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 - Rpt 1
Day 2 - Final
1st KO Round
Quarters
Semis - Rpt 1
Semis - Rpt 2
Finals

 

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England Defeats USA for Third Position [The Draws]    

Hong Kong;s Chiu Ka Kei out points Egypt's Linn el Tannir for the critical second team point (photo © www.proeventfotos.com)

HONG KONG IN SHOCK WIN OVER EGYPT
I said it would never happen and I was wrong. So wrong. Egypt was not unbeatable and Hong Kong, that emerging nation produced a sublime team of players to do the impossible. There was no luck involved, no freak circumstances or injuries: Hong Kong had two superb players and Egypt had the world champion. Final score: 2/1 to Hong Kong.

Joey Chan Scored a big point over Egypt's Sara Badr for Hong Kong (photo © Martin Bronstein)

Joey Chan could well become the first Chinese player reach the world’s top ten. Although she played at number two for Hong Kong in this final, she showed such enormous composure and maturity that she could already trouble the present top ten. She is small and just 17 years old but after a slow start played so well that Sara Badr, the Egyptian number two, all but gave up in the third game. Badr hits the ball like a jackhammer and has all types of winners but when she found the ball kept coming back to her, she became desperate. Badr was 8-4 ahead in the first ready to walk off court but found she could not take the final point, she gave away three points in desperation as the score reached 8-8. She reached game ball again, but Chan evened the score yet again and then audaciously hit a bodyline serve that caught Badr napping and Hong Kong were one game up.

Chan did it again in the second game, quietly working her way back from a 0-6 deficit to win 9-6. This virtually destroyed Badr’s confidence and resolve and Chan ran through the third game 9-0 in short order, to give Hong the first rubber.

I can’t quite understand why Annie Au is the Hong Kong number one – I don’t think she is as good as Chan. It didn’t really matter; her opponent was the peerless Raneem El Weleily and nobody under 19 can beat this tiny 16 year old. She can paste the ball, cut it, drop, volley it from six fee over her head and in general can do anything except turn water into wine. She is a sublime squash talent and I doubt if Au and Chan together could beat her. She simply outplayed Au in all areas of the court to win 9-3, 9-3,9-0 leaving the job of cleaning up to Lina El Tannir against Chiu Ka Kei, the Hong Kong number three.

Egypt's Raneem El Weleily defeats Annie Au from Hong Kong (photo © www.proeventfotos.com)

But a huge shock was in store: Miss Chiu would not be cleaned up and played the match of her life . El Tannir had a rude awakening when she led the first game 8-6 only to find that Chiu refused to give up and played exceptional squash to win the game10-8. At this point the impossible thought of Egypt not winning the title seemed possible. El Tannir, still rattled from the shock of losing the first game, threw away the first five points of the second game. She showed guts in pulling herself together and never allowing Chiu another point in that game to win 9-5. She was no longer going for quick points and was moving Chiu around the court before going short.

In the third game El Tannir had gotten rid of her superiority and nerves and started playing her best squash, using her head as much as her racket. She was still hitting winners from Chiu’s serves but once the rally was under way she played them cleverly to win the game 9-6. It had been a hard game but the Egyptian now knew what she had to do while Chiu knew that she was capable of turning it around and and the squash world on its head.

In the fourth game she did just that, hitting the type of winners you normally expect from the Egyptian players. There was also some body language from El Tannir showing she was feeling the pace and was tiring: Chiu went from 2-4 down to win 9-4. The match was still in the balance but the balance was tipping away from Egypt.

Hong Kong's Tony Choi talks to SquashTalk's Martin Bronstein about Hong Kong's wonderful win (photo © www.proeventfotos.com)

The fifth started badly for El Tannir and got worse. She was slashing at balls and leaving them sitting up by the short line and Chiu took every advantage offered to run to a 5-0 lead, stop a mini-comeback and then cruise to a 9-3 win to give Hong Kong an historic win over a country that we all though unbeatable.

This is a superb outcome for squash – it adds yet another country to the top echelon and broadens the global yet again.

ENGLAND BEATS US TO TAKE THIRD PLACE
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Lily Lorentzen gave the USA it's one point in the third place playoff (photo © www.proeventfotos.com)

England defied the revised seeding to show the organizers that their original seeding of three was correct. Due to England’s bad results in the individuals, they were downgraded from third to fifth, switching with Malaysia. But solid work from Fiona Moverly and Susie King in the team matches ensure that they ended up in third place, which was right for them.

Mind you, it could have been different if Kristen Lange had played with a little more thought. She played Moverly, a tall player with a long reach who loves to volley drop the ball. Especially off the serve. In the first game she did this six or seven times and still it didn’t occur to Lange to change or vary her serve. Moverly was noticeably slow to the front and Lange should have been driving to the back and then going short. Instead she was going short to quickly and Moverly would move in and counter-drop for a winner.

Moverly won the first game 9-5 and then found that the US coaching team had given Lange some explicit instructions. The serve was now being varied and Lange was hitting more to the back. The difference was immediate: she won that second game 9-2 to set up a possibility of a real upset; if Lange won, then Lorentzen would surely beat Rachel Willmott to give the US the victory.

Lange could not keep to the game plan in the third game, failed to pass the reach of Moverly and paid the price as Moverly volley dropped for winner after winner. So the moment had passed as Moverly took the third and fourth games, which almost ensured England’s third place.

Lily Lorentzen played her usual brand of near faultless squash to overcome the England number one in straight games and so it was left to Amanda Siebert to handle the superior skills of Suzie King. There was a lot of barging and angry stares but King simply had too much in her bag while Siebert was unable to produce the constant good length and width which might have blunted the King game.

King won in three, England won the tie 2-1 and secured third place giving the USA a fourth place finish, which they must surely be happy with.

Malaysia fought off the Canadian challenge to take the fifth spot and Canada too must be more than happy with sixth position having been seeded nine.

Germany had to go with just two players in their match against Wales, the other two players having to depart early because of family commitments. The talented Eve Rixen went to a quick two game lead but Rachel Green never gave up even when 2-7 down in the third,. She clung on by her fingernails long after Rixen should have been in the shower with a straight games victory. Amazingly Green won that third game, took the fourth and then the fifth and the match from a rattled Rixen. So another heroine for the day. Green’s marvelous performance clinched the Welsh victory as Germany had no number three. This put Wales in eleventh in the final order, one up on their 12 seeding.

On an adjacent court Australia and New Zealand were doing battle. The Austrian coach told me they had to win the first match if they were to beat the Kiwis. Vanessa Pickerd looked as though she had secured that crucial victory when she quickly went two games up against Kerry Wickett. But Wickett fought back to even the match and as Pickerd got more and more upset with herself and the referee (for no good reason) her error count rose and her determination visibly ebbed away. Wickett took the final game 9-4 and put New Zealand on the way to victory. Another heroic performance.

The Hong Kong Team (l to r Chiu Ka Kei, Joey Chan, Annie Au, Leung Shin Nga) with their trophy: (photo © www.proeventfotos.com)

FINAL ORDER
1 HONG KONG (2)
2 EGYPT (1)
3 ENGLAND (5)
4 USA (4)
5 MALAYSIA (3)
6 CANADA (9)
7 NEW ZEALAND (8)
8 AUSTRALIA (11)
9 FRANCE (7)
10 SOUTH AFRICA (6)
11 GERMANY (10)
12 WALES (12)
13 NETHERLANDS (13/18)
14 MEXIC0 (13/18)
15 JAPAN (13/18)
16 SCOTLAND (13/18)
17 BELGIUM
18 SWITZERLAND
19 IRELAND
20 FINLAND