First Round - Day 2, Last report     [early rep]
April 5, 2005, Chief Reporter Martin Bronstein on the scene in Bermuda
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

Lee Beachill Kept Bradley Ball off balance , photo © 2005 Stephen J Line

RYDING AT A CANTER

There were touches of the Zaman magic on the glass court today as the great Qamar Zaman’s son, Mansoor, tried to shoot his way into the second round at Graham Ryding’s expense. A valiant try, with some brilliant winners sprinkled throughout the four game encounter, but in the end the Canadian’s experience and steadiness won the day.
This was by no means brilliant squash but it was highly professional with both players showing they knew exactly the right thing to do at any given time. Zaman, a left hander wasn’t trying to hit winners at every opportunity, but when the occasion arose, certainly on his forehand, he went for it and in the early games, was banging the ball into the nick – mostly from the back of the court. Ryding learned quickly and tried to keep the ball tight on the left wall. He also learned that if he dropped to the front left Zaman would feather the ball across the front wall into the other nick - or thereabouts. Zaman caught Ryding out twice on this shot, but after that Ryding knew what was coming and was on to the ball immediately to drive a low shot to the back or somehow get his racket under the ball to send it soaring to the back.

Ryding made four errors in the first game helping Zaman to an 11-8 win in just 8 minutes. They both steadied themselves in the second but now it was Zaman with the greater error count while Ryding was putting in some shrewd winners – his delayed backahand cross court flick surprised everyone and evened the score at 9-9. Zaman tried his cross court flick and hit the tin and then drove a low forehand into the tin to give Ryding his eleventh point.

From then on Ryding knew what he had to do and even when he fell behind in the next two games, he understood that patience and steadiness would see him through.

He won the third game 11-9, the last two points on Zaman errors and in the fourth he fought back from 5-1 down to lead 7-6, his finest sustained period of domination in the match and the sort of run that would take the heart out of any opponent. The final point was strange: Zaman didn’t clear for Ryding to take his shot, Ryding played the shot and hit the tin and was given a stroke anyway. If he appealed for the let before he made the stroke, I didn’t hear it and I was sitting in the front row.

It was a good solid win for Ryding, and Zaman has the mark of a top ten player, which can only be good after Pakistan’s dearth of players since Jansher came to the end of his reign.

BEACH HAS A BALL
When the world number two meets the world number 28 the outcome is a foregone conclusion. And so it came to pass when Lee Beachill met fellow Englishman Bradley Ball in the last match of the first round at the Bermuda High School for Girls.

Beachill, at ease on the glass, photo © 2005 Stephen J Line

Beachill is comfortable on the glass court
– it is almost his second home – whereas Ball, who has a good year and has just started playing in the main draws, seemed a little bedazzled to start with and started with three errors and never recovered to lose the first game 11-3 in just eight minutes. He was unable to loosen Beachill’s grip on the game and was reduced to reacting to whatever Beachill played.
In the second game Beachill moved up a gear and simply overwhelmed Ball. It was another eight minute game and it looked like an early night for everybody.
Ball started in attack mode in the third, and actually led 3-0. He was more positive in his approach and was attacking anything slightly loose with a very good return for his courageous change of plans. Beachill smiled a small smile to himself on some of Ball’s winners and then settled down to putting the upstart back in his place which he did with authority. Ball was sweating profusely and if we could have used the infra red camera that Virtual Spectators is experimenting with, Ball would have shown up as a bright red and Beachill as cool blue. The third game was over in nine minutes 11-6 for Beachill and Ball can now go home and rest.

He told me that he didn’t feel good on the court, due to playing to much.
“I’ve been playing PSA and leagues for the last six months and have hardly been home. I just feel not right and that takes the edge off your game. I couldn’t play the shots to construct the rallies,” he said, still mopping the sweat from his face.
Like the rest of the players, he has until August to recover, which is about the best thing he can do. We have seen too many players suffer from burn-out in the last few years.

KNEIPP DAMNS HIMSELF
Joe Kneipp's match was at the other location so I was unable to see it - along with the three other matches. But he was very harsh on himself for being beaten 3/0 by Olli Tuominen of Finland. "I just wasn't there and there was no fight from me. That match in New York (when the referee allowed Wael Hindi to block him out of the game completely) really had an effect on me. I trained hard for months and then I lose because of the ref. I haven't recovered from that," he said, with his usual candour.

VIRTUAL SPECTATOR MASTERS
First round, bottom half.   [complete draw]
Evening:
Lee Beachill (ENG) bt Bradley Ball (ENG)11-3, 11-4, 11-6 (30mins)
Graham Ryding (CAN) bt Mansoor Zaman (PAK) 8-11, 11-9, 11-9,11-9 (53mins)
Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt Joseph Kneipp (AUS) 11-6, 11-4,11-5 (27mins)

Afternoon: [see prior report]
Karim Darwish (EGY) bt Dan Jenson (AUS) 11-6, 12-10 (2-0), 11-3
Mo Azlan Iskander (MAL) bt Adrian Grant (ENG) 11-9, 11-9, 2-11, 11-6 (61mins)
Peter Nicol (ENG) bt Wael El Hindi (Egy) 11-8, 11-3, 11-6. (39 mins)
Anthony Ricketts (AUS) bt Shahier Razik (CAN) 11-6, 11-6, 11-4. (44 mins
James Willstrop (ENG) bt Rodney Durbach (RSA) 7-11, 11-10 (4-2), 11-6, 11-10 (4-2) (64 mins)

Note: Matches use the PSA 11 point P-A-R scoring, with a tiebreaker.

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