Vanessa Atkinson Gets Oh-So-Close
Rachael Grinham Escapes from Certain Elimination
© 2004 Ron Beck, Exclusive to Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.
November 5, 2004

Vanessa Atkinson had Rachael Grinham completely on the run but couldn't finish it off. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Vanessa Atkinson raised her game to the heights of perfection today, only to see it all go wrong on the verge of victory. The entire audience of about 450 totally engaged fans suffered with Vanessa as she got to the very verge of a huge victory, only to see it slowly slip away to a cruel fate - whether it was a bit of anxiousness creeping in, or simply a slowly emerging sense of tiredness, or whether Vanessa had let her mind think of other things at the crucial moment, it taught an entire British Open semi final audience one of the cruelest lessons of sport.

Along the way we got to see how strong and inventive and complete Vanessa Atkinson's game has become, and how helpless Rachael Grinham was, for a large portion of the match, while Vanessa totally took control of the match.

After the very enervating and exciting match that had filled the Albert Hall with drama barely an hour before, the match between world number one, Rachael Grinham from Australia (residing in Cairo) and world number three, Vanessa Atkinson, from the Netherlands, got underway slowly, not even giving away any clue as to what lay ahead.

Rachael Grinham started out strongly, and Vanessa started out nervously, and Rachael built a 6-1 lead in the first game, largely off of some unforced tins from Vanessa's racquet.

Then, slowly, Vanessa began to reel Rachael in - there is no other simple term for it. Vanessa cut out her errors. And once she did, the pressure that her counterattacking short game put on Rachael Grinham was telling. Each time that Rachael boasted Vanessa to the front, Vanessa leapt on those short balls, redropping them artfully. Too, Vanessa was retrieving virtually everything that Rachael could produce. Before Rachael could catch her breath, she was the one pressing and making the errors. Both players were playing inspired squash, moving each other up and back, excellent length, excellent pace. Vanessa had the edge up front, and she slowly pulled close. At 6-7 there was a wonderful point, in which each player showed every weapon in her arsenal, and each answered the call. Now Vanessa was punishing Rachael with backhand volleys - boasts and short drives. Everyone in the audience was waiting for Vanessa to crack. But she didn't and won the first game on a backhand volley.

In the fourth and fifth, Grinham started earning points up front, photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

In the second game Vanessa was totally on fire. Everything that was short or open, Vanessa pounced on and placed tight, low and short. Rachael begain to unwind. She was pressing. She started cutting it finer and finer. She was making errors from the back of the court. There was really nothing Rachael could do - she was out of ideas. If she lobbed, Vanessa volleyed, if she dropped, Vanessa counterdropped. And Atkinson was showing great patience, volleying to length, measuring her pace.

In the third game, Vanessa picked up where she left off, and went to 7-2. But then something happened. She started pressing and lost her patience. She was pressing to finish out the match. That was the wedge that Rachael Grinham needed to regain hope.

Grinham found a weapon that worked against Atkinson. It was a misdirection cross drop. Vanessa was trying to drop Grinham up front, Rachael was counterattacking and putting Vanessa under pressure. She climbed back to 5-7. Then ensued a phenomenal point in which Rachael Grinham escaped three times from perfect length shots with perfectly placed back-wall shots that somehow came off putting Vanessa on the defensive. What an advertisement for women's squash! Absolutely terrific play. Neither woman was going to give ground.

As Rachael continued to press Vanessa with the cross-court counter drops that wrong-footed her, Vanessa started showing signs of fatigue.

In this match that had some many facets, Vanessa now pulled out another weapon — a battery of offensive winners, both volley nicks and volley boasts, off of Rachael's serve.

Atkinson actually regained the momentum at 7-8 in the third game, tied it at 8-8 and got to match ball at 9-8. But Grinham again saved the match three times with back-wall save shots.

Once Grinham had taken the third game 10-9, Atkinson certainly did not fold, nor did the intensity of her play diminish, but her fatigue was increasingly evident, which coincided with Grinham's increasing confidence. The match began to unravel for Atkinson, as the audience watched in disbelieving and tense silence. Atkinson was too upset to speak after the match, and Rachael Grinham had scored a great escape, in a match that Atkinson had fully earned. She has certainly proved herself the equal of Grinham, and a full fledged contender for the top spot this season.

Men's Draw

Semi Finals in Progress:

Men's Semi finals:
[3] David Palmer (AUS) def [1] Lee Beachill (ENG) 11-8 6-11 10-11(0-2) 11-4 11-9 (101 m)
[5] Amr Shabana (EGY) def [2] Thierry Lincou (FRA) 11-10(2-0) 11-10(2-0) 11-7

Women's semi finals:
[4] Natalie Grainger (USA) def [2] Cassie Jackman (ENG) 9-1 9-6 1-9 9-3
[1] Rachael Grinham (AUS) def [3] Vanessa Atkinson (NED)

White versus Willstrop at the 2004 English Open - Now on DvD