Split Decision for Grinham Sisterms
Rob Dinerman, Squashtalk reporter on the scene at Grand Central

by Rob Dinerman, Live at Grand Central Terminal, New York, 23 Feb 2005
All content © 2005 Squashtalk, photos: © 2005 Debra Tessier

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Rachael relinquished her serve only once in a very peremptory first game against a frazzled-looking Tranfield, who received a round of 16 walkover from Tania Bailey Monday afternoon and thus was playing in her first tournament match after arriving in New York nearly a week ago. Such an extended period of unexpected down time can be mentally hard on any player, and Tranfield appeared nervous and clearly wasn't picking up the ball well at all off her opponent's racquet. The smallish Grinham chokes up slightly on her grip, making her stroke even more difficult to read, and Tranfield was also having difficulty adjusting to the manner in which Grinham's higher-than-usual lobs were getting lost in the bright Grand Central Station lights.

Furious at the prospect of having traveled all the way from England and waiting all that time for her first match only to play as poorly as she had in the opening game, Tranfield showed the dogged attitude that made 2004 the best year of her career and lifted her game considerably when play resumed in the second. Suddenly she was getting much better width with her drives and cross courts, dislodging Grinham from the tee position she had held throughout the first game and forcing her to do some scrambling of her own. The exchanges grew noticeably longer and more even, with Tranfield starting to score with her drop shots and Grinham coughing up some tins and loose balls, both of which had been absent throughout the first stanza.

The 9-3 score does not accurately portray how much more competitive the second game was, as only a late three-point Grinham run and a few Tranfield top-of-the-tins on balls that would have been winners enabled the No. 1 seed to break away from what had been a very tight mid-game tally. Likewise the third game devolved into a struggle for both the tee and the scoreboard in which Tranfield gave almost as good as she got, though Grinham was still dictating most of the play, using her compact dimensions to get good leverage on the ball even from cramped positions and her superior nimbleness afoot to reverse direction when needed and to force her opponent to make a number of stressful retrievals just to stay in the point.

Grinham, meanwhile, has enormous stretching capacities for her size and is able to conjure up unexpected shots from difficult angles, like going down the wall with a rail even when she appears to be too stuck in back to do anything but hit a working-boast into the near side wall. She is wonderful at setting up a point and, with rare exceptions, is willing to press her advantage and widen it rather than impetuously go for a winner a shot or two before a potential winner has fully presented itself. Her ability to inexorably accumulate small advantages both tires her opponent out and eventually leads to point-ending shots, and a series of these, augmented by a tinned Tranfield serve-return late in the third game, enabled Grinham to again put together a quick end-game spurt that closed out the match.

The second semi-final, unfortunately, took place too late (beginning at almost 10:00) to be witnessed by more that a third of the original crowd, though those who remained were treated to an exciting 80-minute back-and-forth encounter between two of the top five seeds. No. 3 Natalie Grinham, a World Open finalist a few months ago, eked out a 10-9 third-game tiebreaker to go up two games to one, only to find No. 5 Elriani, perhaps drawing upon the momentum given her earlier this month when she won the British Nationals, rally through a close 9-7 fourth game and making this reversal stick through a 9-5 finishing fifth. Three years ago at the same stage of this event, Elriani's comeback bid faltered when at 8-5 up in the fourth game she wound up losing a tiebreaker to Natalie Grainger; this time, she was able, albeit barely, to convert her late-fourth-game edge and persevere as well through the decisive fifth for a berth in the semi-final round.

Quarterfinals, Womens WISPA Tournament of Champions New York

Rachael Grinham d Jenny Tranfield, 9-0, 9-3, 9-5;
Linda Elriani d Natalie Grinham, 9-4 2-9 9-10 9-7 9-5.