2002 Wyant - Chin Playoff

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Chin Earns Final Team Position
By Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk

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Richard Chin Gets Win and Team Berth

Two match take-all series ends one-all giving berth to Chin

August 1st---In an admirable display of execution and experience, Richard Chin earned a berth on what will be his record ninth appearance on a U S. Pan American Federation team in a winner-takes-all showdown with Tim Wyant, whom Chin defeated 9-6 9-5 10-8 in a match that was the virtual mirror image in reverse of the 9-6 9-5 10-9 tally Wyant had pinned on Chin yesterday afternoon.

Chin will now join Damian Walker, Preston Quick and David McNeely, who had already earned their positions at the Team Trials in Connecticut in mid-June, and who will be flying with coach Paul Assaiante to Quito, Ecuador on August 16th in preparation for the opening day of the competition one week later.

DOUBLE VICTORY
Actually, Chin had earned the fourth and final spot on the roster at those trials six weeks ago as well, but volunteered to give Wyant an opportunity to play off for that spot in deference to Wyant's three consecutive wins over him during the 2001-2002 season and to the groin injury that had prevented Wyant from participating in the team trials.

The USA Men's Committee had okayed this unusual arrangement, provided that Chin be given "a leg up" in the play-off, which meant that Wyant would have to win both consecutive-day matches against Chin to displace him from the team line-up, whereas Chin would only have to win one of those matches to retain his position.

WYANT WINS FIRST LEG
Wyant's straight-game victory yesterday at the Rehoboth Beach host site in suburban Delaware gave him four straight wins over Chin, who had only been able to take one game in that quartet of defeats and who had failed to cash in on the one game-ball opportunity he had at 9-8 in the third-game tiebreaker. Wyant had played with an energy and freshness that belied his several months of injury-caused inactivity, as did the exceptional degree of mobility he evinced throughout his 72-minute triumph.

Sometimes, however, a player returning to action after being sidelined plays surprisingly well in his first match back only to have the effects of his lay-off catch up with him in subsequent matches, and this phenomenon arose in today's finale, which began precisely at noon.

WYANT LOSES WAY
From the outset, Wyant was playing below the standard he had maintained in his opening-match victory and Chin was opportunistically rising to the occasion. He seemed to be reading his opponent's strokes much better than he had the previous afternoon, and the sharpness of his execution was abetted by Wyant's inability to get the proper width and depth, normally the hallmark of his much-improved game, and by the lack of life in his legs, which Wyant later lamented never were solidly beneath him the entire 50-minute match, probably in reaction to the effects of the match he had played just 21 hours earlier in his first competitive foray in more than three months.

Chin raced out of the gate to a 3-0 lead and was never seriously threatened as that game progressed. In some of their previous meetings this season, Wyant had fallen behind early on, only to pick up the pace and charge past his much-older opponent; indeed, this had happened in each of the first two games yesterday, which saw Chin lead 5-0 in the first game and 5-3 in the second only to lose those games 9-6 and 9-5 respectively before, as noted, Wyant closed that match out by winning a third-game tiebreaker.

But in this deciding match, Wyant was unable to summon that burst when he attempted to, and in fact he was the one who was passed in the second game, when an early 3-1 advantage dissolved into a deflating 9-5 defeat that left him facing a two-game deficit and a now-confident opponent who from the start had held the moral high ground and who in addition now possessed all the momentum.

BIG THIRD GAME LEAD EVAPORATES
To his credit, Wyant responded to his predicament by playing his best squash of the day and bootstrapping his way to an 8-2 lead with a series of well-placed shots that Chin, who seemed to have taken a step back throughout this run, was unable to retrieve.

Chin appeared to be conserving his resources for the fourth game, but a bad Wyant backhand tin on his 8-2 game-ball ominously symbolized his entire misadventurous performance and, more importantly, kicked off a remarkable turnaround in what had appeared to be an already-determined game. Two points later, Chin ran Wyant all over the court in a lengthy point that both wound up in Chin's favor and left Wyant so winded that he tinned quickly in each of the next two points.

Wyant wouldn't get the serve back until he was down 8-9, match-ball, having surrendered his entire substantial margin to Chin's aggressive rally. One exchange later, Chin was again serving at match-point, and this time he ended matters with a soft drop shot which Wyant was unable to reach for 9-6, 9-5, 10-8 and out. It is to Wyant's credit that, even in a match throughout which he was off his game, he nevertheless came to the brink of extending and possibly reversing the outcome. And it is to the prideful Chin's credit first that he voluntarily put the team position he had won at risk and second that he was able to come up with another winning performance when he most needed to against a significantly younger opponent who had defeated him four consecutive times during the past seven months, including in straight games just one day prior to this big comeback effort.

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