Jackman out, Nicol in Good Position
Dec 8, 2004, by Colin McQuillan Reporting from Kuala Lumpur; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

Atkinson, Grinham Advance Towards Showdown  [draw]
Vanessa Atkinson and Rachael Grinham, the two best players on the WISPA tour over the past six months, who are drawn in the same half of this year's World Open, advanced inexorably towards a potential meeting in Friday's semi finals with easy second round wins. Meanwhile Cassie Jackman, the second seed, lost leaving that half of the draw open for Malaysia's Nicol David and Rachael's sister Natalie.

Cassie Jackman’s attempt to maintain her momentum towards a second World Open title broke down worryingly in Kuala Lumpur today when she failed to fire in a second round encounter with New Zealand’s Shelley Kitchen and finished as a 40 minute 9-5 9-4 9-7 loser in the KL Women's World Open Championship concerned about a dead left leg and thinking she should have gone straight home after being hospitalised in Qatar last week.

Winner of the 2000 World Open title in Seattle and second seeded in Kuala Lumpur after a good win in the Shanghai Classic late last month, the 31-year-old Norfolk player had returned to the top of the game after double spinal surgery and severe ankle problems. She was rushed to hospital after experiencing severe chest pain and breathing difficulties during semi-final of the Women’s Qatar Classic last week, but released after scans and tests showed nothing.

She decided to travel to Malaysia in hopes of recovery, played well in her first round match against Dominique Lloyd-Walter on the plaster sidecourts of the National Squash Centre in Bukit Jalil, but could not generate the ease of movement necessary to deal with the tall and athletic Kitchen on the lively glass showcourt.

“My left leg is completely dead today,” Jackman said as she came off court. “I can only think it is all connected to my back surgery and I want to get home as quickly as possible to check in with the people who did all that for me.

“With hindsight maybe I should not have come on to Malaysia, but I felt OK after a good sleep when leaving hospital in Qatar and I thought it was worth a try at what is a wide open field here.”

An enterprising assault from 2-6 to 5-8 in the opening game suggested she might at least contest for a quarter-final place against the 21-year-old sixth seeded local favourite, Nicol David, but an overturned referee call ruled an apparently winning boasted to end that run and give game ball to Kitchen.

The New Zealander said she went on court thinking that Jackman’s problems last week might open an opportunity that has evaded her in four or five recent meetings. “I have never beaten her before, although I have been getting closer and I have learnt a lot about her game,” Kitchen said.

“This is a good lively court and I have always played well on it. It suits my game and it is harder for my opponents to slow the ball down against me. This is a fantastic result for me in our most important tournament and I must tink I have chances of going further still.”

England coach David Pearson said that once Jackman had decided to play he told her to hoist the ball and to go for any chances that presented themselves. Certainly Jackman went for cut-off volleys and interceptions not normally part of her attack. She started the third game entirely in that manner and built a 4-0 lead, but Kitchen’s speed and reach proved too much for her in the end.

It could also prove testing for David, the smallest player on the circuit, who today had some difficulties living with the long levered sharpness and extension of Alison Waters, the English 20-year-old who overturned the ninth seeded Omneya Abdel Kawy in the first round and took the much fancied Malaysian to two tiebreaks as well as seizing the third game on he opponent’s home court.

Waters is a few inches shorter than Kitchen and has yet to develop the power of shot that the Auckland player favours. Today against Jackman it was noticeable that some deception and delay came into the game that Kitchen used to exploit the second seed’s limitations.

The quarter-final above them in the draw evolved with no such excitements. Fourth seeded Natalie Grinham came through 9-7 9-4 9-1in 39 minutes against Stephanie Brind and Rebecca Macree, the totally deaf eighth seed who survived a long and mutually bruising encounter with Carla Khan in the first round, absorbed the best of Laura Jane Lengthorn by the end of their second game on the glass showcourt to win 9-5 9-7 9-5 in 45 minutes.

Lengthorn had moved smoothly and with good effect on the plaster side courts the previous day to defeat the 14th seeded Isabelle Stoehr of France. On the cooler showcourt and against such a seasoned campaigner she showed less balll control and her movement was noticeably less crisp. The 22-year-old Lancashire player made a good counter-attack to take the second game from 4-7 to7-7, but her chance was lost on a poorly high backhand volley that simply deliver the ball down the middle of the court for a penalty stroke to the eagerly waiting Macree.

Linda Elriani, the 32-year-old fifth seed who admitted after losing to Vicky Botwright in Qatar that she was developing a worrying trend of losing to people she was expected to beat, put a stop to the process by defeating Jenny Duncalf 9-5 9-7 8-10 9-3 in 73 minutes. The victory was not entirely conclusive, but Elriani at least reached her scheduled quarter-final against Vanessa Atkinson.

When the 21-year-old Duncalf sped to a 5-0 lead in their opening game, it seemed possible she could add to the list of seeds that fell unexpectedly in the first round, but over-fondness for cross court drives and a habit of lifting her head when playing easy drop shots from midcourt gave her opponent too many easy volleys and a number of welcome tinned errors.

Elriani moved from 0-5 to 9-5 in a single hand, always had the advantage of the second and slipped from a 7-6 lead in the third only because she started a noisy interrogation of the Gods as to why so many of Duncalf’s backhand drives became trapped in the jaws of the top lefthand corner of the court. A couple of penalty strokes finished her off in the tiebreak of that game, but she cruised through the fourth, winning from a 6-2 lead with a series of forehand winners feeding from Duncalf’s loose crosscourts.

Atkinson started briskly against England’s Vicky Botwright, but had to steel herself against a determined front court attack in the second half of their match, losing the third game for two points and needing to deal firmly with a tiebreak in the fourth.

In the top quarter 10th seeded Jenny Tranfield won the all-England encounter with Tania Bailey, playing with her usual tenacity to take the 42 minute match 7-9 9-2 9-3 9-6 for a quarter-final place against the top seeded Rachael Grinham of Australia.

Tranfield had a prolonged dispute with England squash a few weeks back about the selection process for the England squad that lost the World Team final to Austrlalia in Amsterdam. With Jackman, Duncalf and Fiona Geaves out of this field, only Linda Elriani has done as well in the World Open as the Milton Keynes based 29-year-old.

She will have her work cut out to make a semi-final place past the World No1 but, as Ireland’s Madeline Perry showed all too clearly today, Rachael grinham is far from unassailable. Two games down and expected to fade quickly from the last match of the day, Perry began to move with dazzling speed around the plaster sidecourt of the National Stadium, covering the best shots brought against her by the inventive Cairo-based Australian and delivering her own attack with increasingly sharp venom.

Having dropped the first two games for a single point in 16 minutes of play, Perry went on to win the third game 9-7 in 15 minutes and to elad 4-0 in the fourth before Grinham unveiled a nasty little flicked drop on either hand across the face of the front wall to wrongfoot the 16th seeded Irishwoman enough to regain a winning rhythm.

Women's KL World Open Squash Championship
Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Second Round Results:
[1] Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt [16] Madeline Perry (Ire) 9-1 9-0 7-9 9-5 (45m)
[10] Jenny Tranfield (Eng) bt Tania Bailey (Eng) 7-9 9-2 9-3 9-6 (42m)
[3] Vanessa Atkinson bt [11] Vicky Botwright (Eng) 9-6 9-6 2-9 10-8 (51m)
[5] Linda Elriani (Eng) bt [13] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) 9-5 9-7 8-10 9-3 (73m)
[8] Rebecca Macree (Eng) bt Laura Jane Lengthorn (Eng) 9-5 9-7 9-5 (45m)
[4] Natalie Grinham (Aus) bt [15] Stephanie Brind (Eng) 9-7 9-4 9-1 (39m)
[6] Nicol David (Mal) bt Alison Waters (Eng) 10-8 7-9 9-2 10-8 (50m)
[12] Shelley Kitchen (NZ) bt [2] Cassie Jackman (Eng) 9-5 9-4 9-7 (40m)

NEW ... Get the New Jonathon Power Instruction Video at the SquashTalk eStore!

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2004. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 409 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 102, Acton, MA 01720 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2004 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.