Ecstasy and Agony ... Ong Takes his fans to the verge of Victory in Hong Kong

ONG BENG HEE RENEWED

Ong Beng Hee, Malaysia #1 and World # 7 ©2002 Debra Tessier

Ong Beng Hee, the young Malaysian with a loud and enthusiastic following in Hong Kong, brought the spectators to the edge of their seats tonight as he convincingly outplayed and outclassed Stewart Boswell for two games in their quarter final bout. But it takes three games to win, and Ong lost his focus in the third game and gave Boswell the opening he needed to claw his way back against Ong and his screaming suporters. In the longest contest and best squash of the week so far, these two gladiators with contrasting styles played toe-to-toe until the final point, which was decided — to everyone's regret — by a referee's decision.

Beng Hee, the 22-year-old Asian champion who trains with Peter Nicol at the Connaught Club in London, lost the last rally of a 93 minute 14-17 12-15 15-9 15-2 17-16 encounter to a debatable no-let call on an arguably reachable drop shot into the top left hand corner. Like Peter Nicol (who has also looked renewed this week) Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia, showed us dramatic changes in both mentality and approach from his desultory performance in the Commonwealth Games a month ago.

The young Malaysian was abject at losing such a scintillating match in such a way. "I thought it was a pretty tough call at that stage in such a closely fought quarter-final," he said.

And the decision was not made any easier to deal with by the fact that the referee had let Boswell off with mere lets calls three times as he blocked access to the ball in the top corners of the court in the rallies leading to the 16-16 single rally sudden death conclusion.

"I thought a place against Peter in the Hong Kong semi-finals would break me into the world top four," Beng Hee said. "I have had a bad time staying with the game in recent months. I don't know if it has been over-training or home sickness, but I seem to have had nothing in my life except the squash court for the past half year.

"I just packed up after the Commonwealth Games and went home to Kuala Lumpur to rediscover life without squash. To get back into the swing coming into Hong Kong I have been working on court with Jamshed Gul, and I seem to have found my old attacking style of squash again." Certainly he found it for the first two games of the quarter-final against Boswell, to the evident and noisy approval of the Chinese crowd who thought they had another near-home hero to cheer into the semi-finals after the removal of the half-Chinese Lincou.

BOSWELL GRABS THE OPENING
At least they had a man to cheer in the best encounter so far produced by the 2002 Hong Kong Open. Attacking the front court nicks with a will and forcing the lanky Australian 24-year-old into sprawling desperation in pursuit of low piercing drives, Ong Beng Hee looked set after 40 minutes for straight games progression. "But I lost my concentration a bit after leading the third game 5-1 and , to be fair, Stewart took the pace up and fought his way back into the match. "

Nicol waited beside the court at the Hong Kong Park Indoor Sports Hall for two hours after his own win to see the eighth seeded Ong Beng Hee miss the same progression by a single point. Nicol, the top seed, will be playing Australia's fourth seeded Stewart Boswell in tomorrow's semi-finals.

POWER TOO FIT?
Both the World Champion, Peter Nicol of England, and the Commonwealth Champion, Jonathon Power of Canada, acknowledged tonight after winning their quarter-finals of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Championship that their competitive capabilities had been blunted by super fitness.

"I find myself having to remind myself to finish rallies, to put the ball away, since I improved my fitness this year," Power explained after beating Thierry Lincou of France 17-16 15-7 15-8 in 55 minutes. "In the first game tonight I was covering the court so well, running with such ease I enjoyably allowed a lead of 11-6 to become 14-14 and only won the game because a bad refereeing call of no-let went my way after I called a single point tie-break

"Thierry was playing really well and I allowed my improved fitness to carry me into his style of play. In the next two games I had to remind myself that I have always beaten him by refusing to let him take court control in that way, From that point I started to wrap up the semi-final place and I have to say I am pleased with the way things are going here."

NICOL HIGH ON HIS CHANCES
Nicol come off from what he described as his best performance since winning the British Open Championship back in April voicing remarkably similar sentiments, having removed his Commonwealth Games Gold Medal doubles partner, Lee Beachill, 15-13 15-13 15-12 in 61 minutes. "I was able to raise my game when it was needed at the 12 point mark in each game, taking the initiative and imposing my control over Lee's," Nicol explained. "In too many matches in recent months, especially in the Commonwealth Games singles final, I had been playing to my opponents' tactics and chasing instead of controlling the rallies "I put in such a huge work effort in training to be ready for the Commonwealth Games that I burnt out my tactical awareness, I think. Even tonight I found myself willing to go into Lee's game pattern simply because I could. It is human nature, perhaps, to fall into the familiar patterns of activity just because you are able to do it and you can even enjoy the sensation.

"But since the Commonwealth Games, where I just ran out of inspiration in the singles final and only got through to the doubles victory because Lee talked me out of the doldrums in almost every match, I have taken a complete break from training by going on holiday with my girlfriend and running my summer junior camps up in Aberdeen.

"I have come back to the game refreshed and hungry again, and I was able to grasp the control of things when it mattered, change the shape of the rallies to my own best advantage rather than Lee's, to close down each game." Nicol declared himself back into the pattern that evolved in his best period, the pattern that saw his performance on a rising curve through the course of a tournament rather than the sort of falling curve that marked his progress through the Commonwealth Games.

The second semi-final will match the second and third seeds, Power and David Palmer, the Australian who overcame compatriot Anthony Ricketts 14-15 13-15 15-1 15-12 15-5 in 85 minutes after losing the first two games of the quarter-final through sluggish court movement in reaction to a strong and inventive attack from the 11th seed Ricketts. But Ricketts couldn't sustain his advantage and faded in the final three games giving Palmer his come from behind win.