EVANS EXPERIENCES WHITE-OUT.

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

by Martin Bronstein, Grand Central Terminal, New York, 30 Jan 2002
All content © 2002 Squashtalk, photos: © 2002 Debra Tessier

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NICOL STEPS UP THE PACE, BOSWELL LEFT BEHIND

Damn this man Peter Nicol, he must be controlled by the Devil. Nobody can be humanly this good, this fast, this accurate, so damned good. The only exorcism is age and that won't happen for at least a couple of years. I had to feel sorry for Stewart Boswell the likeable, unflappable young Australian, who really did not put a foot wrong in the first game, led 13-8 and lost it 15-13. You really don't expect anybody to take eight consecutive points from somebody as good as Boswell. Yet that is exactly what Peter Nicol did. The last point that Boswell won was when Nicol tripped and fell backwards on to the floor. From that moment, Nicol seemed to pick up the pace, stopped balls getting past him and took control of the game.

GETS THE LUCK TOO
At 12 -13, Nicol fell again, but this time got up, reached Boswell's drop and went on to twin the point. You really had to feel for Boswell. So Now it was 13-13 and Nicol then gets a lucky nick at the back of the court. You could almost feel Boswell's shoulders sag as he contemplated game ball after being so far ahead. The next point ended with Boswell hittinga simple forehand cross court into the tin. To repeat, Boswell had played near perfect squash and for much of the game had Nicol on the hop, but he lost 15-13 after 24 minutes of impeccable squash.

AND YET ANOTHER GEAR UP
Nicol was now motoring and moving even faster. There were at least four rallies that Boswell had won, only for Nicol to pick up the ball at amazing speed to not only keep the rally going but finally win it. Whether the preceding game had taken away some of Boswell's legs or whether the sheer resilience and patience needed to take a point from Nicol affected his head is hard to say, but it was now Nicol in the driving seat. There were very few short rallies as they kept pushing each other into the four corners and played the ball tight down the walls. Nicol's drop shots were deadly soft, a millimetre above the tin, tight on the wall and never seeming to come off the floor. Fast as he was, Boswell could not pick them up. Nicol led the second game after losing the first point and resisted any counterattack that Boswell could summon up, taking the game 15-8 in 18 minutes.

BYE BYE BOZ
Boswell had no intention of giving anything away and started hitting some winners. He won a huge, long taxing rally to get to 5-all and then lost the next rally, just as big, just as long and just as taxing, when he hit a forehand into the tin. He tied it at 6-all with an unexpected dying boast, the only time that he managed to catch Nicol flat footed. And that, really, was the end. Boswell was tired even though he had done no more running than Nicol, but Nicol has been doing it longer than Boswell and claims that he trains harder than anybody on the tour. He won the game 15-8 and the 61 minute match, which he probably regards as a good warm-up to his meeting with John White tomorrow. As I said half way through the US Open in Boston, I can't really see anyone beating Peter Nicol. Unless John White can hit 27 outright winners.

EVANS EXPERIENCES WHITE-OUT
After watching John White plays squash you wonder 'Why doesn't everybody place squash like this?' White stands in the back of the court, somewhere in the vicinity of the T , takes a swing at the ball, most times not bothering to bend his knees, and whacks it into the nick.

Just like that.

Why do other players hit up and down the wall and run all over the place, getting sweaty and sticky? I suppose the answer that sometimes White's shots hit the tin and he loses the point. But against David Evans of Wales, White was maintaining a success rate of about 80% and there was very little Evans, no slouch at winners himself, could do to stop that ball dropping down the nick. The first game was over in under ten minutes, before Evans had warmed up, 15-8 in White's favour.

SQUASH FOR THE BRAIN
White, the world number three, continued with his unlaboured form of squash in the second game and when he led 9-4 it looked as though Evans was going to get swamped, which was inconceivable after the way he played against Martin Heath in the second round.

But Evans had demonstrated his ability to ignore big leads and fight back in that match and he did it again today reaching 12-13. The following rally should be bronzed: it was a thing of great beauty, with the brain being used as much as the racket. This was a battle of equals with both players using delay, deception, length and height. It almost took on the fluidity of a ballet and when Evans finally won it to tie the game 13-all, there was prolonged applause.

GOOD, BAD, GOOD BAD, GOOD
Then White demonstrated the shooter's dilemma. An effortless backhand drop put him at game ball 14-13. His next backhand drop hit the tin, 14-all. He called set three and then hit the tin yet again with a backhand drop. Finally Evans had the lead and the next rally was another ballet sequence, with incredible skill and accuracy in all parts of the court.

Evans saved the point three times before White hammered the ball down the centre of the court and Evans simply couldn't catch it. It was 15-all and it was Evans' turn to make an error as he tried a delayed cross court flick which shaved the top of the tin. White was at game point 16-15 and tried to finish it off with a deft backhand half-volley only to hear the sound of tin: 16-all. And then luck stepped on Evans' toes as his slam hit the corner of the front and side walls, (is there no name for this shot? I want to call it a squelch) and squirted into the centre of the court to find Evans adrift with White standing behind him, his racket raised.

Stroke to White, game to White 17-16. The third game was over in half the time of the second (18 minutes) and White simply ran away, the winners still finding the nick and Evans still unable to do anything about it. Pity, I would have enjoyed a five game battle between these two, and would like to see Evans at his peak again, getting back into the top five.

TOC QUARTER FINALS
Wednesday:
John White (Sco) bt David Evans (Wal) 15-8, 17-16, 15-9. (42 mins)
Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Stewart Boswell (Aus) 15-13, 15-8, 15-8

Tuesday:
Jonathon Power (Can) bt Wael El Hindi (Egy) 15-12,15-9. 171-4. (57 mins).
Chris Walker (Eng) bt Paul Price (Aus) 15-11, 6-15, 7-15, 15-8, 17-16 (102 mins)