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Willstrop Crushes Error-Prone Kneipp, Grainer Advances

By Martin Bronstein © 2003 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.
October 2, 2003

WHAT’S TEN YEARS BETWEEN FRIENDS?

With no signs of the massive hangover after over-celebrating his 30th birthday last week with the cream of Dutch squash and fellow Aussie ex-pats, Joe Kneipp took on James Willstrop who just entered his third decade. The ten year difference would normally present a contest between wisdom and exuberance, but Willstrop is a rare bird and has packed an awful lot of experience into his 20 years – including a world junior crown.

Willstrop is extraordinarily tall which allows him to do things at full stretch that his opponents don’t expect. Kneipp put some pretty good drops down to the front right corner and Willstrop – his feet seemingly still on the T stretched down and counter dropped to the other side of the court, leaving Kneipp waiting on the wrong side of the court for the counter drop. Kneipp is no slouch when it comes to intelligent play but Willstrop could match him on all parts of the court and thinks at an amazing speed.

Except for the first game, which featured some pretty long rallies, Kneipp did not show an inclination to do the work. At the age of 30, maybe the brain, or the body (or both) is telling him ‘enough already’.

When Kneipp went on the attack in the second game it seemed at first as though he had found the answer, moving the big guy around to tire him about, but Willstrop soaked up the work and when the errors started coming from Kneipp, it made his opponent’s job so much easier.

Willstrop is enjoying his game and is obviously fulfilled by his skill while Kneipp has been there, done that obviously needs far more outside the court to feed his lively intellect.

I won’t embarrass Kneipp by revealing the exact count of errors but they were far too many and Willstrop won in three in 36 minutes to go through to a probable quarter final meeting with Jonathon Power.

NOT FOR THE RECORD? WHAT??

Not for the record by Power
photo © 2003 Fritz Borchert

At one point during his match with Mark Chaloner Jonathon Power apparently muttered Let to Chaloner as he rushed past. Chaloner stopped and explained to the referee why he had stopped. After much exchange of words, Power accepted the Let decision and explained that his utterance of the word Let was ‘not for the record’. Was he talking to himself? One day I shall ask him to explain.

This was a comparably tame encounter (just 57 lets) between these two: Chaloner was seen to smile at least three times and Power landed on his tush just twice. Power won quite easily despite Chaloner playing very well, good length, fine width and in the second game some fine finishing shots, But good width and length is bread and butter which Power just eats up after adding all sorts of spices from his racket.

Those lets were a combination of Power’s speed and Chaloner’s slowness in clearing. Otherwise there is little to write about and Power went back to his hotel happy with a good workout.

MENS’ FIRST ROUND [mens draw]
James Willstrop (ENG) bt Joe Kneipp (AUS) 15-9, 15-10, 15-9 (36mins)
Jonathon Power (CAN) bt Mark Chaloner (ENG) 15-9, 15-10, 15-5 (65mins)

WOMEN’S QUARTERS
HOME ON THE GRAINGER

Natalie Grainger the South African, British American, also took 36 minutes to secure her berth in the semi-finals, handling the combative Rebecca Macree in straight games in a match that had far too many referee’s decisions (not the official’s fault) because of the failure to clear and a certain amount of stroke hunting. Macree has often been accused of blocking and she also tends to question the referee’s decisions as a matter of course. Consequently, the match rarely failed to find rhythm or produce exciting rallies. Grainger should have won this even quicker, but like all shotmakers she made mistakes at times when she should have been putting the ball away.

I have seen Macree play far better than this; she had a streak about 12 months ago that took her into the top ten. I think her game would improve if she had a session with a sports psychologist who would convince her that constantly butting heads with the referee is doing her mental concentration no good at all.

WOMEN’S QUARTERFINALS [womens draw]
Natalie Grainger (US) bt Rebecca Macree (ENG) 9-3, 9-6, 9-1. (36mins)