SquashTalk >Cathay Pacific 2002, Hong Kong, China > Second Half First Round Report

Cathay Pacific 2002

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SquashTalk reports from Hong Kong with Colin McQuillan

Tournament reports last updated 29-aug-02 9:28

• 2002 Cathay Pacific Current Draw

POWER POWERS THROUGH
If yesterday was a down day for North American squash in Hong Kong, with Graham Ryding easily dismissed from the first round of the Cathay Pacific Open by John White, today was a classic of the sort of opportunistic success marketing on which the American Dream was built.

Canada's Jonathon Power, world number two and Commonwealth Games Squash Champion, is off and running in Hong Kong, which is just about a perfect description of a man who is playing in the new JP squash shoe that he plans to launch next month at the US Open.

"I have never lost a match playing in these shoes," boasted the Montreal based 28-year-old after beating England's Paul Johnson 15-7 15-7 15-6 in a 39 minute first round match at the Hong Kong Park Indoor Games Hall. "Mind you, I only starting playing competitive matches in them at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester last month, so perhaps I should avoid setting up a new pressure for myself with such a claim."

PRESSURE OF THE DRAW
He has enough pressures to deal with already in this event; wanting to reclaim the Hong Kong title he has won only once, in 1998, from four final appearances, wanting to move into a lead in his 15-15 lifetime head-to-head with Peter Nicol, and wanting to avoid the stomach problems that sidelined him last year before he could strike a ball.

"I certainly am living clean here this year," he admitted. "No street food for me. Just carefully selected non harmful diet." All this before he even approaches the other players who stand between him and a fifth Hong Kong Open Final. "Paul Price is the next one up for me and we have been to 14-14 in the fifth in the past. Then it looks like Thierry Lincou, who took out Nicol last year and went on to the final, so he is not going to give up easily. Then the seedings say it will be David Palmer, the defending Hong Kong Open Champion."

Price won 15-4 15-10 15-5 in 26 minutes against Stephen Meads, an English qualifier, later today and Lincou came through 15-6 15-13 15-8 in 32 minutes against Australia's Dan Jenson.

Palmer defeated Shahid Zaman of Pakistan 15-5 15-10 15-12 in the adjacent quarter, in which Anthony Ricketts came through 15-5 13-15 15-7 15-11 in 46 minutes against Stefan Casteleyn to meet Mark Chaloner, the 62 minute 15-7 15-12 9-15 15-13 victor over Renan Lavigne.

SHOE BUSINESS
"I am in good shape and played pretty fluently today. And, of course, I have never lost while wearing the new JP squash shoe," Power said with a smile. The shoe, the blue and gold version today rather than the red and white version that some 'more conservative club players' might prefer, was looking a touch roughed-up at the edges after 39 minutes on the Hong Kong showcourt.

"It is the textured floor surface we put down for professional play," Power explained. "There will not be much left of any of our shoes by the end of this week. The sandpaper texture of the floor covering on these older transparent courts just rips our shoes to shreds. It is a good playing surface but very tough on the feet. On an ordinary court, or on the new generation of ASB glass showcourts, a good pair of shoes like the JP squash shoe will last two or three months for me, and probably a lot longer for the average club player who is not quite so violent as me. "I came to Hong Kong with a bag full of JP squash shoes to make sure I get to the end of the tournament on them."

"We plan to officially launch them at the US Open in Boston next month. They will retail there for about US$75, I think, and they will be available through the new JP Sports website. We are thinking towards squash clothing and other equipment in the future, but the plan is to concentrate on establishing the new JP squash shoe first. "I have designed them out of my own playing experience; lightweight with good heel resistance, strong upper support and maximum sole traction. There are a lot of reasonable general court shoes about but a specific shoe designed for active squash movement out of the direct experience of a top professional player is long overdue, and I think we can provide that for the game. "My job from here on the project is to keep winning in them."

Jahangir Khan successfully launched his own racket , the Unsquashable, back in the 1980s and was signed for a considerable amount of money to launch a new shoe primarily in the Asian market, but this is the first time a leading squash player has attempted to design, manufacture, launch and market his own shoe. Interestingly, the project appears to have caused Power to concentrate on the disciplines of the game more emphatically than has been his habit in all previous times, with the result that he has not been beaten since the semi-finals of the british open back in April.

It would be a neat reversal of the usual sporting process if Jonathon Power were to become dominant on the PSA World Tour because he involved himself in marketing the game's equipment, rather than being drawn into such a marketing programme because he was already top man in the game.

ADRIAN GRANT IN BREAKTHROUGH WIN
Right at the other end of the professional treadmill, Adrian Grant, the young English player who defeated the Dutch champion, Tommy Berden, to qualify for the main draw, went one step further today with a 3-15 15-7 15-12 10-15 15-4 win over the 13th seeded Welsh champion, Alex Gough, in a 79 minute first round encounter.

Grant, aged 21 and ranked 46th on the world list, has only once before qualified for a major main draw, in the 2001 Tournament of Champions in New York, and counts this as a breakthrough reward for concentrated application. He first came to attention when he was selected as a 16-year-old to join the England Under-19 squad that won the world junior team title for the first time in Cairo in 1996, gaining extra recognition as the first black squash player to earn England selection.

"I have been training through this summer along with Nick Matthew at Harrogate with David Pearson and at Halifax with David Campion, the England coaches, and we have been working on building our competitive base both physically and mentally. When I got into the Tournament of Champions main draw I was just sort of pleased and went back to playing the way I always had.

"This is different. I had never played Alex Gough before in competition and, after starting nervously and a bit too slowly on the transparent showcourt, I feel I got the measure of him. I have to see this as the real start of my professional career and I have to build on becoming a main draw performer instead of just a qualification player."

Grant did start well off the pace and penetration that Gough, a seasoned and much respected thinker both on and off the court whose degree in mathematics has him labelled 'the professor' on the PSA World Tour, generated in the showcourt conditions to which the young South Londoner is only now adjusting. "Nick talked to me after the first game and we decided I had to step up the court and take the game to Alex. Immediately I found I was in the match, volleying and attacking the ball early. Although Alex fought back and took the fourth game, I could see in the fifth that he was suffering and that made me stronger and confident again that I was going to beat him."

The win takes Grant into a second round encounter with Thierry Lincou, the young French champion who himself broke into the top ten from this tournament last year, when he defeated world champion Peter Nicol in the first round and went on to reach the final. Lincou, seeded fifth this year, beat Dan Jenson of Australia in straight games today and is scheduled to reach Canada's Jonathon Power in the quarter-finals. "I have never played Thierry in competition either, so it is all on again tomorrow," Grant said. "I went straight back to the hotel to get some good stretching in anticipation."

Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Championship Hong Kong Sports Centre Second Day First Round Results:
Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt Stefan Casteleyn (Bel) 15-5 13-15 15-7 15-11
Mark Chaloner (Eng) bt Renan Lavigne (Fra) 15-7 15-12 9-15 15-13
Amr Shabana (Egypt bt Olli Touminen (Fin) 15-12 9-15 8-15 15-11 15-8
David Palmer (Aus) bt Shahid Zaman (Pak) 15-5 15-10 15-12
Alex Gough (Wal) bt Adrian Grant (Eng) 3-15 15-7 15-12 10-15 15-4
Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Dan Jenson (Aus) 15-6 15-13 15-8
Paul Price (Aus) v Stephen Meads (Eng) 15-4 15-10 15-5
Jonathon Power (Can) bt Paul Johnson (Eng) 15-7 15-7 15-6

Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Hong Kong Squash Centre First Round Results: Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Omar El Borolossy (Egy) 17-14 15-11 15-8
Joe Kneipp (Aus) bt David Evans (Wal) 16-17 15-13 15-7 15-8
JohnWhite (Scot) bt Graham Ryding (Can) 15-12 15-12 15-13
Lee Beachill (Eng) bt Mohammed Abbas (Egy) 13-15 17-15 15-5 15-6
Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt Nick Taylor (Eng) 13-15 115-10 15-7 15-8
Karim Darwish (Egy) bt Martin Heath (Scot) 15-9 15-5 16-17 15-11
Ong Beng Hee (Mas) bt Del Harris (Eng) 15-4 7-15 15-6 15-12
Mansoor Zaman (Pak) bt Chris Walker (Eng) 16-17 17-15 15-9 15-10

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