Aussie Teams Seeded for Gold
Dec 12, 2004, by Rob Dinerman; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

Seedings and Pools Set for World Softball Doubles in Chennai
Australians stars David Palmer, Anthony Ricketts and the Grinham sisters, Rachael and Natalie, are expected to bring gold medals in the men's, women's and mixed doubles flights of the second biennial World Doubles Championships with the international ball, which are set to begin this coming Monday on the converted 32 feet by 25 feet courts in Chennai, India. Palmer and Ricketts are seeded No. 1 in the men's event, the Grinhams are seeded first in the women's and Palmer and Rachael Grinham top the seeding in the mixed event.

Americans Louisa Hall and Latasha Khan will play the first match of the entire five-day extravaganza on Monday against the Grinham sisters, both of whom have reached the semi-final stage of the women's world championships currently taking place in Malaysia. That tournament does not end until Saturday, and if either or both makes the final (Rachael plays Vanessa Atkinson in her semi, while Natalie faces Nicol David in the bottom half), there will be very little turnaround time for them. This four-team pool also includes New Zealanders Shelley Kitchen and Tamsyn Leevey, as well as another Australian team, namely Kasay Brown and Melissa Martin, who along with her partner Narelle Krizek reached the semis of the 2002 U. S. (hardball) Nationals and the 2003 William White final, where they lost to current Canadian National Doubles champs.Demer Holleran and Jessica Dimauro.

The Americans are much more comfortably ensconced in the men's and mixed
draws: ISDA tour stand-out Preston Quick and Jamie Crombie are positioned in a preliminary pool that also consists of three teams whose strength is difficult to forecast (Indians Naishadh Laiwani and Rushadh Vora, Malaysians Mohd Azlan and Ong Beng Hee and Hong Kong representatives Roger Ngan and Wong Wai Hang) two of whom they have an excellent chance of conquering, while the Malaysian team is favored in that pool.

In the Mixed, Crombie and Khan are in a three-team pool that also features Kiwis Shelley Kitchen and Glen Wilson and Indians Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa, while Quick (a U. S. Mixed Doubles semi-finalist with his younger sister Meredeth in '03 and the Men's National Doubles champion the last two years with Eric Vlcek) and the four-time first-team Harvard all-American Hall are a prominent part of a four-team bracket that will require them to compete with Malaysians Beng Hee and David, Aussies Cameron White and Dianne Desira and Hong Kong torch-bearers Abdul Fahim Khan and Rebecca Chiu.

The Men's Doubles entries (with seedings) include: [1] David Palmer/Anthony Ricketts (AUS); [2] Ong Beng Hee/Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS); [3/4] Mansoor Zaman/Shahid Zaman (PAK); [3/4] Dan Jenson/Cameron Pilley (AUS); [5/8] Cameron White/Byron Davis (AUS); [5/8] Safeerullah Khan/Farrukh Zaman (PAK); [5/8] Preston Quick/Jamie Crombie (USA); [5/8] Ritwik Bhattacharya/Saurav Ghosal (IND); [9/16] Michael Tootill/Paul Atkinson (RSA); [9/16] Wong Wai Hang/Roger Ngan (HKG); [9/16] Vikas Jangra/Harinder Pal Singh (IND); [9/16] Bala Murgan/A Parthiban (IND); [9/16] Gaurav Nandrajog/Niraj Shirgaokar (IND); [9/16] Vivian Rhamanan/Mohamed Rizal Aboul Kadir (SIN); [9/16] Naishadh Lalwani/Rushabh Vora (IND); [9/16] Raymond Arnold/S Maniam (MAS)

The Women's Doubles seeds are: [1] Rachael Grinham/Natalie Grinham (AUS); [2] Nicol David/Tricia Chuah (MAS); [3/4] Shelley Kitchen/Tamsyn Leevey (NZL); [3/4] Heidi Mather/Amelia Pittock (AUS); [5/8] Angelique Clifton-Parks/Diana Argyll (RSA); [5/8] Kasey Brown/Melissa Martin (AUS); [5/8] Lara Petera/Louise Crome (NZL); [5/8] Latasha Khan/Louisa Hall (USA).

Seeds for the Mixed event are: [1] Rachael Grinham/David Palmer (AUS); [2] Shelley Kitchen/Glen Wilson (NZL); [3/4] Ong Beng Hee/Nicol David (MAS); [3/4] Natalie Grinham/Dan Jenson (AUS); [5/8] Mohd Azlan Iskandar/Tricia Chuah (MAS); [5/8] Michael Tootill/Angelique Clifton-Parks (RSA); [5/8] Dianne Desira/Cameron White (AUS); [5/8] Latasha Khan/Jamie Crombie (USA); [9/16] Saurav Ghosal/Joshna Chinappa (IND); [9/16] Lara Petera/Callum O'Brien (NZL); [9/16] Paul Atkinson/Diana Argyll (RSA); [9/16] Louisa Hall/Preston Quick (USA); [9/16] Faheem Khan/Rebecca Chiu (HKG).

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