Tournament of Champions: Monday afternoon, Exciting Squash and Long Matches

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

by Martin Bronstein, Grand Central Terminal, New York, 28 Jan 2002
All content © 2002 Squashtalk, photos: © 2002 Debra Tessier

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EL HINDI REWARDED FOR RICKETTS ABUSE

Egypt's Wael el Hind i

The second round started with a real cracker of a match between Ricketts the Rockett and Handsome Hindi, young Australia versus young Egypt, which ended in an upset victory for the Egyptian. And it was an upset in many ways: certainly in the third I wrote Wael El Hindi off and remarked that he had given up. He lost that game 15-2 --- and he could be forgiven as he had played two qualifying matches and a first round match to get thus far. Whereas Anthony Ricketts, ranked 18 in the world, had only played one match where he obliterated world number seven Ong Beng Hee in three games.

SOMETIMES SLOWER WINS THE RACE

Ricketts continued with his speed and pace - although it didn't seem quite as fast as his first round match and although El Hindi managed to snatch the first game 17-16, his resolve started to falter in the second and towards the end he gave away points with the manner of a man who wanted to go home to bed. The third game saw a very lacklustre El Hindi dissolve to 2-15 and I rashly had a bet that the fourth game would be over in six minutes. But suddenly El Hindi found a new lease of life and Ricketts started to get very angry with the referees. The combination completely altered the course of play and a rattled Ricketts suddenly saw certain victory drain away through the holes in his racket. He had some very loud confrontations with the officials and was given a conduct warning. After one rally a throaty roar went up and the referee immediately told Ricketts to curb his emotions. Trouble was it was El Hindi who had let his emotions show with a roar of triumph. "It wasn't me!" shouted a highly perturbed Ricketts.

ENJOY YOUR SQUASH AND WIN

El Hindi won that game 15-11 and then continued with his strategy to win the fifth by the same score to notch up a famous victory. His strategy? "To slow him down. I played the first two games like him hard and fast. And he likes it like that, he is very accurate playing fast," the 21 year old Cairo native told me later. When I said I though he had given up in the third he agreed. "I did, but then I thought 'no fight on' so I knew I had to slow the ball down and enjoy the game. That is what I did against Paul Johnson - I was two games down and decided to enjoy the game - and won," said the handsome Egyptian who is in his final year of studies before he takes up the game full time.

POWER ALMOST BEACHED

The second match of the afternoon was even better as Lee Beachill, the fast rising Englishman made Jonathon Power fight for one hour and fifty minutes for his 3/2 victory. Beachill could have won this battle, because he usually raises his game when faced with the top boys. Remember, he famously outplayed Peter Nicol in the British Open last year and in full flow is the complete squash player. But he started badly with no length and poor width, meat and potatoes to Power --- he just kept putting the ball away to take the game 15-8. This continued in the second game with just a slight improvement from Beachill who actually led 8-7, but was still not pulling any surprises out of the bag. Power went up a gear and drew away to win 15-11. The game was 40 minutes old and still only 2/0. David Pearson, the England coach must have driven the point home to Beachill that he had to play it tighter and wider. Suddenly Beachill was pulling some unexpected shots out of his bag and Power was not reading them. His tightness into the back left hand corner contained Power's arsenal and it was a textbook example of how to limit your opponent's options.

It was even all the way to 10-10 and it was Beachill who kept up the pressure up to win 15-13 after 25 minutes. This match was getting seriously long - not the sort of thing that Power relishes - certainly so early in the tournament. After a couple of points of the fourth game Power came off court complaining of a sprained thumb after jamming his racket on one of his many headlong dives. A physician was called (this has now become par for the course for Power whose medicare premium must be into six figures by now) and the medico loosened things up.

Beachill was now in full flow and matched Power all over the court in taking the fourth game 15-11. This was beginning to look like a very big upset but then Beachill forgot to bring his brain onto the court with him. He smacked one of Power's serves into the nick to lead 2-1 and then, thinking he was God, tried to win the match on outright winners. Four errors later Power lead 7-3, absolutely the worst possible scenario for Beachill. But to give him his due he recovered his brain, and worked his way back into the game to 9-all and then 11-all. Power hit a wonderful forehand into the nick to get to 12-all and then a most uncharacteristic mis-hit from Beachill put Power at 13-11. Compounding things, Beachill tried a long backhand drop and hit tin and then Power crashed a backhand cross court that was too fast for the human eye and the game was his 15-11. The match was the showy Canadian's after one hour and 50 minutes.

I congratulated Power saying it would have made a great final. "Yeah but not in the second round," he replied. When he was told that it lasted 110 minutes he quipped: "I didn't know I was that fit." I asked him about his thumb and he said he didn't know when he did it but suddenly his forearm locked up and he had to hold the racket like a hammer. The doctor had loosened it up but he still had difficulty hitting the ball. Well ... try telling that to Beachill.

ANOTHER FIVE SETTER - IT'S GONNA BE A LONG LONG DAY

Paul Price and Thierry Lincou also decided to have a good workout and they played long hard rallies into the back corners, punctuated by Price's slams to the front corner for straight nicks, and, in the latter part of the game, clanging tins. He fought back from 2/1 down to win the 90 minute encounter and leave Lincou facing a drop in ranking from his present number five position.

THE BRITISH OPEN - REPLAYED

England's Chris Walker

Last year saw one of the great British Open finals when 34 year old Chris Walker almost took the title. It was David Palmer, two games down, he finally wore the old geezer down to take the crown, the first Australian to win it since Geoff Hunt 20 years earlier. Today they took to the glass court in Grand Central to relive that journey, but this time Palmer took the first game. It was not great squash with constant discussions with the referee about who was blocking whom and which ball they could have got if they other guy had not gotten in the way. The new minimum interference rule is creating strange decisions as far as the player are concerned as referees refuse lets on the grounds that the interference was minimal and the incoming striker could have played the ball.

Palmer, who possesses a furious temper, but has learned to control it of late, was beginning to lose control again and at the end of the third game, which Walker won 15-4, Palmer stayed on court arguing the last point with the referee while Walker was re-hydrating and towelling down. It was the wrong thing for Palmer to do - he should have got off court and collected himself to be refreshed for the fourth game.

In the fourth, a ball came off Walker's racket and hit him - he looked as though he would punch Walker for an accidental hit. The betting was that Palmer would blow it. And he did. Walker earned it as he was putting in the short stuff with skill and Palmer was simply responding. The final point of the fourth game was a wonderful Walker drop which Palmer simply could not pick up. As soon as it was down, Palmer turned and walked off court without shaking hands.

Not the behaviour required of a world number two.

As for Walker, he must relish this revenge of his defeat in the British Open. It will be interesting to see how far he will go in Grand Central Station.

Results:

Wael el Hindi (Egy) bt Anthony Ricketts (Aus) 17-16, 8-15, 2-15, 15-11, 15-11 (58 mins)
Jonathon Power (Can) bt Lee Beachill (Eng) 15-8, 15-11, 13-15, 11-15, 15-11 (110 mins)
Paul Price (Aus) bt Thierry Lincou (Fra) 15-12, 5-15, 9-15 15-8, 15-12 (90mins)
Chris Walker (Eng) bt David Palmer (Aus) 14-17, 15-11, 15-4, 15-8 (77 mins)