SquashTalk >Cathay Pacific 2001, Hong Kong, China > Quarters from Colin McQuillan

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

An Australian Rush in Hong Kong
Jonathon Power's untimely illness in Hong Kong and Peter Nicol's extraordinary first round defeat may have opened Pandora's Australian squash box. Sarah Fitz-Gerald is in pursuit of an eleventh successive competitive victory in the first mixed Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open as she goes into a semi-final that offers a fifth successive win over the world number one, Leilani Joyce of New Zealand.

David Palmer is within two matches of taking over the World Number One position on the PSA World Ranking List after surviving a difficult quarter-final today against the new young Asian leader, Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia, to reach a semi-final against Mark Chaloner of England.

On top of that, with world champion Carol Owens coming through to a seemingly easy semi-final against walkover beneficiary Fiona Geaves, and Stewart Boswell repeating his performance of last year in reaching a semi-final against Thierry Lincou, the young Frenchman who earlier put out defending champion Peter Nicol, there is every chance not just of a double Hong Kong championship for Australia, but of a double Australian double with all four final places taken by the Green and Gold.

Palmer reached the semi-final against Chaloner, who defeated Alex Gough of Wales in straight games tonight, with a 62 minute 15-3 8-15 15-9 15-12 result that owed much to a smart start and more to a fortuitously referee-reinforced conclusion that had even the veteran and notoriously one-eyed Australian coach, Joe Shaw, wincing with sympathy for the opposition.

"I needed that good start in the opening game," Palmer said, insisting that he also had plenty left in the tank at the end. He went to 7-0 while the 21-year-old Malaysian was adjusting himself to the Perspex court in the heavily air-conditioned Hong Kong Indoor Games Hall and finished off the opening game in two more hands. Beng Hee soon found in the second game, however, the touch that has made him the new world number eight and the replacement for Pakistanis as the top Asian performer.

He took the second in three bursts of clever front court deception worked out of strong straight rallying. Palmer took a stronger hold on the third game rallying, but he was 7-8 down in the fourth with his opponent producing very good precise attacks when the entire rhythm of the match altered. Three forceful forehand nicks took him to 11-8, then Peter Highstead, a world ranked referee from New Zealand, decided that a seeming penalty stroke situation on the forehand in midcourt should only be a let for Ong Beng Hee, a blocked back-hand drop was so good that the Malaysian could not be granted even a let as he staggered against the side wall, and a powerful but suspiciously low forehand winner was good enough to give the Australian matchball at 14-11.

Almost natural that the Malaysian youngster hit the last ball of the match desperately into the tin. Palmer, aged 24 and world number three after winning the British Open and reaching the Super Series Final, has to actually win the title to become world number one. Anything less than the first Australian victor of the Hong Kong Open since Rodney Eyles beat Pakistan's Jansher Khan in 1996 will leave Palmer behind Jonathon Power of Canada and Peter Nicol of England, the two men who have dominated the tournament for the past three years but for different reasons failed to survive the first round this time.

Power was rushed to hospital in Hong Kong on the morning of his first round match suffering enteritis and tonsillitis. Amjad Khan took his place in the first round and Chaloner has just taken his place in the semi-finals. Nicol, the defending double champion, was well beaten in the first round by Thierry Lincou of France and the 25-year-old from Marseille, who is just returning to action after a four month lay-off for a broken racket hand, today reached his first major tournament semi-final by defeating Finland's Olli Touminen in straight games.

"I have had time to rethink the game while I could not actually play it," said the half-Chinese Frenchman who learned his squash initially from his father when he opened the first squash club on the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean."I am in a very happy frame of mind here and I am controlling what everybody regards as a very difficult court."

To reach his first final, though, the handsome young Frenchman will have to beat a handsome young Australian: Stewart Boswell, an elegant 22-year-old from Canberra, who today took out Scotland's experienced Martin Heath 15-11 15-13 15-10 in a 60 minute quarter-final. Boswell is the antithesis of Palmer, who joined Joe Shaw's antipathy for the Australian Institute of Squash from the start of his playing career in the NSW bush town of Lithgow.

"He's a lovely boy," Shaw says of Palmer. "I think I will retire at the end of this tournament if David can finish it as world number one and British Open Champion." The Brisbane player, conversely, came up through the institute under Geoff Hunt and spent recent months working with both Hunt and his coaching replacement at the institute, former world champion Rodney Martin. Himself a winner in Hong Kong in 1993, when he and Chris Dittmar played the first all-Australian final in the event, Martin is with Boswell this week and looking just as determined as he did as a player.

"I am in very good shape after that home work spell," said Boswell today. "I like to play in Hong Kong. I reached the semi-finals here last year and there is a real chance this year to go all the way." Heath will think the refereeing of Chris Clarke had a bit to do with Boswell's victory today, especially from 11-13 in the second game. But the young Australian was in full charge by the end.

Bailey Out For Weeks At Least
In the women's championship World Champion Carol Owens, in what is likely to be her last appearance as an Australian before she switches to New Zealand registration next month, today totally destroyed Rachael Grinham 9-1 9-0 9-0 in just 16 minutes to reach the semi-final against England's Fiona Geaves. Geaves had even less to do after it was announced that Tania Bailey, who has been struggling all week with her right knee strapped up, was likely to need surgery for inflamed tendonitis and could be out of the game for many weeks.

Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the 32-year-old Melbourne based former world champion, beat Stephanie Brind 9-6 9-4 9-2 in 26 minutes and took pains afterwards to commend the young English player for a strong and positive performance which, nevertheless left the winner scarcely damp on a very humid evening. Leilani Joyce of New Zealand, who beat Suzanne Horner 10-8 10-8 9-6 in 29 minutes looked a good deal warmer at the end and was admiring of the 38-year-old's experienced adjustment to totally different playing conditions.

"You just do not have time to think about how old Suzanne is during the first three games against her," Joyce insisted. "There is a problem in the women's game with adjusting to the very different levels of play as you progress through a tournament. Sometimes you need to readjust real quick when they come at you full on. Here that has been reinforced by having to play of different courts nearly every round. "We started on very quick hot courts inside the club, then we shifted to the very cold club centre court, now we are going to the Perspex court in the Games Hall which I am told is warm but dead in the corners. "Suzanne just deal with all that and I suppose the rest of us have to as well. But I have to deal with Sarah as well tomorrow."

Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Squash Championships Quarter-final results:

Men:
Mark Chaloner (Eng) bt Alex Gough (Wal) 15-13 15-12 15-8
David Palmer (Aus) bt Ong Beng Hee (Mal) 15-3 8-15 15-9 15-12
Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt Martin Heath (Aus) 15-11 15-13 15-10
Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Olli Touminen (Fin) 15-4 15-12 15-6

Women:
Leilani Joyce (NZ) bt Suzanne Horner (Eng) 10-8 10-8 9-6
Sarah Fitz-Gerald (Aus) bt Stephanie Brind (Eng) 9-6 9-4 9-2
Fiona Geaves (Eng) bt Tania Bailey (Eng) W/O injured knee
Carol Owens (Aus) bt Rachael Grinham (Aus) 9-1 9-0 9-0

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