SquashTalk >Cathay Pacific 2001, Hong Kong, China > Round of 16 from Colin McQuillan

...Colin McQuillan reports from Hong Kong....

An Australian Double Still Looks Possible In Hong Kong….But Whose ?
It was Stewart Boswell who today blasted Australian hopes through to the quarter-finals in the bottom half of the men's draw in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Squash Championships with a confident 41 minute 15-6 15-6 15-5 win over David Evans, the tall fourth seed from Wales.

PALMER SHAKY
David Palmer, the third seed looking to repeat in Hong Kong the form that took him in June to the British Open title and the Super Series Final, had considerable trouble sorting out a young English qualifier, Nick Matthew, 12-15 15-2 15-14 15-6 in 48 minutes. In fact, had a chancy forehand slam nick not slotted perfectly an inch above the tin on a single point tiebreak at 14-14 in the third game, we might have been reading about the latest seed busting effort at the Hong Kong Open.

"When I was good today I was pretty good," the 24-year-old British Open Champion acknowledged. "But when I was bad, I was far too negative for my own good." The English camp regard Matthew, a 22-year-old from Sheffield, as their best prospect for the future. "He has heart, a powerful engine and a good squash brain," said David Pearson. "And he is learning all the time. He took out a quality Egyptian, Amr Shabana, in the first round and he took the court away from Palmer, the Australian number one and world number three, for long spells at a time."

Palmer admitted that the youngster surprised him. "I was far too negative on a court that demands aggression and I spent too much of the match waiting for the kid to start making mistakes.

BENG HEE CONFIDENT
It will have to be different against Ong Beng Hee in the quarter-finals." The Malaysian 21-year-old stopped England's Del Harris today 15-12 15-10 14-17 17-15 in 76 minutes, also eventually gaining the lucky edge in the deciding three point tiebreak, but looking generally in charge of the difficult court at the Hong Kong Park Indoor Games hall. "I was glad when Del fell into mistakes in the last tiebreak," the calm Malaysian said. "He dealt much better with the same situation in the third game and I had fears of a fifth game against one of the most experienced men in the game."

Heavy gymnasium work in the summer has strengthened Ong Beng Hee noticeably, however, and there was little chance today of his falling off a fifth game. With Mark Chaloner and Alex Gough coming through to the other quarter-final in the top half of the draw, it looks like tomorrow's match between Palmer and Ong Beng Hee offers the most probable first time finalist The last three Hong Kong Finals have been between Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power and the last Australian winner was Rodney Eyles of Brisbane in 1996.

Boswell meets the ninth seeded Martin Heath of Scotland in the bottom half of the draw tomorrow, while the unexpected confrontation in the bottom quarter-final is between Thierry Lincou of France and the Finnish qualifier Olli Touminen. Lincou, it has to be said, looked just as complete today beating Chris Walker of England, a British Open finalist in June, as he did ousting the Peter Nicol, the world champion, on Tuesday.

After four months out of the game with a broken racket hand, the 24-year-old, half-Chinese, Marseille-based world number 20 has improved both his physical strength and his racket technique training his way back in France and Egypt. He beat the agile Walker 15-11 15-12 11-15 15-9 in 65 minutes by playing impeccable width and length as the framework to neatly delayed and disguised kills and passes.

Touminen, who was lucky to work his way out of a two game deficit from 10-10 in the third, might find problems in a similar situation tomorrow, and neither Boswell nor Heath can assume anything against the man who deprived the great Peter Nicol of his chance at three successive Hong Kong Open titles.

In the women's tournament Australia are guaranteed a quarter-finalist from tomorrow's bottom-of-the-draw clash between Toowoomba's Rachael Grinham and second seeded world champion Carol Owens, the Melbourne-born 30-year-old who is now based in Auckland and plans to become an official Kiwi from September.

With a weak quarter above them between England's Tania Bailey and Fiona Geaves, we are almost certainly talking about a finalist from this match and the 9-4 10-8 9-1 performance of Owens today against Jenny Tranfield stacks up pretty well against the 8-10 4-9 9-3 9-6 9-0 win of Grinham over Vanessa Atkinson.

A top half semi-final between Melbourne's Sarah Fitz-Gerald and the topseeded Leilani Joyce of New Zealand also looks likely. Fitz-Gerald, who has not dropped a match in her last 10 tournaments plays Stephanie Brind; and Joyce faces the 38 year evergreen Suzanne Horner.

Joyce, the world number, was pretty pleased today to get off the court against Cassie Campion in less than half an hour. For someone who thought the draw for the first Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Women's Open was going to be really tough for her, coming in with a 9-6 9-0 9-0 scoreline against a player assumed to be returning to leading form after injury was "a bit weird" "I am just so surprised to be sitting here after what was virtually a non-contest," then27-year-old Kiwi said. "I don't mind, of course, easier is better as far as I am concerned."

Fitz-Gerald has won the last eight WISPA events, and she has beaten Joyce in their last four encounters. "This would be a nice tournament in which to turn the sequence around," the top seed says. "It would be nice to start the new Grand Prix with a win over Sarah, but let us not get ahead of ourselves. I have to deal with the quarter-finals first and so does Sarah."

Cathay pacific Hong Kong Open Squash Championships
Second Round Results 23.8.01.

Men:
David Palmer (Aus) bt Nick Matthew (Eng) 12-15, 15-2, 15-14, 15-6
Ong Beng Hee (Mal) bt Del Harris (Eng) 15-12, 15-10, 14-17, 17-15
Alex Gough (Wal) bt Amjad Khan (Pak) 15-11, 15-1, 15-9
Mark Chaloner (Eng) bt Stefan Castelyn (Bel) 9-15, 17-15, 15-9, 15-5
Martin Heath (Scot) bt Kareem Darwish (Egy) 17-14, 15-4, 15-4
Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt David Evans (Wal) 15-6, 15-6, 15-5
Olli Tuomenin (Fin) bt Paul Johnson (Eng) 12-15, 4-15, 15-12, 15-5, 15-6
Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Chris Walker (Eng) 15-11, 15-12, 11-15, 15-9

Women's:
Leilani Joyce (N Z) bt Cassie Campion (Eng) 9-6, 9-0, 9-0
Suzanne Horner (Eng) bt Shelly Kitchen (N Z) 9-6, 9-2, 6-9, 9-3
Sarah Fitz-Gerald (Aus) bt Rebecca Macree (Engl) 9-1, 9-3, 9-1
Stephanie Brind (Eng) bt Madeline Perry (Ire) 9-6, 9-2, 9-4
Fiona Geaves (Eng) bt Liz Irving (Aus) 9-1, 10-9, 9-3
Tania Bailey (Eng) bt Natalie Grinham (Aus) 9-3, 2-9, 8-10, 9-2, 9-3
Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt Vanessa Atkinson (Neth) 8-10, 4-9, 9-3, 9-6, 9-0
Carol Owens (Aus) bt Jenny Tranfield (Eng) 9-4, 10-8, 9-1

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