USSRA Mens Squash Team Try outs 2002

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Quick, Walker Look Strong
By Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk

Opening Round Action in Greenwich

Reigning National Champion Damian Walker and just-crowned U. S. Pro champion Preston Quick both won their first-round matches in the round-robin pool competition of the 2002 U. S. Team Trials to determine which four players will represent America in the Pan American Federation tournament in Quito, Ecuador this August.

Walker won a long and unexpectedly competitive though three-game battle with Richard Chin, who pushed him to a 9-7 10-8 9-7 tally in which every game was as close as the score, while Quick was in complete control throughout his unexpectedly dominant 9-2, 4 and 2 victory over Dave McNeely.

Quick was clearly still riding the momentum of the U. S. Pro title he had won just four days ago in Los Angeles, where he had won a three-game final over Julian Illingworth. Quick's class of 2000 contemporary McNeely had defeated him several dozen consecutive times during their completely overlapping junior and intercollegiate careers, but Quick has fully reversed that trend this past season in an about-face that seemed to have been keyed by their match this past January in the Trinity Open, where McNeely had seen a two games to love lead and 5-0 advantage in the third game dissolve into a deflating five-game defeat. Quick had won their next match, in the semis of the S. L. Green two months later in March, in a fairly routine four, but even that confrontation was far closer than the rout that took place this evening in Greenwich.

Quick's extensive experience on the ISDA pro doubles circuit this past season, where he broke into the outer fringes of the top twenty, has clearly had a major enhancing effect on his singles game. He has been able to transfer both the upper body strength he has acquired and the ability to hit shots onto the softball court, and the resulting increase in pace and pressure was more than McNeely could handle. The latter kept trying to be accurate along the walls (a trademark of his game), slow the pace down and hurt Quick with his short game, but Quick consistently foiled this stratagem by cutting the ball off and keeping McNeely enough off balance to prevent him from attaining the ball control he needs to keep Quick in check.

The Walker-Chin match involved the same protagonists who had played an excellent five-game final in the 2001 S. L. Green event in Seattle 15 months ago. Walker won that fifth game 9-2, as well as all 42 games he has subsequently played in Americans-only tourneys, namely the 2001 Team Trials, the Trinity Open, the Westchester Classic and the 2002 S. L. Green.

Throughout, Walker has demonstrated a level of court control and unflappability that have especially risen to the fore whenever he is facing game-balls against him, as has happened in a half-dozen instances during this run, including in the second game of his match with Chin tonight. The latter played this match with the comfort level borne of both his underdog status and, perhaps, the familiarity with Walker's game that their recent weekly practice sessions have engendered. His excellent short game had been completely nullified by the hot Los Angeles courts last weekend during the straight-set drubbing he took at Quick's hands in the semis of the U. S. Pro.

But the well air-conditioned and solid Greenwich court that hosted this event rewarded this aspect of Chin's game and enabled him to press his formidable foe in every game and even brought him to an 8-6 advantage in the second before grudgingly ceding to Walker's determined rally at the end. The level of Walker's game never drops when these tight end-game situations arise, and he seems to pay more attention and to be more careful during these crucial junctures. Additionally, he has by now acquired a degree of confidence that serves him extremely well against this crop of opponents.

Nevertheless, a very strong performance by Chin, who can clinch a spot on what would be his eighth U. S. Pan Am Fed team with a win tomorrow over Jason Jewell, whom he defeated three games to love in the early rounds in Los Angeles.

The other Friday evening match will feature Quick against Beau River, with the trials then resuming Saturday afternoon and concluding on Sunday morning.

Summary of Thursday's play:
Damian Walker d. Richard Chin 9-7 10-8 9-7
Preston Quick d Dave McNeely 9-2 9-4 9-2

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