England Sinks, Holland Rises
Dec 8, 2004, by Colin McQuillan Reporting from Kuala Lumpur; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

Atkinson, Grinhams, David in the semis  [draw]

Rachael Grinham advanced at the expense of Jenny Tranfield photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

All three remaining English aspirants to the 2004 World Womens Squash title failed in their quarterfinal bids this afternoon in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while three of the four semi-finals live and train in the Netherlands.

Dutch star, Vanessa Atkinson, the hottest player on the circuit, won over fifth seed Linda Elriani, Aussie Natalie Grinham, who lives and trains in Amsterdam defeated England's Rebecca Macree, while Malaysian star Nicol David, who trains part time with Liz Irving in Amsterdam, advanced at the expense of New Zealander Shelley Kitchen.

Linda Elriani gave up against Vanessa Atkinson photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Nicol David ousted Shelley Kitchen photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

“I just went out for the win,” the 21-year-old Malaysian said succinctly. “This is my favourite court and these are my favourite supporters. I have not played to my best for them in this tournament so I knew I had to try for everything. And almost everything came off for me. It was an almost perfect match.”

The first minutes of the opening game were less than wonderful for the Malaysians. Kitchen, a fast moving hard hitting athlete for the northern most shores of New Zealand, sped to a 5-0 lead, but Nicol hauled her back with an astute and varied attack into the backhand court that gave her the first game in a couple of hands.

The little Malaysian then produced a brace of ace serves to the deep nicks to launch a second game in which she seemed determined to demonstrate the complete range of her attacking shots. Straight drops to either hand, skinny little boasts, lobs, angled drops and cling drives rained in upon the fast moving but increasingly desperate New Zealander.

The third game started with a penalty stroke against Kitchen as she tried to counter-attack on the backhand. Almost before she could absorb that she was 4-0 down to another penalty stoke in the quarter. Four hands later she was off the court while the home favourite delivered the day’s biggest smile to a press scrum at the back of the court.

Ten English players were in the last 16. Just three made it into those quarter-finals, and only one of those managed to take even a game from the opposition. For only the second time England has no presence in the event’s semi-finals.

Linda Elriani, the fifth seeded England No2, took the first game of her 35 minute encounter with Vanessa Atkinson of The Netherlands, but left the court in tears at the end of the third game unable to strike a ball to order and unwilling to further pursue a battle against her own failing body.

Exactly a week after their meeting in the Qatar final, Atkinson will take on top seed Rachael Grinham for a place in her eighth WISPA World Tour final this year; all of which she has won!

With Cassie Jackman breaking down again in the second round after being hospitalised in Qatar last week, some questioning of the England elite preparation and touring schedule seems inevitable. Since the World Team Championship in Amsterdam at the start of October, the top English women have played the Weymuller Open in New York, the Monte Carlo Open, the British Open in Nottingham, The Shanghai Championship in China, The Qatar Classic and the World Open in Kuala Lumpur.

“My body has just had enough,” 32-year-old Elriani told SquashNow. “I came out of Qatar with a sort of flu infection. Those symptoms have gone but obviously my body has not recovered fully. I emptied my tank getting past Jenny Duncalf in an 80 minute second round match and, even though I managed to win the first game, I had no ‘oomph’ at all from the start today.”

Eighth seeded Rebecca Macree had enough ‘oomph’ to tumble straight over the top of Australia’s Natalie Grinham at 1-4 in the first game but, perhaps frustrated by a strangely unsympathetic stance from her referee, Chris Clark of Hong Kong, she ran steadily down until the third game of the 32 minute 9-6 9-3 9-0 quarter-final disappeared in a single hand of unremitting error.

Rex Bellamy, a famous squash and tennis writer for The London Times, once described a match on one of the early Perspex courts, at Bromley Theatre, England, back in the 1980s, as looking from the press seats in the old balcony like “two cockroaches copulating on a distant beach”. Mesdames Grinham and Macree are more gamebirds than coackroaches, but the brilliant old description sprang to mind as they laughingly disentangled themselves.

Unfunny Refereeing
The humour was not allowed to last under the trenchant decision making of Mr Clark. At no point in the rest of the quarter-final did the referee allow Macree the benefit of any doubt, yet he seemed ready, even eager, to present Grinham with lets and even strokes on the slightest on territorial infringements. A penalty stroke called on a particularly widely spaced midcourt situation at 1-0 in the third game appeared to drain the last of the commitment from the tall deaf player. She took serve only once more and contributedsix unforced errors to the single hand run of nine points that took Grinham to victory.

As a last no-let decision was delivered on a backhand drop clearly blocked by the fleet footed little Australian for 8-0, Macree asked plaintively : “How am I supposed to get to the ball?” The referee did not explain.

Jenny Tranfield, the 10th seed, produced a reversed version of the Macree performance, failing almost totally in the first two games of her 42 minute 9-1 9-1 9-7 loss to the top seeded Rachael Grinham of Australia, but finding in the third game that genuine aggression and firmer striking of the ball took her into the match in a much more productive manner.

“I just didn’t take the game to her at the start,” Tranfield admitted. “I didn’t hit a proper length or strike into my shots with real intent. On this glass court a good shot springs into court but a poor shot just sits up to be hit. Rachael moves so fast onto everything, it was like feeding her for a practice session in the first two games.”

RESULTS: Women's KL World Open Squash Championship, Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Quarter-finals:
[1] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt [10] Jenny Tranfield (ENG) 9-1, 9-1, 9-7 (44m)
[3] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) bt [5] Linda Elriani (ENG) 7-9, 9-1, 9-3 ret. (38m)
[4] Natalie Grinham (AUS) bt [8] Rebecca Macree (ENG) 9-6, 9-3, 9-0 (35m)
[6] Nicol David (MAS) bt [12] Shelley Kitchen (NZL) 9-7, 9-3, 9-4 (31m)

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