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this page updated June 12, 2001 9:38 PM
Quarters:
Campion looks good in losing
June 8, 2001
Martin Bronstein reports on the British Open Second Round, Birmingham. © 2001 Squashtalk, Photo: © 2001 Fritz Borchert
CAMPION LOOKING GREAT WHILE LOSING Cassie Campion is a former world number one and world champion but has not looked that good so far this week, due to a six month forced absence due to back surgery. But she has been saving it all for today when she faced everybody’s favorite for the title, Sarah Fitz-Gerald.
Without
being unkind to the women’s game, this was the first quality match of
the championships. Indeed, the doyen of British squash coaches, Malcolm
Willstrop, opined – after praising Campion’s performance (he is, you should
know, her father-in-law) – that this was one of the best women’s matches
he has seen for some time.
WHAT
A DIFFERENCE A COURT MAKES
Campion
lost in four but that really wasn’t the point; what the WISPA people and
Brit squash fans were looking for was a sign that Campion can make it
back to the top. After this performance the question disappears. Given
a good summer training schedule and constant match practise, she will
be back in the top four by the end of the year and in the next British
Open a firm favourite for the title. The new glass court had a hand in
Fitz-Gerald’s performance, taking away the advantage of her power, she
claimed at the press conference.
But Campion had lost all her nerves and her silly habit of going for a winner too soon, to push Fitz-Gerald for three games and show why she was once the world champion. The first game lasted 16 minutes with Fitz-Gerald leading all the way, but she had to work: Campion was on to all her tricks and virtually took the backhand wall, Fitz-Gerald’s golden avenue, away from the Australian. This was wonderful squash with intelligent shots combined with unbelievably quick court coverage. This was the sort of challenge that Fitz-Gerald has not had to endure and she weathered it well. From 6-all Cassie seemed to fade, worryingly, and Fitz-Gerald took the game 9-6.
THE FATEFUL BACKHAND BOAST
Fitz-Gerald took a brief 2-0 lead at the start of the second game, the
second point with a forehand boast that took Campion by surprise. But
that was the last time Fitz-Gerald won a point that way and you could
almost feel Campion’s confidence growing as she read her opponent’s game
and started to dictate. Her forehand cross court drives forced Fitz-Gerald
into backhand boasts which found the tin. And when she did try her patented
backhand volley drop, Campion was there like a whippet to counter drop
or send it to the back of the court.
Her racket work was superb when she had to react quickly, but on three occasions poised in textbook pose to execute a forehand drop she put it in the tin. It didn’t worry her and she finally she was at game ball 8-6. She gave it away with an error on a backhand drop, Fitz-Gerald got to seven with a forehand drive and Cassie got the serve back again with a wonderful backhand volley. Fitz-Gerald kept fighting, got the serve back, evened at 8-all and served for the game at 9-8,. But Champion was full of fight; she got the serve back tied it at 9-9 and won the game 10-9 when Fitz-Gerald hit the tin with an ambitious overhead volley drop. It was 17 minutes of revealing squash and Cassie had answered all the questions in style.
FINALLY
THE LEGS GO
The third game was even longer - 19 minutes and started with Campion taking
an easy 4-1 lead. It was the sort of lapse that in the past could send
Fitz-Gerald into a tail-spin. Had Campion won the next point there might
have been a different ending, but it was Campion who let up and Fitz-Gerald
took the next five points to take the lead and while Cassie didn’t fold
(she saved three game balls), she was never able to quite catch up and
lost it 9-7.
The final game was quite clearly a case of fatigue setting in and, as Campion put it herself later, “I had no legs left”. Fitz-Gerald has been playing almost non-stop this year and she had no trouble with fitness and took the game 9-2, ending an engrossing 62 minute match. “Cassie was totally relaxed and I was nervous,” Fitz-Gerald said later, agreeing this was a different game from the power game she had played in Hurghada. “On this court power doesn’t matter - you have to find the right place on the front wall. You’ve got to learn to use this court – the other girls are getting used to it .”
SUCH
A GENEROUS PERSON, THIS JOYCE WOMAN
Stephanie Brind had her birthday today and playing on this stage in front
of a huge crowd is not a bad way to spend it. Unfortunately she had to
share the court with Leilani Joyce, the world number one and Open title
holder. It was fairly brief and painful: Joyce won the first game 9-0
in 3 ½ minutes, the second 9-6 in 10 minutes and the third 9-0 in 4 minutes.
Brind did not look at home on the court and while she showed some of her
stuff in the second game, she has not often climbed to this level.
As Fiona Geaves said: “That was the performance of a player who doesn’t believe in herself.” When Leilani Joyce was asked if she had bought Brind a birthday present she replied: “Those six points in the second game were her present.” Perhaps she would have preferred a toaster?
WITH MEN IT TAKES A LITTLE LONGER.
That amazing man Chris Walker (his 34th birthday is on Monday) is now
through to the semi-finals after his victory over Ong Beng Hee in the
quarter-finals, a magnificent feat for a man who has spent six months
of the last year on a round –the-world tour. But he is fitter than any
33 year old man has a right to be and matched his 21 year old opponent
shot for shot, long rally for long rally throughout the every one of the
117 minutes. Beng Hee allowed himself to be pushed into some negative
squash and Walker is an old hand at marathons.
It all came down to an incredible ten minutes when the score reached 11-all in the fifth game.Suddenly they were both ultra careful, the ball being carefully guided high and tight down the wall, almost like a training drill. There were three lets at ll-all, two more lets when Beng Hee led 12 –ll , three more lets at 12-all and another four lets when Walker led at 13-12, with long length rallies between each let. Finally Walker won the last two points from a depleted Beng Hee to win 15-12 and give himself a fine birthday gift, a semi-final place in the British Open.
FIREWORKS
AT LAST
The second men’s quarter-final was a complete contrast, fireworks
occasionally interrupted by the odd long rally. Both John White and Del
Harris have talent and explosive firepower in their rackets providing
lightning boasts, nicks and reverse corners by the bucketful. Sometimes
the action was too fast to follow.
If
Harris had won the second game after losing the first 15-12, he may have
been encouraged to dig deeper. He led to 11-10 and then trailed 11-13
and then served for the game at 14-13. White came back and then exchanged
points to 16-all when Harris sadly got stroked and found himself two games
down. He too is over 30 and White, who has found new levels of fitness
through Plyometrics (it entails jumping up and down to increase explosive
leg power to get to and off the ball quickly) knew he had the match as
Harris tired in the third to lose it 15-9
