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Egypt Reigns Supreme

World Champ Raneem El Weleily (l): Physically short, mentally tall (photo © 2005 proeventfotos)

It was one simple half-hour's magnificent effort.

Egypt’s strength on the world junior stage was confirmed yet again this afternoon, when a mere slip of a girl, 16 year old Raneem El Weleily, strode onto the glass court like a seasoned pro and beat the number one seed, Joshna Chinappa from India, with a confident display of court craft and drop shots that rattled Chinappa, who simply had no answer.

Readers of these reports will remember that Shawn Moxham had said, early in the tournament, that Raneem was in danger and he obviously is a very good judge of horseflesh. I had written after each of Chinappa’s matches that she had not impressed observers with her performances. I was told she could produce the goods when needed. Today she failed to do that and showed signs of nerves — indeed for one stretch she was just slashing at the ball, typical of a player who has lost hope.

Joshna shows her frustration. (photo © 2005 proeventfotos)

In the final analysis the difference between the two players—other than psychological— was that Raneem had the better short game. Whenever Joshna tried to mix it up at the front of the court, she came out on the short end. The tiny Raneem covers the court like a huge canvas and she reads the short game well.

The match started ominously: Chinappa had won the toss and served out of court.

After a couple of nervous rallies, El Weleily was in her stride, varying the pace, chopping in the drop shots and putting even more pressure on her opponent with her ‘wrong-side’ serving. Chinappa, on the other hand, had no apparent game plan and for the most part played the reactive role – and that is a losing strategy.

El Weleily said after the match that her game plan was to keep the ball tight – not a world shattering idea – and she did that, while too many of Chinappa’s shot were left at the mercy of El Weleily’s educated racket. And with her Egyptian squash genes, she knew exactly how to end the rally.

The first game was over in nine minutes, 9-3 for El Weleily, but we assumed that Chinappa’s nerves would vanish and the second game would be the start of the battle. And she certainly started that way, almost spitting nails and whacking the ball into the back corners forcing two errors out of El Weleily. With a 3-0 lead Chinappa was starting to look like a winner but then El Weleily – showing absolutely no nerves or tension – kept on with her all court game, happy at times to duel down the left wall until the right opening came along and hitting her drops from the back, the front, the side and overhead. This is a young girl who is totally at home on the court and I am quite sure that this confidence unnerved her opponent.

Raneem El Weleily in control (photo © 2005 proeventfotos)

From 0-3 El Weleily worked her way to 4-4 and then 6-4 , which is when Chinappa lost her composure. She hit the next serve into the tin, lost the next point on a perfect volley drop from El Weleily and then on game point once again hit the serve into the tin to lose the game 4-9.

The future did no look bright for India. But Chinappa started to buckle down in the third, reversed a 0-3 losing position into an 8-4 lead, finally playing good length and seemingly having got the measure of her opponent – meaning she was reading her game and punishing her shots.

Game ball didn’t phase the young Egyptian, she got the serve back with a huge cross-court backahand slam and then unbelievably worked her way slowly back to level pegging, surviving a further two game balls. The comeback had damaged Chinappa’s confidence and she was caught napping twice when she went short: El Weleily moved to the ball and slammed it cross court when Chinappa was expecting a straight drive and on the second occasion did exactly the reverse. As I say, this 16 year old has one helluva squash head on her shoulders. On her second match ball El Weleily just had to hold up her racket to earn the stroke and after just 30 minutes of effort was the new world junior champion.

Furthermore she told me after the match her ambition is two win it in two years time – she will be elible - and match the accomplishment of Nicol David who won the title in 1999 and 2001. Well now, if she is that good now, it’s frightening to think how good she will be in two years. If you can find a dumb bookmaker to give you odds, put your bet on Raneem El Weleily now.

Meanwhile, Chinappa was left wondering how to recover. "Perhaps, I need to practice with an equally strong player back home. I will now concentrate on the Asian Games and Asian level tournaments in the WISPA. On my return, I will undergo a physical training programme and then move to Amsterdam for training under Liz Irving,"

World Junior Womens Championships, Herentals Belgium
INDIVIDUAL FINAL
[2] Raneem El Weleily (EGY) bt [1] Joshna Chinappa (IND) 9-3, 9-4, 10-8. (30 mins)

World Champ Raneem El Weleily talks to SquashTalk's Martin Bronstein (photo © 2005 proeventfotos)