Barrington, El Amir win in Ottawa
March 7, 2004 © 2004 by Neil Tubb, Ottawa Ontario

A BATTLE OF CONTRASTS
Joey Barrington and Mike Corren, despite having fought savage battles throughout the previous three rounds to end up in the final, provided the sold-out gallery at the Ottawa Athletic Club with a match for the ages. Providing more drama and plot twists than any movie thriller, these two warriors fought each other to a standstill for just under two hours, to the absolute delight of the fans.

The two players definitely have different approaches to the game. Corren, the tough Australian, is cut from the Chris Dittmar mold, favouring hard volleys to pressure, followed up with dramatic nicks. Barrington, the serious Englishman, takes consistency on court to new heights, serving notice that in order to beat him, you will have to pay a high physical toll.

For the first two games of the final, however, it looked like Corren was up to the task of beating Barrington at his own game. Barrington, as he’s done the rest of the tournament, kept his drives tight, his errors low, and waited for Corren’s mistakes. Corren decided to rally patiently with Barrington, but at key times in each of the first two games, always found the right short boast or nick that eluded the lightning fast Briton.

Rather than being unnerved by having to come from behind, Barrington returned for the third game looking even more determined. As he had done in his quarterfinal match with Eric Galvez, he actually managed increased the pace of the match when he found himself down. By cutting out almost all mistakes and keeping his drives rail-tight, Barrington’s pressure started to get to Corren, who was slowly beginning to tire. Barrington soon collected the third game.

The fourth game featured more pressure from Barrington, and Corren’s shot selection started to look a little erratic. Instead of waiting for the right moment as he’d done earlier, Corren went short too often, allowing Barrington to stretch him further. Barrington’s defence at this time was inhuman—almost every delicate boast or drop from Corren was returned with a high, flowing lob to the back. Finding himself too far behind after a Barrington run of points, Corren gave up and saved himself for the deciding fifth game.

Here in the fifth, battle was truly joined. A championship was on the line, and neither would budge an inch. Each battled at times with their concentration, and it was point for point almost all the way. Finally Barrington scored a breakthrough, match ball at 14-13, only to have Corren pull him back again. At 16-15, though, Barrington found the squash gods were smiling on him, as he secured his first ever PSA title with a back wall nick.

“To be honest, I welcome that bit of luck (the back wall nick), as I’ve lost big matches on that sort of thing,” said Barrington after the match. “I felt quite good physically going into the third, and so even though I was down two games, I tried hard to get my rhythm and apply more pressure to Mike. In the end, it couldn’t really have been a closer match, but I’m thrilled to have come out the winner.”

Joey Barrington bt Mike Corren 10-15, 13-15, 15-8, 15-8, 17-15 (117 mins)

RUNA RETA ON THE DEFENSIVE

The Women’s final featured two young players who were both in search of their first WISPA professional title. Eman El Amir, the talented Egyptian, had shown throughout the tournament her all-round powerful game, featuring both hard drives and volleys to length, as well as the softest of drops. Ottawa’s own Runa Reta also packs a lot of power into a relatively small frame, but also showed fantatsic mobility and determination. The contrast promised to provide some great squash, and the fans were not disappointed.

Although El Amir admitted before that she’d be a bit nervous for the final, it certainly wasn’t apparent as the first game began. El Amir confidently stepped into her shots from the first point, throwing Reta on the defensive. While she did display some fine touch of her own, Reta never really got settled, and surrendered the game 9-5.

The second game saw El Amir starting to control the rallies even more, but soon some unforced errors started to cancel out her glowing winners. This obviously gave Reta some hope, and Reta worked to find her own rhythm in the match. El Amir still managed to get a nice run of points together to sew up the second game 9-5.

Reta came back on court for the third in a much more focused mood. It was clear that, for all of El Amir’s shotmaking abilities, the Egyptian was vunerable if you could get her off the T and moving around the court. By starting to volley more and using some frontcourt deception, Reta managed to put together her own fine run of points, and secured the third game 9-1.

Where before it looked like El Amir would run away with it, the match now looked like it was up for grabs. Things started to go against Reta, as El Amir’s magic came back, and the Egyptian stormed to 7-2. But, with her coach screaming for her to “Push!”, and the local crowd cheering her on, Reta clawed her way back into the match. Soon it was 6-7, and all looked possible. But Reta had given herself no leeway in getting behind, and with a few flicks of her racquet, El Amir had won her first WISPA title.

Eman El Amir bt Runa Reta 9-5, 9-5, 1-9, 9-6 (55 mins)

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