Booth, Gordon Keep USA Going
Aug 27, 2004, By Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

[medal draw/results]     [team pool results]

For the fourth consecutive time, the U. S. Junior men's team was knotted at one match apiece going into a climatic final match, and, as also happened Thursday against Singapore, the Americans prevailed. As a result of their 2-1 victory over the higher-seeded Swiss team Friday afternoon, Christopher Gordon & Co. will play the winner of the Hong Kong vs. Netherlands match in the Plate final Saturday afternoon, with 13th place overall at stake.

After disappointing 2-1 losses to England and Malaysia in the final two rounds of the Pool competition, the winning of either of which would have qualified the U. S. for the top-12 Championship draw, the Americans have now notched sequential wins and thereby clinched a finish in the top 15 of this 23-team tournament.

For the fifth time in as many team events, USSRA under-19 champion Gordon got the meet started on the right foot with a lead-off win, this time in especially peremptory 12-minute (!) 9-0, 0 and 2 dismissal of a totally out-classed Kevin Brechbuhl. He was followed by Joe Raho, who right from the start appeared rejuvenated after his sub-par, fatigue-riven performance the previous day in the Singapore match. This time Raho managed to take a close 9-7 opening game against his Swiss opponent, Benjamin Fischer, raising hopes on the American side of a clinching victory that would spare the team from the tension of yet another third match with the entire team outcome on the line.

But it was not to be, as Fischer was able to take the next three games 9-7, 5 and 1 in an exhausting hour-long struggle whose tenor was much closer than the downhill stat line. In spite of his sub-.500 winning percentage during this competition, Raho has emerged as a team leader of sorts due both to the determination he evinces on court and the enthusiastic and vocal support he gives his teammates when they are competing.

This latter quality was there in full force for Garnett Booth, who for the third meet in a row was playing the match that would decide the overall team result. Against Malaysia earlier in the week, Booth had rallied from 4-8 down in the fourth game to force a fifth, which he was too exhausted to contest and lost 9-0. He then also trailed two games to one Thursday against Singapore's Kenneth Chan, but this time managed to win not only the 9-6 fourth game but also the 9-3 fifth.

Understandably highly motivated to avoid the pressure of still another fifth game this time around, and by now playing at his peak level after nearly two weeks of top-notch competition, Booth from the outset controlled his 9-6, 1 and 5 encounter with Nicolas Muller, who lasted only 32 minutes against the impressive display of firepower launched at him by the increasingly confident Harvard sophomore star.

Following today's Plate final (and the Championship draw final between Pakistan and Egypt), there will be a Championship Dinner and Musical Gala to signify the end of the 13th edition of the World Junior Championships, whose glitch-free evolution has been a welcome development in light of the pre-tournament concern that had arisen about holding the event in Islamabad in the current political climate. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, the Chief Guest of the tournament, is expected to attend both the finals and the post-match festivities.

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