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Owens Comes Close by Fitz-Gerald Wins

by Martin Bronstein in Manchester, July 312002

[last update was 4-aug-02 ]

Martin Bronstein, live from Manchester on Wednesday Night

Fitz-Gerald Escapes with a Gold Medal

FITZ-GERALD NOW THE GOLDEN GIRL
Sarah Fitz-Gerald has now completed her collection, the Gold Medal she won tonight in the Commonwealth Games filling the final space on her trophy shelves. She may be thankful for two very lucky backwall nicks that stopped yet another stirring comeback from Carol Owens, her former team-mate who now flies the New Zealand flag. Owens herself will almost certainly remember those two nicks, a cruel twist when she truly had the upper hand and had relaxed into her own game, a game that Fitz-Gerald finds so hard to handle.

But Owens' performance was, very sadly, yet another typical Owen performance. In the first game she was pulled into Fitz-Gerald's howitzer game and - how many times, dear Carol, how many times? - she gave the second game away 0-9 as her head went completely. She used the term 'headless chicken' to describe her mental state at the time.

When Owens is in full song she is quite magnificent to watch: a combination of savvy, chutzpah and brains. Nobody in the game floats the ball around the court quite like her and her drop shots from the back of the court just take the heart out of her opponents. If she could play her game from the start and stick to it, she would be simply unbeatable. But she can't, and that is her tragedy.

YOU MUSTN'T BLINK FIRST
Owen's knew that the way to blunt the Fitzkreig is to lob to the back corners, forcing Fitz to either boast or produce a weak shot. Hitting straight plays right into her hands and she starts whacking the ball at such a pace that her opponents simply fall apart. In the first game Owen's started badly and never quite got on equal standing. Sarah was prepared to rally forever down the backhand wall, but Owens, who can take the paint off the wall with her tightness, was always the first to blink first and go cross court where Sarah would be ready to slam it away. And so the game went inexorably the way they always go when Sarah is in command; it was by no means a walk-through as they needed 30 rallies and 17 minutes to decide the first game, Owens obliging with a backhand drop into the tin.

A SIX MINUTE TRAGEDY
Carol Owens came on court for the second game leaving her brains next to her water bottle. There is no other way to describe that 9-0 defeat in just over six minutes. She lost all focus, all concentration and she forgot about their head -to-head statistics.

Since their first meeting in 1993 they had played 31 matcheswith Owens winning just three times. You would think that this sort of constant punishment would give her the sort of motivation that would make Hannibal look like Billy Graham. But no, when Owens loses her head, she loses it and so she came on court for the third game two games down and mentally trashed. Except she started hitting some very good length and it immediately paid off and she was soon 3-0, giving her just the start she needed to restore her confidence. Suddenly she was floating the ball and no matter how hard Fitz-Gerald hit it, the ball would come floating back into the corner. In this mode Owens looks quite wonderful: unhurried and almost operating by remote control. Trailing 2-5 Sarah brought off a miracle, a backhand boast that actually won her a rally to get the serve back. Owens then hit an exquisite forehand drop to get hand in, followed it with a tight backhand drive (I can't tell you how many times Fitz-Gerald's racket clanged against the left wall in a futile attempt to return the ball. I can tell you that Owens got most of her points on the left wall, usually Fitz-Gerald's dangerous side) to lead 6-2. Another forehand drop for 7-2, and then a tight forehand to get to game ball.

And she served out of court. On game ball. Do a thousand court sprints Miss Owen. She got hand in after being awarded a stroke and then took the game 9-2 with another forehand drop. All this in under nine minutes. Owens was back in the match and Fitz-Gerald was rattled.

IN THE NICKS OF TIME
Sarah took control to take a 4-1 lead in the fourth but made a couple errors and forfeited a stroke to allow Owens back in. She took full advantage and ran to a 6-4 lead at which point Sarah hit a basic no-nonsense shot to the back which hit the nick and died. That stopped a run of five points for Owens and allowed Sarah to put her own three point run together to get to 7-6 at which point she hit another back wall nick to put her at match ball. This was cruelty of a very high order. But Owens stayed calm hit a lob to the back and Sarah's boast reply hit the tin. (Boasts are definitely harmful to your health.)

And then Owens served out. Again. On her second match ball Sarah hit the ball out of court and on her own serve Owens hit the best shot of the night - a long, long drop that fell into the nick. Sarah chose set two and Owens got to game ball 9-8 with another backhand drive to length. Sarah got hand in with a sharp backhand cross court and then levelled the score with an unheard of backhand boast winner. They exchanged service once more and finally, on her fifth match ball, Fitz-Gerald forced an error from Owen with good length drive to give her the victory. Oh! how we wished for a fifth game, but it was now all over and Owens had to be content with a silver medal. But always there will be the feeling that she could have won this match except for six minutes of madness and two unspeakable nicks at the back wall.

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