Shabana Lets it Slip Away
Mar 16, 2005, by Colin McQuillan in London
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

LIVE FROM CANARY WHARF, WEDNESDAY MARCH 16 2005 [pool draws and results]

Jonathon Power and Lee Beachill Win their Pool Groups

WHITE RALLIES TO BEAT SHABANA

Canary Wharf Action, Wednesday photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert

The Pool rounds of the eight-man invitiational Canary Wharf Classic ended tonight with the ideal matchups for a fiery squash evening on semi final thursday in the posh Canary Wharf section of London.

Jonathon Power won his pool in style, setting up a vintage clash with often-rival Johnny White who rallied to defeat Amr Shabana, finishing second in his pool. This semi final matchup will set up an all-offense show in one quarterfinal, with both Power and White rounding into form and looking comfortably ready to shoot from all angles.

Meanwhile, the other semi final will be an entirely different, but equally exciting matchup, with the combative Australian Anthony Ricketts matching up against the quiet, efficient Manchester-native Lee Beachill.

Beachill and Canada’s Jonathon Power eased undefeated into the crossover semi-finals of the ISS Canary Wharf Squash Classic tonight, respectively beating the Australians David Palmer and Anthony Ricketts to top the two groups after the final qualifying matches of the event.

PETER NICOL ENDS THE WEEK WINLESS

Power, looking confident, took the Canada Group and will face White, photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert

Power led the Canada Place Group, while the bottom places were played out in lighthearted style when last year’s champion, James Willstrop, took a flamboyant win over the event organiser, Peter Nicol, to force the former leader of the pack into an unaccustomed win-less fourth position.

Ricketts will tomorrow face Beachill, who topped the Jubilee Mall Group after dealing straightforwardly with what could have been a problematical final qualifying encounter against David Palmer, the big Australian who arrived in London tired from a tough campaign winning the Kuwait Open last week and just missed victory in both previous rounds at Canary Wharf.

A Palmer win would have opened up the Jubilee Mall Group to a three-way battle as John White of Scotland and Amr Shabana of Egypt went into the last qualifying round with a win apiece. Instead the packed Canary Wharf audience was rewarded with a live last match of the evening from which White captured the fourth semi-final place 10-8 9-4 8-10 9-4 in 37 minutes..

Power’s win left the fifth seeded Canadian undefeated in the tournament so far and looking at what should be the easier semi-final against the second placed man from the Jubilee Mall Group.

He explained: “I was a bit tired at the outset tonight, but once I settled into the game my body was working well and I started to enjoy things. When I am enjoying my squash I always play that much better. I think I might be playing well enough to win here if all goes well.”

Palmer, winner last weekend in Kuwait, didn't have enough in the tank this week in London, photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert

He was certainly playing pretty well through the second and third games, which he won in just six hands, displaying at least a measure of the shot assurance and court coverage that once made him the most feared player on a sharp reacting shot-accepting glass showcourt such as the brand new version mounted in the East Wintergarden at Canary Wharf.

Ricketts, the rising Australian who took the Tournament of Champions in New York a couple of weeks back and held matchballs at 10-4 in the fifth over Peter Nicol in the Kuwait Open last week, was also undefeated coming into the last qualifying round. But a slight hamstring problem perhaps inhibited his pursuit of Power’s unique rallying style tonight and by the fifth game he was beginning to fire shots impatiently into the tin as the match ran away from him.

Beachill Avoids The Math
David Palmer, the big Australian who arrived in London tired from a tough campaign winning the Kuwait Open last week and just missed victory in both previous rounds at Canary Wharf, carries a pretty good grudge against Beachill for the manner of the Englishman’s win in the World Open semi-finals last year, so a third win for Beachill was by no means assured.

When he came out like a well oiled machine to level the match winning the fourth game in three hands of almost faultless movement and easy log-reaching shot-play, it seemed Palmer was determined to throw a spanner in the Jubilee Mall qualifying works. And when he reached 3-3 in the fifth as the ball bobbled through a groove in the floor of the lefthand court for a second time, it looked as if the fates might be thinking the same thing. But Beachill was not convinced.

The Englishman played the next rally with a chilling precision, eventually forcing Palmer to scrape desperately at a clinging drive on the righthand wall and then chase almost hysterically after it to miss again on the backwall. Even a heavy crashing fall onto his shoulder against the forehand wall could not stop Beachill after that. He took a couple of points forcing tinned errors from Palmer on either side, hit a couple of inch perfect long dropshots of his own and then had the satisfaction of watching the big Australian reach for a new racket in an attempt to delay the last rally before striking the matchball furiously into the tin. A Palmer win would have opened up the Jubilee Mall Group to a three-way battle as John White of Scotland and Amr Shabana of Egypt went into the last qualifying round with a win apiece. Instead the packed Canary Wharf audience was rewarded with a live last match of the evening with the fourth semi-final place at stake.

White defeated Shabana, photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert

White, the big-hitting Nottingham based former Australian who is planning a move into the USA in the near future, found a level of inspiration that has previously been less than evident in his play at Canary Wharf. He dominated most of the last match, with the mercurial Shabana firing only from 4-5 in the third game to take the tiebreak in clinical style.

But White bounced back to lead 5-1 in fourth and the Egyptian could regain service only three times more as the semi-final place against Power ran away from him 10-8 9-4 8-10 9-4 in 37 minutes. Perhaps Shabana had seen the Power match at the start and decided to save himself unnecessary pain tomorrow.

And the inescapable conclusion for Kuwait finalists (last Saturday) Nicol and Palmer was that too much high pressure squash in too short a time was too much for even these finely tuned athletes to handle.

[Complete pool results]

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