James Willstrop, British Junior, scores big qualifying win over veteran Rodney Eyles

10.9.00 Birmingham, SquashTalk News by Ron Beck

[also: complete day one men's qualifying, women's qualifying]

James Willstrop beats former world champion
James Willstrop took only 37 minutes to upend veteran tour player Rodney Eyles who won the world championship as recently as 1997. The 33-year old Eyles held the number two world ranking position through much of 1996 and part of 1997.

Willstrop, who played before a sparse crowd at noontime, said aftwards, "At first I was just looking at this as a big new experience, but I thought if I'm playing, I should play to win and put all out throughout. I didn't see much of the ball in the first few points, but once I got the feel for the match, I found I could get out front, and once I got a bit on top of Eyles, I started feeling more confident."

Eyles, who has shown up-and-down levels of play in the past two years, didn't seem to be able to get the measure of Willstrop.

"Once I won the first game," said Willstrop matter-of-factly, "I was pretty sure I could win the match."

Willstrop did that easily and now moves into a second qualifier with Davide Bianchetti, the Italian champion. If Willstrop can pull off that win, he will find himself in the main draw of the British Open!

Top: James Willstrop at '99 Junior Worlds ( Top photo © Stephen Line, 2000) Bottom: Rodney Eyles in Boston last year. (Bottom photo © Vaughn Winchell , 2000)

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• Tomas Barva, Czech Republic
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• Paul Ansdell: Massachusetts USA
  

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