reflexes.

Price is currently ranked 21 and spent all of last year with his ranking
moving in the wrong direction. The only reason he doesn’t have to qualify at
this tournament is because last year’s TOC results haven’t come off yet,
where he had his best result of the year making the quarter finals. If he
doesn’t go close to replicating that feat his ranking will probably go to
around high 20s or 30 for next month. Price will also be attempting to try to avoid making this tournament the fifth time in a row that he has exited from a tournament in the first round.

The last time these two played each other in PSA was at Al Ahram in 2001
with Chaloner winning that second round encounter in straight sets. Chaloner
over the past year has the enviable and very rare record of not losing a
single first round match. But he had to pull out of last week’s British
Nationals with a shoulder injury. It will be a shame if his only 1st round loss in over a year comes because of an injury.

Jonathon Power versus Graham Ryding
A very disappointing draw for all of the Canadians living around New York. The county’s top two players are best mates and would obviously prefer to
meet at any other stage of the draw. The last time three times these two
have played Power has been the victor, most recently at the Memorial US
Open. It would be a surprise if anything different happened here.

Qualifiers.
The remaining matches all involve qualifiers. So there are eight players
ranked in the top 16 who get their first match against a bloke who has
already had to play matches for two days. It’s typical that of the eight
matches involving qualifiers you can expect around five of those to be
matches where the qualifier has very little chance. Like if some poor bugger
has had two five set matches and then draws a fresh Peter Nicol in the first
round. That’s not a reward for battling through the qualifying rounds. But the matches that have eventuated after the qualifier’s names were pulled out of the hat are wonderful. There’s hardly any matches that are complete one-sided affairs where it would be completely absurd for the qualifier to cause an upset. Very briefly the matches are:

Karim Darwish versus Adrian Grant. Darwish the Egyptian former World Junior
champ is #11 against the Englishman Grant who is ranked 32. Grant showed
in Hong Kong that he is capable of going through qualifying and still having
the energy to win another match, Alex Gough being his victim in that
tournament. These two played last year in the Maadi squash open with
Darwish winning in four.

Anthony Ricketts versus James Willstrop. Ricketts from Oz is 7 in the world
and has spent twelve months only going in the right direction. Willstrop is
ranked #41 and up until a week ago would be considered as capable of
giving Ricketts a good match, but perhaps not capable of beating him. What has
happened in that week is Willstrop has beaten Nick Taylor and Martin Heath in consecutive matches at the British Nationals to show that he is capable already of beating top twenty players. It certainly won’t help his cause though that it took 100 minutes for him to get past Shahier Razik in the final round of qualifying yesterday.

Alex Gough versus Olli Touminen. Gough from Wales is #17 while Finland’s
Touminen #26 had the misfortune of being the top seed in the qualifying
event. He has been ranked as high as 16, so this match is by no means an
easy encounter for Gough. Touminen’s best result last year was beating
Martin Heath in the first round of the US Open after qualifying so he is
capable of causing the upset. Gough won their last encounter which was at
the PSA Masters in Qatar in four sets.

David Palmer versus Mohammed Abbas. Probably the match where it seems
least likely of an upset (notice I’ve said ‘seems least likely of an upset’
because the moment I say ‘There’s no way…..could lose this match’, I’m sure
to be eating my words). Palmer ranked #3 against the #29 Egyptian. These two
haven’t played in a PSA match over the past few years, but lets not forget that there is a miniscule number of players in the current game that can say that they beat the great Jansher Khan, something Abbas did last year (we don’t need to go into the injury/comeback/fitness details).

Ong Beng Hee versus Gregory Gaultier. A great match up. Two players that are
both considered future stars and potential World Champions. Bengy was the
World Junior Champion in 1998, Gaultier was the silver medallist in the 2000
event. Bengy is ranked #9 compared to the young Frenchman at 27. These two haven’t met before in a PSA match. It’s worth remembering that in Bengy’s
last tournament he was beaten against the seeding in the first round, while
Gaultier on the weekend had the French national championship and lost a
close five set encounter in the semi finals against eventual winner and
world #6 Thierry Lincou.

Amr Shabana versus Del Harris. Shabana is ranked #14 at the moment while
Harris has slipped out to #34 which isn’t a true indication of his current match capabilities. These two haven’t met in a PSA match before.

Stewart Boswell versus Wael El Hindi. #5 up against #33. At this event last
year El Hindi took out Paul Johnson followed by Anthony Ricketts then
eventually lost to Jonathon Power in the quarter finals. These two haven’t played each other since 2000 in an Egyptian match which Boswell won in four.

Martin Heath versus Rodney Durbach. Another great match up. Not necessarily
because of how the squash will be, but because of the recent history between
these two. Heath the current #10 from Scotland had a fairly dismal period
last year where between April and November he didn’t win a single match,
losing six first round matches in a row. He pulled himself out of that
slump when it counted, making the quarter finals of the world open, and the semi finals in Sweden earlier in the month. But the most recent time that he lost in the first round was in November at the YMG Canadian Classic and his victor at that event was South African Rodney Durbach. The world #36 was also in Sweden earlier in the month and he took out the #3 seed Ong Beng Hee in their first round encounter. So this match could be anyone’s.

P.S. Aside from trying to tackle the ridiculous amounts of snow in the city
at the moment, Team Kneipp is trying to get to see more of New York. We have
some of the more well known museums on our agenda, and this place is a haven
for restaurants, delis and cafes.

But we would welcome any suggestions for Aussie / Dutch tourists. We’re also trying to get some tickets to Broadway (ideally The Producers) at short notice and would love it if someone knows how (dan@teamkneipp.com).