Tania Bailey's wins error-free exhibition of top level squash in San Francisco International Challenge finals    [complete draw]

By Luis Fuentas and Ron Beck © 2000. San Francisco 05/22/2000

Vanessa Atkinson falls short after her stirring semi final victory

BRIT TANIA RULES IN SAN FRANCISCO

Tania Bailey followed up her big win over Leilani Joyce in Munich in April with an important WISPA win in San Francisco yesterday.

In the finals, England's 20-year-old world No 13 Tania Bailey scored her first overseas WISPA World Tour title when she beat Vanessa Atkinson, the world No 11 from the Netherlands, 9-3 5-9 9-1 9-4 in the final of the women's $11,000 San Francisco International Challenge.

Bailey, who skipped the first two stops on the Mexico/America WISPA tour month, had put a lot of pressure on Cassie Campion in Dallas, losing in four games there after drawing her in the second round.

Certainly her impressive play this weekend provides a signal that she may be ready to challenge for the top of the rankings.

Fourth seed Bailey, the former world junior champion from Stamford in Lincolnshire, secured her biggest WISPA title - and her third since turning pro in 1998 - after dismissing Australia's Natalie Grinham in straight games in the semi-finals.

Grinham, unseeded, had earlier achieved one of the best results of her career when she removed England's top seed Natalie Grainger in the last eight. Atkinson, the 24-year-old 3rd seed from The Hague, reached her fifth WISPA final after upsetting England's Stephanie Brind, the second seed, 9-1 9-3 7-9 1-9 9-5 in the semi-finals.

FOCUS, ACCURACY, FITNESS

Vanessa Atkinson had been hot all weekend, and looked like her training with Liz Irving had put her in superb condition, but Bailey cooled her down with her error-free play and calmly efficient tactics. Though Bailey's day off on Friday may have played a role, while Atkinson had to work hard all tournament, especially in her marathon win over Stephanie Brind on Saturday, Bailey clearly displayed the play and confidence of a player on the way up.

Bailey came out extremely focused, playing error free and aggressively, to take an early 5-1 lead. While Vanessa neutralized the momentum and brought the score back to 3-5, Bailey again applied her focus and took home a 9-3 win in the first game.

DUTCH TOUCH

Vanessa came out smoking in game two, determined to match focus for focus. With some great touch and wonderful nicks, Vanessa roar out out to a 5-0 lead. Some more Dutch touch brought the lead to 7-1 and Bailey couldn't salvage the game, losing 5-9.

SEMI FINAL TOLL?

Surprisingly, Atkinson looked a bit tired in the third game. Bailey appeared to work that to her advantage. This game featured some exceedingly long rallies. As both players were error-free and making great retrievals, points had to be won or lost on a nick. We only counted five tins the entire match! But Bailey hit more as Atkinson tired, and Bailey ran out the match 9-1, 9-4.

TOURNAMENT A BIG DRAW

This inaugural San Francisco WISPA event, was a stirring success. The event, sponsored by the internet startup Imagelock.com and by Sportkit, the squash clothing maker, was a hit with both the professional and amateur players. Despite unusally clear and warm weather in San Francisco, the tourney drew a revolving crowd of spectators, included all day Thursday, a workday in San Francisco. The finals drew an estimated 130 spectators.

The tournament attracted good local press coverage including a feature article on west-coast stars, Latasha and Shabana Khan.

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE RESULTS

Finals:

[4] Tania Bailey (ENG) bt [3] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) 9-3 5-9 9-1 9-4

Semi finals:
Tania Bailey (4)  def Natalie Grinham  9-5. 9-0. 9-1
Vanessa Atkinson (3) def Stephanie Brind (2)  9-1, 9-3, 7-9, 1-9, 9-5

Interested in watching and learning from the best? Great women's squash videos have just been made available: The Eye Group has produced the complete Women's British Open Final in a well filmed, well produced, and interesting contest. Jean Delierre has made available a video of the 1992 Women's World Open final between legendary Susan Devoy and (at the time) up coming Michelle Martin. Devoy won the match and retired that same day.