Martin
Bronstein, Squashtalk reporter on the scene in New York City.
by
Martin Bronstein, New York Athletic Club, New York, 24 Jan 2002
All content ©
2002 Squashtalk
FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND THE RETURN OF THE ROCKET WRIST
Peter Marshall never made it New York, reaffirming the feeling that his career is over. The disappointment soon disappeared when another great name from the recent past appeared on the draw. A certain B. Martin. Yes, I was told, Brett Martin, THE Brett Martin was back on the scene. The elder of the two Martin brothers gave up the circuit in 1997 while he was still in the top four. He was tired of it all and getting bored. He toured the world and then was supposedly studying as a physio and other rumours abounded. In actual fact, for the last 18 months Martin has been at the Hartford Golf Club in Connecticut, teaching squash. And today, the day after he turned 39 Brett Martin made his comeback in the Tournament of Champions, a fitting title for a player who gave the game another dimension.
WINNERS, WINNERS ALL THE WAY
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| Brett Martin, ca 2002 (photo © 2002 Vaughn Winchell) |
When he first appeared on the scene in the mid-eighties, the joke was that his training consisted of tieing his shoe laces and lifting cigarettes to his mouth. Brett saw no sense in hitting the ball up and down the wall all day when you could finish the rally with a slam into the nick. He was known as Popeye because he was so strong and his delayed wrist shot has never been equalled. With just the merest flick of the wrist he could send the ball screaming into the back corners. Indeed, he never ever seemed to slam the ball - he just held his racket in the way and the ball would be on the way to the nick.
NOT THE BEST LUCK IN THE WORLD
It was most unlucky that Brett got a bad
draw, having to play one of the strongest players in the 32 -man qualifying
tournament, Stefan Casteleyn. Half the players in the qualifying would have
lost to this 39 year old wizard with the racket. But Casteleyn, a former top
ten player, is on the way back again and playing very well indeed. Certain
of getting to the main draw, I pity any player who thought he was lucky to
be drawn against a qualifier if they get Stefan.
Stefan told me he had a bit of a giggle at the thought of some poor qualifier finding himself drawn against Brett Martin. Then he found that he was the lucky (?) man. He beat Martin in three, but it was damn good squash and Casteleyn entered into the spirit matching shot for shot rather than keeping the rallies going to take advantage of Martin's lack of match fitness. Brett Martin had not lost his touch: the drive, the overhead smashes into the nick, the deceptive soft drops and that Rocket Wrist cracking the ball after a deceptive delay signalled a drop shot. One wrist shot was even too fast for the fleet-footed Casteleyn and he shook his head saying: "Nobody does that anymore." Brett was out of breath, but still looked just as he did four years ago: not an ounce of extra weight, no grey hairs and ready to take on any of the younger players.
"I won't be travelling abroad but I shall be playing in some smaller tournaments in the US. I don't get the level of competition in Hartford. I want to beat players half my age," he said with a grin. He will too.
KNEIPP LOOKING GOOD
Joe Kneipp is another booby trap for some poor unsuspecting player in the main draw. He is playing extremely well and Mikkel Korsbjerg of Denmark could not handle Kneipp's court coverage and ball control. The big Dane would look more at home in the front line of a rugby scrum: he is very big and hits the ball with enormous power. He also likes to go for winners and in the first game his plan was succeeding, at one point slamming three successive balls for winners with Kneipp just managing to scrape them up. The Australian soon had the big man twisting and turning and running to the front corners to pick up the fading boast that Kneipp used constantly to keep the big guy on the move. Kneipp wrapped it up in 30 minutes, looking sharp and saving his energy for his meeting with Davide Bianchetti, who will be a much harder match. Bianchetti beat Richard Chin, the grand old man of American Squash (Dammit! He told me not to write about his age) in straight games and is looking for his breakthrough into main draws, but recently has not had much luck. The way Kneipp is playing, I think the Italian number one won't have too much luck here either. But I could be wrong.
THE NEXT ENGLISH STAR?
One match I shall be sure to watch in the second round will be that between two emerging players, Adrian Grant of England and Mansoor Zaman of Pakistan. Grant is an unflappable leftie, with a great court temperament. (he is also the first black player to play for England). After he had beaten former US champion David McNeely in straight games, England coach David Pearson said with some pride: "Now there's a squash player!" pointing at Grant. "Another year or two for him to mature and he will be very good. He's got just the right build and the right height - 5'9" same as Peter Nicol, and we've sorted out a few technical problems. He's going to be very good." Zaman, also looked good, but did not have it easy. Egyptian Karim Yehia, who works at the NYAC, played very well, but Zaman's experience on the international circuit finally told and he won the big points at the end of each game.
RYANS PULLS OUT OF DIVE
Former Irish champion Derek Ryan, ranked 36, nearly floundered when Segun Maku, the former Nigerian champion who now plays as an American, took the first two games with some very fine racket work. Maku has his own sports clothing company and is ranked all the way down at 122. Sadly his legs and lungs did not work as well as his racket and after twogames, Ryan, who started in reverse, finally found second and third gears to take the last three games and win the 76 minute encounter. He now plays Peter Genever who had a much tougher time than expected in beating Mark Heather in four. Heather, from England, has spent a lot of time in Westchester where Richard Millman has gathered enough good players to create a Center of Excellence (watch Squashtalk for a feature on this project once the TOC is finished). Once again, Millman's influence could be seen in Heather's intelligent use of the racket and he held leads of 6-0 and 7-1 in two of the games. Again Genever's greater number of hours on the international circuit was the difference between winner and loser.
Results:
Nick Taylor (Eng) Bye
Shahier Razik (Can) bt Brian Mathias (US) 15-8, 15-10, 15-7
Stephen Meads (Eng)vs Robby Lingashi (Zam)
Liam Kenny (Ire) vs Cameron White (Aus)
Amr Shabana (Egy) bt Ben Garner (Eng) 15-11. 15-8, 15-13
Moh'd Iskander (Mal) bt Glen Keenan (Aus) 12-15,15-13, 14-15, 15-3,15-7
Rene Lavigne (Fra) bt Glen
Gould (Aus) 17-16,15-5, 12-15, 15-10
Wael el Hindi (Egy) bt David Yik (Can) 15-10, 15-6, 15-5
Derek Ryan (Ire) bt Segun Maku (US) 8-15, 13-15, 15-12, 15-10, 15-6 (76
mins)
Peter Genever (Eng) bt Mark Heather (Eng) 15-10, 15-13, 11-15, 15-12 (61
mins)
Nick Matthew (Eng) bt Alex Stait (Eng) 17-14, 7-15, 15-7, 15-7 ( 71 mins)
Stefan Casteleyn (Bel) bt Brett.Martin (Aus) 15-12, 15-13, 15-8 (38 mins)
Adrian Grant (Eng) bt David McNeely (US) v15-7, 15-4, 15-7 (37 mins)
Mansoor Zaman (Pak) bt Karim Yehia (Egy) 17-16, 15-9, 15-12
David Bianchetti (Ita) bt Richard Chin (US) 15-11, 15-11, 15-5 (35 mins)
Joe Kneipp (Aus) vs Mikkel. Korsbjerg (Den) 15-7, 15-6, 15-5 (30 mins)
