Unpredictable Matchups in British Open Final Enliven Event
Live updates and photos throughout the event.
2005 SquashTalk coverage for the British Open in Manchester

[Mens Draw ]        [Women's Draw]

Willstrop Brings in Winning Record Against Ricketts
© 2005 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.
last updated on: October 17, 2005 11:53 AM

The unpredictability of this year's British Open has been a godsend to the SRA and to promoter Paul Walters. Facing the reality of a diminished importance of the event due to shrinking prize money and a venue far from London, the exciting semifinal contests, unexpected outcomes beginning on day one, and the prospect of fresh, bright champions has invigorated this event.

Anthony Ricketts claims semi final victory, finally (photo © 2005 F Borchert) [more photos from Sunday ]

Looking forward to tonight's contests, the results are difficult to predict confidently.

RICKETTS - WILLSTROP A TOSSUP
On the men's side, the finals comes down to the world's 7th and 8th ranked players facing off, with all the other favored players having fallen prey to the unpredictability of this year's event.

Based on recent results, James Willstrop would logically be favored. Willstrop defeated Ricketts in PSA Play both at the Bermuda Masters this spring and at the Pakistan Open Final last year.

But both players have significantly improved since then. Anthony Ricketts, who has steadily held a top ten position beginning in 2003, has spent the last few months getting back to full competitive form after a knee injury hobbled him in 2004.

With newfound confidence, sharpness, and focus, Ricketts can be viewed as being a significantly better and different player than the one who decomposed and suffered meltdowns through much of 2004.

Willstrop, the highly heralded young North-of-England player, has also been improving by leaps and bounds. After emerging from the junior tour a year ago, Willstrop has been working hard to harness his flashes of brilliance and become a more predicable top-level performer that would enable him to sustain his terrific heights of play throughout a five or six day event.

So they come into tonight's final pretty much dead even: Both on the upswing, both signficantly stronger than even a few months ago, both highly motivated, and both totally aware of the pressure and opportunity presented by the British Open final.

What it will almost certainly come down to is which one of the two can best handle that pressure as well as the physical rigors of having to come back on Monday after epic battles on Sunday evening.

NICOL DAVID MAY HAVE THE EDGE
On previous results, Natalie Grinham, sister of two-time champion Rachael Grinham, would seem favored to defeat Nicol David, who she has beaten twice in the past year. However both of those losses came ten months ago, and Nicol David has since then emerged as a true contender for #1 in the world, with wins over both Vanessa Atkinson and Rachael Grinham.

Nicol David has the calm under pressure, the complete game, and the speed and fitness to create all sorts of problems for the scrappy Grinham. We predict an important coming-of-age championship for Nicol David this evening.

MONDAY FINAL MATCHUPS:

[6] Anthony Ricketts (AUS) vs [7] James Willstrop (ENG)
[3] Nicol David (MAS) vs [4] Natalie Grinham (AUS)