Mamut English Open Squash 2005

[Complete English Open Draw]

BOSWELL STOPPED BY MATTHEW

MARTIN BRONSTEIN REPORTING FROM THE CRUCIBLE THEATRE

For those readers not acquainted with England’s minute geography, Sheffield is in the northern county of Yorkshire, whose inhabitants are known for their hardheadness and outspokenness. The people from the south translate this into ‘pigheaded and obstinate”. The people in the south like to see themselves as civilized and cultured:the north sees them as weak in body and mind. It’s like putting a Texan and a New Yorker into the same room.

The cover of the program for this tournament features Lee Beachill and James Willstrop who, surprise, surprise, are both Yorkshiremen. This second night of action actually features three Yorkshiremen, the third being Nick Matthew who completes the Yorkshire BMW trio. We hoped that the presence of some hometown heroes would encourage the spectators into some show of emotion. So far the paying customers have been doing a first-class impression of a wake. We were disappointed. Not a cheer rent the air. Not even a muffled whistle or whoop.

Peter Barker and Shahid Zaman acted as the warm-up act for this Yorkshire extravaganza and put on an interesting display of modern squash with qualifier Barker (ranked 29) taking on the Zaman, nephew of the great shotmaker of the past Qamar Zaman, and the highest ranked Pakistani player at 14.

Shahid has the shots but most of all he like hitting the ball hard. Indeed, at times it appeared as though he were trying to take over from John White as the sport’s hardest hitter. It was a match he should have won – could have won. He led the first game 8-5 and then lost the next six points in a row as Barker hit winners off loose balls.

Zaman led the second game 6-4 and lost it 11-8. A close observer of the scene recently remarked that the young Pakistanis don’t have the heart for the fight, unlike the generations that preceded them and I’m afraid this was proved by Mansoor Zaman last night and Sahid tonight.

The heart of these two games was that Barker was hitting very good length and Zaman was hitting too many loose balls. Zaman found himself too often in the back corners with nothing to hit at while Barker often had the ball and the court at his disposal. Also, and I couldn’t make up my mind which, either Barker was using very good disguise or Zaman was reading the game very badly and was often going in the wrong direction. But he was fast enough to reverse his direction and get to the ball, but it was a matter of reaction rather than attack.

Zaman got into gear in the third game and opened up his box of tricks, hitting superb winners, constantly putting Barker under pressure to pick up balls that were traveling just under the speed of sound. Zaman made it look easy, winning 11-4 in just eight minutes.

That run was stopped by Barker in the fourth game. Zaman constantly found himself in the wrong place as Barker hit the right shot at the right time, either length or fine drop. Zaman was unable to take charge, mentally came unwound and hit four errors – the sort that a player of his ranking should be avoiding. Rather than turn the game around, he hastened it to its end, Barker winning 11-7 and taking the 46 minute match 3/1.

WILLSTROP TAMES THE WILD CARD
Barker’s quarter final opponent will be the darling of British squash James Willstrop who had to face Ben Garner, a player put into the main draw as a wild card. Why Ben Garner rather than someone ranked higher? Here’s a clue: one of the Eventis directors is a man called Tim Garner, who happens to be his brother.
Ben was a good junior, despite the worst forehand swing in squash, but then took time off to attend Oxford University. He is still trying to regain his former position and finding it very hard. His match with Willstrop had some peculiar aspects but it was always going to be the 21 year old Willstrop who would go through to the quarters.

In the first game it was all Willstrop, his huge range of shots and his elastic reach simply overwhelmed Garner in nine minutes. He threatened to do the same in the second games running to a rapid 10-5 lead. Suddenly Garner starting hitting winners and putting Willstrop under pressure. It was a remarkable turnaround: a low volley drop, a backhand cross court, followed by another cross court into the nick – the winners just ran off his racket until he had tied the game at 10-all. Then he rubbed salt into the wound by hitting a cracking straight nick to get to game ball 11-10. Willstrop turned it round in the next rally, hitting the winning shot with Garner sitting on the floor. So it was 11 all and Willstrop turned the screw, forcing Garner to tear around the court like a greyhound, saving three certain winners before losing the point. He had run into the wall so hard that told the referee he had hurt his head, his shoulder and arm (I think). Regardless of what parts of his body he’d banged when he collided with the wall, he wanted time out. So he took the three minutes, came back none the worse and lost the final point on a tinned backhand boast – THE WORST SHOT IN SQUASH!

Two games down against Willstrop is a big hole to climb out of and although Garner made a valiant comeback in the third from 3-6 to tie the match at 8-8, Willstrop hit two fine backhand drops to get to match ball and Garner finished it off with a leaping forehand crosscourt slam into the tin. A spectacular finish but futile and the wild card had been tamed in straight games.

BEACHILL HAS A BALL.
The last time I spoke to Bradley Ball was in Bermuda four months ago when he put his lackluster performance down to being totally worn out from too much squash and traveling. Earlier today he said he had taken a week off and managed to stay at home for a month to get back into a rhythm. He didn’t need rhythm against Lee Beachill, he needed an extra pair of hands and a mindreader. In fact, even that wouldn’t have helped to combat the superb length and width that Beachill played for the entire match. The joy in watching Beachill is not in his shot selection – he no longer has to think about that, by now it is pure instinct. The pleasure is in watching Beachill’s racket curve gracefully under the ball as he searches for just the right weight of shot so that the ball dies in the back corner. The number of times he managed this was remarkable; Ball was left scraping at nothing and then looking at the glass walls as though they had some magical power controlled by Beachill. There was no magic; just the value of length and width. Few players can keep the ball so close to wall with such regularity as Beachill does. Ball simply does not have the armoury to deal with this sort of clinical shot making and Beachill won in three in 32 minutes. On this form, he looks a good bet to take the title.

BOSWELL IS BACK
Stuart Boswell has finally got over his back injury and is back playing as well as ever. Only his fitness requires attention. His match against Nick Matthew was always going to be the most interesting match of the evening. Certainly it turned out to be the hardest fought as they have similar strengths. Neither is a flashy shotmaker, nor adept at killing the ball dead. They are both prepared to dig in and play for as long as it takes to win the rally. Furthermore they have both been ranked at number four in the world, the difference being that Boswell reached that height two years ago while Matthew’s form was much more recent. It is two years since Boswell left the circuit with back problems and although he has been back playing for six months, he has still to attain that vital fitness.

Boswell won the first game after 21 minutes of hard squash, fought mostly in the back third of the court. Matthew kept working hard, knowing that there was very little between them in skills but a great difference in fitness. Matthew won the second game 11-8 and the third 11-7, when it was apparent that Boswell was beginning to feel the pace as tired shots began to creep into his game. He kept up with Matthew to 6-6 in the fourth and then he simply fell off the pace, committing two horrendous errors with the court and Matthew at his mercy. Matthew took the fourth game 11-6 and the 69 minute match was over.

This was Boswell’s first major tournament – he has won some minor tournaments in his comeback campaign and Matthew was a reminder of just how tough it is at the top. By the time the world open comes around in Hong Kong in November there’s no doubt Boswell will be a contender if not for the title, at least a quarter-final finish. H toldl me after the match that he will be spending time in the US working with Rod Martin and playing in St Louis, Berkshire, Boston and Toronto by which time he hopes to be in top ten condition.

RESULTS: Mamut English Open Squash Championship, Sheffield, Yorkshire

1st round (Day 2 - Top Half of Draw):
[1] Lee Beachill (ENG) bt Bradley Ball (ENG) 11-3, 11-7, 11-2 (34m)
[5] Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [Q] Stewart Boswell (AUS) 9-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 (70m)
[4] James Willstrop (ENG) bt Ben Garner (ENG) 11-6, 11-10 (3-1), 11-9 (34m)
[Q] Peter Barker (ENG) bt [7] Shahid Zaman (PAK) 11-8, 11-8, 4-11, 11-7 (46m)

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2005. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 409 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 102, Acton, MA 01720 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2005 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.