Ryding Rides the Waves
November 16, 2004, Liz Shaunessey; © 2004 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.

[Bronstein's Report] ... TORONTO, November 16, 2004 --       

Toronto, Ontario - Canada’s second best player made his way through to the quarter-finals of the PACE Canadian Squash Classic in Toronto last night, but not before giving his many fans a bit of a fright.

Graham Ryding advanced in Toronto © 2004 Stephen Line.

He seemed comfortably in charge against Joey Barrington (Eng), son of the great British squash legend Jonah, taking the first game 11-6 and running to a 10-3 lead in the second, when the lightning struck. Barrington stopped hitting the tin with his forehand drives, hit a couple of winners and suddenly Ryding went negative. There was nothing the Canadian could do about the streak and Barrington took an amazing nine points in a row to win the game 12-10.

Barrington is known as a runner and many of his matches go to the full five games, something Ryding was keen to avoid in a first round match. Ryding, a Toronto native who is ranked 20 in the world, was not about to lose in front of his home crowd to a player ranked 24 places below him. He came out for the third game in a determined mood and ran Barrington off the court 11-4 in just eight minutes. The fourth game took a little longer, but Ryding led from the beginning and had an answer for everything that Barrington tried, taking the game 9-5 to complete his 3-games-to-1 victory

Lack of concentration, he said, was the start of his troubles in that second game. “I must have let up a little bit and lost concentration and once he had won a couple of points I started to tighten up. I tried to relax and that made me play too tentative,” he explained. “Barrington is a bit of a comeback kid. He tightens his game up and closes you down. In the third game, I went back to what had been working, moving the ball around the court and playing a little quicker and that took Joey out of his rhythm.”

Ryding now meets Paul Price of Australia in the quarter finals, a player that is no stranger to Ryding as Price now resides in Toronto and is Ryding’s training partner.

Based on Price’s performance today, Ryding is going to have a tough job getting past him. Although Price, a qualifier for the main draw event, is ranked three places below Ryding in the world, he is playing well above his ranking. In his first round match he beat Egypt’s Karim Darwish, the world number eight, in a 68 minute match that see-sawed back and forth before Price took the fifth game 11-9.

Darwish is known for his shotmaking, but last night Price showed that he could also hit winners, a tactic that never allowed Darwish to get a grip on a game.

KNEIPP STARTS SLOWLY
Eighth seed Joseph Kneipp of Australia lost the first game to qualifier Peter Barker of England, but took charge in the second game and won the next three games to earn quarter final meeting with second seed Thierry Lincou of France.

LINCOU IN CHARGE
Second seed Thierry Lincou, the French champion and world number two, eased his way into the quarter-finals of the Pace Canadian Squash Classic in Toronto last night with a straight games victory over 12th seeded and world number 17 Dan Jenson of Australia.

Lincou played his usual thoughtful version of squash, but it was Jenson’s unforced errors that decided the outcome of the match. The tall Australian was once number six in the world and heading for the top when a series of injuries almost ended his career. For the last three years he has been fighting back from number 40 and is now back in the top twenty. Jenson’s strokes are textbook, but too many fighting rallies ended with a loose shot, resulting in a penalty stroke or an outright error.

Lincou, the first Frenchman ever to reach the number one spot, takes a scientific approach to the sport working with three different coaches to give him maximum input. He is rarely outlasted by fitter players and today’s 42 minute match was a mere warm-up.

In the first game Jenson looked to make a fight of it, but at 6-6, the errors started and he failed to earn a point, giving Lincou the game 11-6

In the second game, errors streamed off Jenson’s racket, allowing Lincou a gift-wrapped six minute game 11-3.

Jenson settled in the third and there were some superb rallies as both players stretched each other all over the court, producing some remarkable retrievals. Even though Lincou reached match ball at 10-8, Jenson continued to fight and saved two matchballs to force a tiebreak. The referee denied him a let on the next rally to put Lincou at match ball and this time he put away the win at 11-10 2-0) after 17 minutes of first class squash.

With no major upsets, Lincou is seeded to meet world number one Lee Beachill of England in the final.

PACE CANADIAN SQUASH CLASSIC-FIRST ROUND RESULTS-DAY TWO:

(2) Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt Dan Jenson (AUS) 11-6, 11-3, 11-10 (2-0) (42m)
(Q) Paul Price (AUS) bt [6] Karim Darwish (EGY), 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9 (64m)
[12] Graham Ryding (TOR) bt [LL]* Joey Barrington (ENG), 11-6, 11-10 (2-0), 11-4, 11-6, (62m)
[8] Joseph Kneipp (AUS) bt Q Peter Barker (ENG), 9-11, 11-3, 11-2, 11-7 (60m)