"STALE" WHITE LIGHTS UP THE WINDY CITY

John White, that well-known Scottish Australian, is still one helluva squash player. (Photo: © 2006 Debra Tessier)

He may have not played for a month and frazzled by a fruitless trip to Australia, but John White, that well-known Scottish Australian, is still one helluva squash player. His game against Mohammed Abbas in the second round must count as the best in the tournament so far.

Organiser John Flanigan will pray to have a final this engrossing and exciting.

I suppose you would expect some sort of fireworks when you put two shooters on court together and these two players can shoot. In the end it was John White who was still standing, blowing the smoke from the end of his racket while poor Mohammed Abbas was dead on his feet, unable to run another foot to pick yet another killer White drop shot.

What these two tall skinny guys did to each should be outlawed as cruel and unjust punishiment.  Their ability to hit drop shots, crashing cross courts, fearsom drives and soaring lobs plus their determination to pick up everything regardless of where they were sited when the shot was hit, was phenomenal. I must say that this was the first time this tournament has caught fire because early rounds tend to produce predictable results and many of them in straight games.

White won the first game 11-6 with his usual relaxed mien, the ball flashing in all directions from the easiest swing in the sport. Abbas was not going to lie down and took the second game,  despite trailing until 9-all. He was helped by two errors from White in the last three rallies, but that is going to happen when you have a player like White who says quite simply: "If the ball is sitting there, you've got to go for the shot."

And so to the third game, which in retrospect decided the match. It was a huge game with never more than one point separating the two players. it was neck and neck, shot for shot , point for point, lunge for lunge.  White got to game ball at 10-9 and from then on it was almost another game as they continued to exchange points.  White had game ball four more times but each time Abbas saved it to even the score.  On his sixth game ball White finally put the ball away to win 16-14 and go to a 2/1 lead.

The third game was neck and neck, shot for shot , point for point, lunge for lunge. (Photo: © 2006 Debra Tessier)

Abbas, ranked 21 compared to  White's nineth ranking, was not finished and started the second on a streak  to run to a 4-1 lead. White could no catch up despite some of the most creative squash seen in years. He jumped three feet in the air and while up there deftly caressed the ball into the nick. Abbas stayed ahead and won the game 11-7 to set up the big fifth. But the big fifth wasn't : it was obvious from the opening rally that Mr. Abbas was absolutely and totally drained. He no longer wanted any part of this running and hitting balls. What he wanted was to lie down and sleep for several months.  White thankfully ran through the points to win 11-3 to win the 64 minute match.

More importantly the two players won a huge ovation from the packed hall. Even the angels in the stained glass windows were applauding. (Sometimes I imagine things).

Whitey, as they call him, had a huge smile on his face when I spoke him. He didn't seem the least tired and spoke animatedly about  his fruitless trip to Australia for the world doubles.

"It was the worst thing I ever did. Just before the tournament started Pamela Nimmo, my partner in the mixed doubles said she was too ill to travel. So I played in the men's doubles with the Scottish number three. We got knocked out early, so I only spent seven days there. I go halfway round the world for nothing.  Had I not gone I could have played the Canadian Classic which would have been better preperation  for this tournament. In fact the last time I played  singles was a month ago when I lost to Peter Nicol in Saudi Arabia," he told me.  I asked him when did he know that Abbas was gone?

"There were a few rallies at the end of the fourth when I thought he was tiring. But in the fifth his breathing was all over the place and I knew he was gone. I felt fine and I knew he was doing most of the work. I played my most patient in the third game because I didn't want to lose it,"  said White who is seven years older than Abbas.  He will be playing in Dayton and Virginia and then having three weeks off before the  Tournament of Champions in New York at t he end of February.

THE TWO MAGICIANS DO IT IN THREE

Gregory Gaultier hit the ball down the center of the court and then backed into Jonathon Power who standing the T and pushed him all the way to the side wall. (Photo: © 2006 Debra Tessier)

Both  James Willstrop and Jonathon Power earned 3/0 victories and demonstrated once again their superior skills.  Willstrop was his usual  amazing self: elastic arms, wonderful shots, fantastic retrievals and enemotional personality. He succeeded Karim Darwish as junior world champion, but has overtaken the talented Egyptian in the senior game.  Darwish is playing some of the best squash I have seen and once more using the shots he had when he was a junior.  But he was always a yard shot of Willstrop and even when he had the court and Willstrop at his mercy, he could not put the ball anywhere that Willstrop could not get it. In the third game leading 6-3 Willstrop was put on the rack by Darwish, who distributed the ball all over the court. Willstrop saved the point the point three times - you would have to see a slomo replay to appreciate what he did - and finally won the point.  This rally must have taken the heart out of  Darwish and Willstrop won the game 11-7 and finish the 44 minute match.

It was just a week ago that Power and Gregory Gaultier met in Toronto: Power won but Gaultier made him work for 67 minutes to do it. Today, an out-of-sorts Gaultier lost  in 44 miinutes, complaining all the while at every referee's decision.  In fact it should have been Power who complained, being the victim of the worst refereeing decision I have seen for several years. The perpetrator was Graham Waters, the Canadian World Class referee, a man whom I admire and like and have had several dinners with.

I still don't  believe he called Let when Gaultier hit the ball down the center of the court and then backed into Power who standing the T and pushed him all the way to the side wall. It was an obvious, black-and-white, stone cold, 24 carat Stroke. And Waters called let. What he was saying to Gaultier was, "You can hit a bad shot and then push your opponent out of the way so he can't hit a winner." I still don't believe it. Neither could Power who might have expected the odd favorable decision for a fellow Canadian.

Power  won that game 11-9 took the second  11-4  and  was given the third by a petulant Gaultier who hits six balls deliberately into the tin. Bad show, mon ami, very bad show.

ISKANDER TIRES AFTER THREAT TO LINCOU
Peter Nicol has this theory that the reason why Thierry Lincou never beats him is because Nicol puts the ball into the front corners. Nicol says Lincou is fine on his lateral movement but  is not so comfortable going forward into the corners. Azlan Iskander, the Malaysian number one, must have heard this, or worked it out for himself, because he took Lincou to the front of the court as often as he could in their first game of this second round match. He played with such certainty and conviction that he dictated the way the game unfolded with Lincou mostly having to play a reactive role.

It was an extremely tight , considering it was the first seed playing the fifteenth seed, with the lower seeded player leading thoughout the game. It was interesting to see Iskander's strategy at work  and waiting to see what Lincou what do to combat it. It was surprising how many times Iskander's boasts from both sides of the court found Lincou a yard short at the front.
But the Frenchman stayed in the match and hung on through four game balls before  he finally hit a backhand crosscourt into the tin to give Iskander the first game of 22 minutes of engrossing squash.

Iskander's attempt to continue the strategy foundered on his many errors in the second game; he made six unforced errors going for short shots and this helped Lincou gain control and win the very short  game  11-7. Iskander opened the third game with a backhand boast (the worst shots in squash!) into the tin and made five more during the course of an even shorter third game. There were now signs that Iskander had really put most of his energy into that first game and that his tank was running dry. Lincou easily won the third game 11-6 . The final game was a repeat  and a very tired Iskander could do nothing to stop Lincou's march to victory, 11-9 in seven minutes. What the match showed is that Iskander has the skill  and brains to match the top boys but needs a whole lot more fitness to play the present game of explosive power and pace.

RICKETTS STILL SUFFERING FROM JETLAG LEGS

Anthony Ricketts was outplayed in the first  game by Graham Ryding who is playing his best squash this week. (Photo: © 2006 Debra Tessier)

Another slow start from Anthony Ricketts who was outplayed in the first  game by Graham Ryding who is playing his best squash this week. Ricketts still had trouble with his movement and could not find width on his cross- courts. Ryding stood in the middle and picked them off for winners to win the first game 11-8.

Ricketts picked up in the second, still had trouble with his width but was now moving better and getting to then hard stuff that Ryding was handing out.  Ricketts won the game 11-6 and by the third was in full flow while Ryding subsided into near surrender virtually giving the game away 11-1 in six minutes. The last time I saw Ricketts he was heading for the whirlpool in the basement of the club.

WINDY CITY OPEN2006
SECOND ROUND
 
THE UNIVERSITY CLUB, Chicago IL USA
SATURDAY DAY JANUARY 21 2006

SECOND ROUND RESULTS                                                                              
[1] Thierry Lincou (FRA) def [14]Mohd Azland Iskandar (MAL) 10-11(3-5),11-7, 11-6, 11-9 (58mins)
[7] Amr Shabana (EGY) def Adrian Grant (ENG) 11-6,11-4, 11-6. (39 mins)
[3] Anthony Ricketts (AUS) [12] Graham Ryding (CAN) 8-11, 11-6, 11-1,11-7 (44mins)
[6] Jonathon Power (CAN) def Gregory Gaultier (FRA) 11-9, 11-4, 11-2 (43 mins)
[8] JohnWhite (SCO) def Mohammed Abbas (EGY) 11-6, 9-11, 11-10 (6-4), 7-11, 11-3 (64 mins)
[4] David Palmer (AUS) def [16] Alex Gough (WAL) 11-4, 11-10 (2-0) 11-5 (37 mins) 9]
Nick Matthew (ENG) def [13] Olli Tuominen (FIN) 11-5, 11-8, 11-7 (41mins)
[2] James Willstrop (ENG) def [11] Karim Darwish (EGY) 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 (44 mins)

Second Round Action. (Photos: © 2006 Debra Tessier)