WJW Herentals 05
Individuals:
Days One/Two
Day Three Report
Rd of 16 Report
Quarters Report
Semis Report
Finals Report

Teams:
Draw/Results
Day 1 - Pools
Day 2 - Pools
Quarters

 

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First Pool Rounds (Teams) Report   [The Pools]

The fourth-seeded US team ran past Holland and Ireland (photo © 2005 Martin Bronstein)

It is taken for granted that Egypt will retain their team title so the question is who takes the next three places.

Those great former powerhouses of squash England and Australia are ranked 5 and 11 and are not expected to form any sort of challenge unless the English girls start to play with some real guts. Australia’s top three juniors withdrew with injury so if they prove their seeding they will be doing very well.

The rising star is Hong Kong, the second seed, who have Australia and Scotland in their pool which should present them with no problem in reaching the playoff stages. Third seed Malaysia should get past Germany (seeded 10th) and Belgium.

USA is seeded fourth, their highest ever seeding, and they should accomplish that. As I write they have already demolished Ireland 3 matches to 0 and Netherlands by the same score. No, the big fights will be when US plays the second and third seeds. Lily Lorentzen at number one should be too strong for both Annie Au and Sally Looi if she is at the top of her form. Joey Chan, the Hong Kong number two is very strong indeed and she should be a banker at that position. So it may all rest on the shoulders of Amanda Siebert at number three, who has been training solidly all week, having tough sessions with Chris Walker, her coach back in the States.

ENGLAND JITTERY
England Squash should be feeling very jittery right now: despite their massive Lottery funding, they were unable to place one player in the last 16 of the individual tournament — the first time ever. And then in their first pool match today, their number three Deon Saffrey went down in five against Mexico’s Imelda Martinez. Five years ago, the thought that an England player would lose to a Mexican was a laughable mirage. Today it is a reality. Yes the newer nations are coming through but the former powers are dropping down alarmingly.

I took most of the day off to sample Antwerp’s downtown buzz and food – it’s just a 30-minute train ride away. (Belgian beer is sensational). So I missed the morning and afternoon sessions, which, as we all knew would be a series of 3/0 victories. I made a point of watching the US team against Netherlands, and they have a team of solid players who play good percentage squash. The Dutch players need to write out five hundred times “I must not boast”. It was a disease with them, high boasts from the back that gave the American players several hours to decide what to do with the ball before choosing their stroke.

Amanda Siebert was up first and after a bitty first game won in three as Milo van der Heijden needlessly boasted three out of every four shots. Siebert hammered the ball down the wall and won with very little real effort.

Lily Lorentzen overwhelmed Melissa Meulenbelt by being just too good, giving up three points in the process. Kristen Lange kept cracking the ball hard to the back and showed the value of percentage squash. I thought her opponent Esther Jongerden was the most accomplished of the Dutch team and she put up enough resistance to produce the only really decent match of the tie.

So, USA played 18 games, won 18 games. Tomorrow afternoon they play their loving neighbours to the north, Canada, who have also won both their matches fairly easily. Canada have slipped in the rankings and are down to ninth, so unless thing go disastrously wrong, USA should win Pool D with Canada also going through to the playoffs.