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Crombie wins 2003 US Pro
[semis report] [quarters report]
Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk; all rights of reproduction reserved.
June 16, 2003      

Jamie Crombie Photo © Debra Tessier 2003

When Jamie Crombie became eligible to represent the United States in international competition this past autumn after sitting out the required three years following his participation on the Canadian national squad, the expectation among many squash aficionados was that he would swiftly soar right to the top of an American squash scene that for the prior two seasons had been dominated by 2001 and 2002 S. L. Green champion Damian Walker.

Then in January, when Walker's unbelievably sharp performance in the final of the Harvard Club of New York Invitational, the first U. S. Team Selection event of the season, earned him a five-game victory over Crombie, the pervading conviction became that the two of them would have a great rivalry all season and consistently go head-to-head in the finals. Walker had not dropped a single GAME in Americans-only competition throughout the 2001-2002 season and his string of 3-0 victories in this environment had encompassed 17 consecutive matches before being snapped by Tim Wyant in their four-game Harvard Club of New York semi-final.

The failure of even that adjusted prediction to come to fruition can be proven by the realization that when Walker and Crombie squared off yesterday afternoon in the final of the 2003 U. S. Pro Championships in Los Angeles, the last tournament of the season prior to the Team Trials two weeks hence, it was their first encounter since their memorable battle at the Harvard Club, and even THAT long-delayed rematch became possible only when Crombie, a 3-0 loser to Preston Quick in their most recent pair of matches, dramatically rallied from 0-2, 1-5 down against Quick Saturday afternoon in their semi.

In the interim between the first 2002-2003 Team Selection tournament and the last, a stomach flu forced Walker to withdraw from Greenwich, Crombie lost to Julian Illingworth in the early rounds of Westchester and Quick defeated both Crombie and Walker to win the S. L. Green before repeating his win over Crombie at Merion (which Walker didn't enter) a few weeks later. But Crombie made his unexpectedly long wait for his revenge well worth it when he out-lasted Walker yesterday afternoon by a score of 9-4 9-5 5-9 9-3 to consolidate his comeback win over Quick and generate a degree of momentum coming into the Trials that will be difficult for anyone to repulse.

He, Walker and Quick are in commanding statistical position to clinch the three available spots for squash players on the American team in the Pan American Games, a prestigious quadrennial event, which is recognized as this hemisphere's counterpart to the Olympics and which will be held during the last two weeks of August. The team's composition will be determined based 40% on season-end ranking, 20% on the S. L. Green and the remaining 40% on the Trials, so some other contender will have to have a huge performance AND one of this trio will have to badly underachieve for anyone else to displace any of them.

The major difference between yesterday's final and its Harvard Club predecessor was that Walker, while playing to a very praiseworthy standard, was understandably unable to quite replicate his magical display of accuracy five months earlier, while Crombie seemed to have taken his already outstanding fitness and mobility to an even higher level. Especially in the fourth game, which featured by far the longest points of the entire 90-minute match, his ubiquity and ability to respond to Walker's pressure eventually enabled him to consistently emerge with one hard-earned point after another.

Walker still was able to establish positional superiority, but an unusual number of points ended with him hitting tops of tins due to a combination of fatigue and frustration that caused him to err (albeit by the slimmest of margins) in his execution. By the end, Crombie was too far ahead to be reeled in, and with the goal line in sight, he surged to a well-deserved victory. It was the third five-game match that the doughty Walker has dropped in recent months, having been preceded by the match-ball he held at 8-4 over Quick in the S. L. Green and a riveting quarter-final with Viktor Berg last month in the Quentin Hyder Invitational in Manhattan.

The outcome of yesterday's remaining matches was substantially affected by leg injuries incurred earlier in the grueling weekend. A strained gluteus muscle hampered Quick as his four-game loss (after winning the first) to Richard Chin in the three-four play-off wore on, and Julian Illingworth became progressively unable to change direction due to a hamstring injury that rendered him unable to effectively cope with Tim Wyant's all-court game in the final round of the Consolation, which the latter took handily in four games.

US PRO RESULTS:
FINALS:
Jamie Crombie def Damian Walker 3-2

SEMI-FINALS
Damian Walker (1) d Richard Chin, 3-0; Jamie Crombie (3-4) d Preston Quick (2), 3-2.

QUARTER-FINALS: [report]
Damian Walker(1) d Dylan Patterson, 3-0;
Richard Chin d. Julian Illingworth(3-4), 3-0;
Jamie Crombie (3-4) d Tim Wyant, 3-0;
Preston Quick(2) d Beau River, 3-1.

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