YMG Capital Classic 2002

Graham Ryding, the Canadian number two, and formerly with a PSA top ten ranking, tonight gave complete justification to the idea of granting a wild card to a home town player in major PSA World Tour squash events when he forced Peter Nicol, the world number one, into fiercely concentrated top gear to achieve a 71 minute 15-12 11-15 15-13 15-8 first round win in the YMG Capital Canadian Squash Classic in Toronto. The home town crowd roared their approval throughout.

Ranked 23 in the world with a career of playing in the shadow of Jonathon Power, the Commonwealth Games champion from Montreal who is second seed for the YMG title, Ryding is a world class technician too often distracted from his own best interests by his tendancy to attack at inoportune moments and then to compensate by conflict with referees.

BEST OF TIMES
Tonight he was motivated to show his home town supporters the best of his craft. Only once did he offer the officials an argument, over the slow call of a penalty stroke against him at 6-12 in the fourth game, and from the first rally was a picture of concentrated skill and extraordinary mobility.

He took a 3-0 lead from the opening exchanges, worked the world number one efficiently during the inevitable fightback, returned willingly to the fray from 6-11 and might be seen as unfortunate to have lost from 12-13, first to an extraordinary backhand kill after an extended rally and then to a marginally tinned error on a forehand return.

The second game suggested Ryding might almost be ready to spring the surprise of the tournament. With the loud and happily biased supported of the packed house, he converted a 4-9 deficit into a 15-11 game win in just three hands and went to a 6-2 lead in the third.

"I was really enjoying the open play and the fight for control of the court," he said later. "I thought myself at that stage that I might even be in with a chance of a famous win. But Peter upped the pace, as he always does in those situations, and gradually the match moved away from me."

It was a backhand straight pass from Nicol for 6-7 after a long and patient
testing rally that signalled the end of the valiant Canadian's challenge. From that point on the rallies were just a bit too long, the deliveries a bit to tight and accurate, the pace a bit too sharp for the wild card to stay in the race.

Ryding contested that third game to 13-14, but he lost it to a tightly clinging backhand dropshot. Then he saw the increasingly mobile lefthanded Englishman assemble an 8-3 lead before taking time off court to change a broken racket and to retie his shoelaces.

After that he managed a few fresher rallies and went as close as 8-12, but Nicol had the finish in sight by that time and produced an overhead backhand reverse angled dropshot for 14-8 that left the local hero sufficiently dispirited to fire just a looping backhand return into the tin at matchball.

There was no sign of the sprained ankle that reportedly had Nicol screaming in pain during a National Squash League match in England last Tuesday and up on crutches for two days after. He will now face qualifier Rodney Durbach in the quarters - having dodged the unpredictable Martin Heath bullet.

DURBACH REACHES BCE HEIGHTS
We had to wait for the last of the first round matches tonight, but finally we got one of the very strong qualifying group into the quarter-finals when Rodney Durbach of South Africa eased past the eighth seeded Martin Heath of Scotland 15-9 15-8 15-8 in 39 minutes of superbly fluid and accurate play.

Even the bunch of Australian players who spent most of the evening playing 500 around a back table in the VIP lounge came out to watch Heath, the world number 11 and Scottish number two, tumble to what they insisted was his fifth first round defeat in a row.

They ended up discussing what they thought was probably the best performance they had seen from Durbach in several years, and he was quite prepared to agree with them.

"We have a glass court like this in Johannesburg," he explained. "And it is pretty hot like this one, so I felt pretty much at home. The colours on this court are great too. I was seeing the ball big and bright and almost everything I tried went in. I was moving so easily, too. That is absolutely the best I have played for a very long time."

For Heath the opposite was true. He moved with increasing desperation as the match slipped away from him and almost everything he tried went wrong. "He spent a lot of time looking at the floor," said one of the players. "When Martin's head goes down like that you know it is all over."

ONG RALLIES TO NAIL SLUMPING PRICE
Heath wasn't the only player mired in the midst of a long term slump. Ong Beng Hee made sure that Paul Price was in the same boat. Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia took 69 minutes to defeat Australia's Paul Price 16-17 15-4 15-6 10-15 15-10, but was never seriously in danger of losing to an opponent only recently back in action after eight weeks off with a sprain and plainly inhibited in his court movement.

There was plenty of splendid racket work from Price, the world number nineteen on the latest PSA world ranking list, but Ong Beng Hee, under insistent corner instruction from Nicol, his London training partner, kept him moving on a heavily strapped right ankle, twice benefiting from sprawling falls by the Australian.

On the second fall, as Price virtually nose-dived into the top right corner to give away a penalty stroke for matchball at 14-9 in the fifth game, a laconic Australian voice from the back of the players box asked : "Do they have earth quakes in Toronto ?"

The match started at a leisurely pace that allowed both players to pick their shots and Price went to a 12-6 lead while he was able to cover the play, but he was lucky to escape from gameball at 13-14 when the Malaysian hit a long backhand drop attempt into the tin and even luckier to clinch the resultant tiebreak by stepping round a strong bodyline serve into the backhand court to hit a forehand kill straight into the top left nick.

He took the fourth game on merit, although the sight of victory brought ten errors from Ong Beng Hee to help the Australian cause, but he was rarely in with a chance of heading the fifth game.

WILLSTROP NOT YET READY FOR PRIME TIME
The Malaysian goes to a quarter-final against the third seeded Australian, Stewart Boswell, who was unrelenting in beating England's young first time qualifier, James Willstrop, 15-5 15-7 15-8 in 41 minutes.

"I think he will be a top player one day when he develops more strength and
experience," Boswell said of the 6 foot five inch 19-year-old whose next
target is the world junior championship in Chennai, India, next month. "He
had me on the end of things a few times and he seems to understand what he is
doing pretty well.

Willstrop overcame the vastly experienced Del Harris in the qualifying finals
but he managed to head Boswell just once, at 4-2 in the second game, trying
to stay with the wider distribution of the young Australian. Every time the
youngster put together a few points, Boswell was able to hike the pace and
increase the pressure enough to ease ahead again.

"It was very tough," Willstrop admitted. "I went in thinking I might be able
to get a game or two, but it was much harder than I expected. I think I played pretty well, and it was against the world number four after all. But it taught me there is a lot still to do and a bit to learn before I really get among the top players on the tour..

"As preparation for the world junior championships, though, it was pretty good."

YMG Capital Canadian Squash Classic
First Round Results:
Day Two:
Ong Beng Hee (Mas) def Paul Price (Aus) 15-17 15-4 15-6 10-15 15-10
Peter Nicol (Eng) def Graham Ryding (Can) 15-12 11-15 15-13 15-8
Stewart Boswell (Aus) def James Willstrop (Eng) 15-5 15-7 15-8
Rodney Durbach (RSA) def Martin Heath (Sco) 15-9 15-8 15-8

Day One:
Joe Kneipp (Aus) bt Lee Beachill (Eng) 17-16 15-12 14-17 8-15 15-3
John White (Scot) bt Stefan Casteleyn (Bel) 13-15 15-13 7-15 15-4 15-5
Mark Chaloner (eng) bt Simon Parke (Eng) 15-9 12-15 15-4 15-13
Jonathon Power (Can) bt David Evans (Wal) 15-7 15-8 15-7