The Unexpected Finalists
Dec 10, 2004, by Colin McQuillan Reporting from Kuala Lumpur; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

Vanessa Atkinson trounces Rachael Grinham  [draw]

Vanessa Atkinson Confounded World #1 Rachael Grinham photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Nicol David, the diminutive heroine of the Malaysian squash fans who crowded the arena here tonight, played her heart out and stretched Dutch-based Natalie Grinham to the last long point, but fell just short in her first, and probably not only, World Women's Semi Final.

Australia’s Natalie Grinham has overtaken her elder sister, World No1 Rachael Grinham, in the race to become the first senior world champion in the family after narrowly and bravely defeating Malaysia’s Nicol David 9-3 9-7 2-9 9-10 9-7 in an 88 minute semi-final of the KL Women’s World Open Squash Championship in Kuala Lumpur that many seasoned observers regarded as one of the best women’s matches they had watched.

Vanessa Atkinson enjoyed a dominating outing, photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Rachael, 1993 World Junior Champion and the top seed for this title, was comprehensively defeated in the other semi-final 9-0 9-2 9-2 in just 23 minutes by Vanessa Atkinson of The Netherlands, the third seed. It was the second time in a week that Atkinson had humbled the inventive little Cairo based Australian, although she lost four other clashes earlier in the year. In the Qatar Classic final last Friday she won in 41 minutes. In a 67 minute British Open semi-final last month she established a two game lead but froze as victory approached.

“I have improved against her each time by playing to keep her in the deep court so that she cannot attack as she likes to in the front court,” Atkinson said after her cruise into a first World Open final. “She will go away and think of something to stop that, so I have to enjoy it while I can.”

The tall redheaded 28-year-old Dutch No1 then said a small prayer for a long hard five game result in the second semi-final. Rarely has such a request been so well satisfied. This was a prayer, after all, from the player who earned the joking title ‘Vanessa The Voodoo’ from the way players have collapsed in front of her, limping, coughing and crying on the way to the Qatar Classic title and this World Open final.

Natalie Takes Over As Grinham No1
The fourth seeded 26-year-old Natalie Grinham had the incentive of reclaiming family honour. Nicol David had the state of her nation to consider, with a fair portion of their squash enthusiasts in the National Squash Centre at Bukit Jalil to make the point.

At 21 the diminutive Malaysian carries such pressure with ease. She has twice been World Junior Champion and there is no reason to doubt that her speed, temperament and skill could not one day take her to a senior championship win. She missed a place in the final by two points, but she lost none of her star rating in Kuala Lumpur in the process.

Natalie Grinham battled with local heroine Nicol David photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Jahangir Khan, formerly the greatest of the men’s world champions and now President of the World Squash Federation, suggested he could not remember a better women’s match. “It was fast and strong, full of incident and skill, and exciting until the very last rally,” he said. “It will be hard for the final to equal it.”

Of course, Jahangir did not watch many of the great women’s matches. He was a bit busy most times getting ready to dispatch another in the long line of men’s finalists who could not live with his early ball ferocious striking and stunning accuracy.

There was a final between Lisa Opie and Vicky Cardwell in New Zealand a couple of decades ago that even the great Heather Mackay regarded as exceptional in its fantastic use of even the furthest reaches of the court. Opie played a British Open final with Susan Devoy in 1984 that seasoned professional men stood applauding openly for its sheer élan and controlled aggression. They particularly enjoyed the end when Opie flung her racket at the referee in sheer frustration at losing. Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald played matches that were often closer to top men’s squash than the women’s game; there was one in Cardiff that rattled the gums of the spectators in its ferocity, and another in Stuttgart where Martin fought back from matchball down at 0-8 to win.

Tonight’s was a match of a lesser order of squash skill and understanding, but a perfect match of two fast and increasingly knowledgeable players who raised their performances for the occasion and gave an enthusiastic and understanding audience the best contest of the tournament, of the year, of an entire spectating experience for some. It was truly a great match. It made the whole championship worthwhile.

Fast It Was

Nicol David was just left short against Natalie Grinham, photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Fast it was. Both the Grinhams are tiny by squash playing standards and David is scarcely as tall as either. Natalie and Nicol combined probably wouldn’t make up a Vanessa. But they both cover the ground at a startling pace and their sense of adventure seems to grow as the tension mounts.

Grinham, who admitted after the semi-final that she would probably need a skin graft to replace that worn from the bottoms of her feet, started at a phenomenal pace with which she covered everything the young Malaysian could bring against her and opened spaces, particularly in the top left hand corner, into which she played shots of nagging accuracy.

“All I could do was hang on and try to hold to my own game plan,” Nicol said later. “I thought she might slow a bit eventually and I would be able to move her back off the center of the court so that my own shots might start to make a difference.”

She was tight at the start, probably tense in front of a crowd that had watched her decimate Shelley Kitchen the night before and wanted more of the same. Shots that had slotted the nick the night before bounced out fetchingly on the lively glass court, drops that slid beguilingly above the edge of the tin dropped this time into the sounding board, errors crept above the dozen in the first game, less in the second but not all of them unforced.

Grinham was clinical by comparison. Her work in the top left corner was centimeter precise, the drives tight and deep, her angles and reverses well times and telling. After half an hour she looked in complete command.

A noticeable drop in the Australian pace allowed Nicol to run through the third game in just four hands for a couple of points. Her stance was more aggressive as she moved up the court. Her racket delivered more authority. Her choice of shot began to vary and invent. The Malaysia audience was loud in its appreciation and demanding of more. They too had their prayers answered. “They make me proud and I play better for them,” David said.

Total Movement
The fourth game was a 23 minute battle of total movement, astonishing retrieval, and marvelous front court racket skills, and great enthusiastic crowd noise. Only in David’s opening 3-0 lead were the scores ever more than two points apart and the tiebreak was settled only when Grinham for the first time missed a reaction volley in midcourt as David yet again insinuated her racket between the ball and the floor at full extension to lift a backhand drop shot across the court. How such a small frame can contain such energy, such willingness, such positivity is a mystery.

Grinham looked finished at that point and a dispirited reaction to half-testing shots in the opening phase of the fifth game suggested that she thought so too. But she cut off a low lob in the backhand court to retrieve the service and the mere possession of the ball seemed to inspire a dip into the deepest well of her physical reserves. Here was another little woman discovering depths previously unshown, perhaps even unknown to herself.

A series of determined attacking shots in the front court on either hand brought her back into the match and into a 7-4 lead in three hands. David responded in kind to reach 7-7 with a ruthless backhand dropshot into space created by a long and deliberately widespread rally. It seemed David needed only to keep the ball running to delight her fans with a first Malaysian World Open finalist to match Atkinson’s first for The Netherlands.

Instead she hit a backhand pick-up into the tin, and then lost control of the penultimate rally as Grinham scraped up a drive from the backwall nick and David could only swing at the ball behind her back to mishit soaringly over the front wall. Matchball disappeared in a scrambling forehand retrieval deep in the righthand corner of the court.

The two players fell into each other’s partly in exhaustion, partly in relief and perhaps partly in celebration of a job well done on both sides. “That is what we train for,” said Grinham later. Nicol admitted sadly that she wanted those last two points more than anything else ever before.

Voodoo Vanessa just smiled from her hidden observation position.

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

Semi-final Results:
[3] Vanessa Atkinson bt [1] Rachael Grinham (Aus) 9-0 9-2 9-2 (23m)
[4] Natalie Grinham (Aus) bt [6] Nicol David (Mal) 9-3 9-7 2-9 9-10 9-7 (88m)

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