Price Recalls Glory Days with Win over Darwish
November 16, 2004, Martin Bronstein Live From Toronto; © 2004 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.     

Graham Ryding advanced in Toronto © 2004 Stephen Line.

THE WARMUP ACT
Power fever is so high in these here parts that the lower half of the first round matches
played tonight created very little anticipation from the spectators. Even though another Canadian, Graham Ryding, was playing – and playing the son of the legendary Jonah Barrington – what most folks are thinking about is Wednesday night’s meeting between the two weary warriors ( I almost wrote worriers) Power and Peter Nicol. Don’t bother flying in, all the tickets are gone and variously sized-grandmothers and children are being sold in the hopes of getting hold of these golden ducats.

(Mind you, a press pass is available for the right price…)

JENSON SUFFERS FRENCH DISCONNECTION
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 world number 17 Dan Jenson of Australia. This is one of those matches where the result belies the action. Jenson is a terrific squash player with text book strokes that should be mandatory studies for any serious player.

The tall Australian was once number six in the world and surely heading for a podium position 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. But despite his wonderful style, too many fighting rallies ended with a loose shot from Jenson resulting in a penalty stroke or an outright error. This is not because he is rusty – Jenson has been playing in every possible tournament and spent the last few years having to go through qualifying. It could be just a lack of confidence which causes him to rush a stroke. I lost count of the number of strokes gifted to Lincou because of a rushed shot.

Joe Kneipp Started Slowly against Peter Barker but warmed up © 2004 Stephen Line.

Lincou 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 43 minute match was a mere warm-up. Jenson at his peak four years ago would have beaten Lincou….but that was then…..

In the first game Jenson looked as though he were going to make a fight of it but at 6-6 inexplicably the errors started and he never got another point to give Lincou the game 11-6

The second game was worse as the errors streamed off his racket allowing Lincou a gift-wrapped six minute game 11-3.

Jenson settled more 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 cruelly denied him a let on the next rally to put Lincou at match ball and this time he put away the winner to win 12-10 after 17 minutes of first class squash. Had Jenson played at that level from the beginning, the result might have been quite different. Maybe Dan should try some Prozac – or is that a banned substance?

DARWISH PAYS THE PRICE
Although Paul Price, a qualifier, being ranked 23 in the world, he is playing well above his ranking. How well? In his first round match he beat Egypt’s Karim Darwish, the world number eight, in a 68 minute battle that see-sawed back and forth before Price took the fifth game 11-9.

This was a major upset, but helps remind us once again that Price was once in the top five and has beaten almost everyone now ranked above him. Darwish is known for his shotmaking, but Price showed that he could also hit winners, and he hit them at crucial times, when Darwish felt that he was about to dominate a game, Price would hit a winner and get back in the game.

This was not a friendly game, nobody smiled and the ball was rolled across the floor to the server rather than hit into his hand. Darwish, who was oh-so-polite as world junior champion is hardening up to life with the big boys.

Price now goes on to meet his training partner Graham Ryding in the quarters and probably Thierry Lincou in the semis. On this form Price could well be pushing for the title.

RYDING OUT THE STORM
Canada’s second best player made his way through to the quarter-finals but not before giving his many fans a bit of a fright. They have seen him self destruct – as I have - and we thought it might be happening again.

Ryding seemed comfortably in charge against Joey Barrington, 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 (who was in the draw as the lucky loser after Nick Matthew was forced to withdraw) stopped hitting the tin with his forehand drives, hit a couple of winners and suddenly Ryding went negative. The zip and determination went from his game and there was nothing he could do about it. Barrington took an amazing nine points in a row to win the game12-10 to tie the match.

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 3/1victory

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 told me later.

“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 him out of his rhythm.”

JOSEPH KEEPS ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW
Eighth seed Joseph Kneipp of Australia is also a man capable of self destruction . “I’ve got to stop thinking of all the options open to me on a shot and just hit the first shot that comes into my head,” he once told me. (I still don’t know if he’s joking).

But the first game against qualifier Peter Barker shows that Kneipp was thinking again and young Barker, a left hander , needed no second bidding in winning it 11-9. Kneipp knew what he had to do to avid an embrassing loss and he did it with concentration and determination : hit the ball into the back corners. No cheap shots and no going for glory. He did that for the next three games and won them all. Mind you in the third there was a long rally when Kneipp stood three points from victory and he tried to finish it off with a forehand volley drop which hits the tin. From that moment on it was all length and waiting for Barker to make the errors, the sort of game and discipline that does not appeal to Kneipp. But he stuck to his guns and ground out the 3/1 result and will now have to double his discipline when he meets Thierry Lincou in the quarters.

PACE CANADIAN CLASSIC - ROUND ONE BOTTOM HALF, Tuesday 11/16/04BCE Place Toronto:
Graham Ryding (CAN) bt Joey Barrington (ENG) 11-6, 10-12, 11-4, 11-6 (53m)
Paul Price (Aus) bt (6) Karim Darwish (EGY) 9-11, 11-8, 5-11, 11-5, 11-9 (68m)
(8) Joseph Kneipp (AUS) bt Peter Barker (ENG) 9-11,11-3,11-2, 11-7 (57m)
(2) Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt Dan Jenson (AUS) 11-6, 11-3, 12-10 (43m)

ROUND ONE TOP HALF, Monday 11/15 04 :
Lee Beachill (ENG) (1) def Rodney Durbach (RSA)(Q) 11-3 11-2 11-6 (34m)
Anthony Ricketts (AUS) def Nick Maatthew (ENG) w/o (withdrew injury)
Jonathon Power (CAN)(7) def James Willstrop (ENG) 11-15 11-2 9-11 11-4
Peter Nicol (ENG)(4) def Jonathan Kemp (ENG) (Q) 11-6 11-6 10-11 (2-4) 11-3