Only One Survives
Aug 17, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004; local reporting by Chris Smith, Team Asst Coach

[individual draw/results]

Chris Gordon Advances, Garnett plays strongly

Dateline August 17---The World Junior Championships got under way today, with the Individuals draw featuring fine early performances by U. S. under-19 champion Chris Gordon, seeded in the 9/16 range, and Harvard sophomore Garnett Booth. The team's arrival a full week ago (marred only by one lost bag, which is thought to currently be somewhere in London, where the flight from JFK Airport stopped for a layover) has given the team members to conduct two-a-day practice sessions that made them fully acclimatized to the playing environment in host Islamabad, India, and definitely primed to play their best.

Byed to the second round by virtue of his seeded status in the 111-player draw, team captain Gordon then won 3-0 over Alan Clyne of Scotland. Booth also recorded a 3-0 win in his first match (against Pascal Tagaz of Germany) but then had to face 5/8 seed Chris Simpson of England and succumbed in three.

Their American teammates Joe Raho and Suleyman Saleem both lost their first-round matches, Raho to 17/32 seed Dick Lau of Hong Kong and Saleem to Mark Te Witt of the Netherlands. They then lost their first-round "Plate" consolation matches as well to talented opponents from Egypt and Malaysia.

Though security for this 13th edition of the World Junior Championships is understandably tight, given the political climate that characterizes the host region, nevertheless the U. S. team, which had been prepared to spend virtually all its time in its heavily secured hotel on an American air base, has been fortunate enough to get some security escorts to some of Islamabad's beautiful areas, including some local stores, where they have obtained some exotic handmade crafts.

The USA players are also pointing for the Team portion of the tournament, which begins next week right after the Individuals concludes on the 22nd.

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