SquashTalk >News > Italian Mega Open Day Two
|
SQUASHTALK
PRO SQUASH HEADLINES |
|
|
|
|
Mega-Italian Open
Finals
Semis
Day 3 -AM
Day
2
Day 1
Preview
 | |||
|
| CURRENT
EVENTS | ||
|
|||
Golan marches on ... women's first round
by
Martin Bronstein © 2002 SquashTalk
May
9, 2002 © 2002
Women's First Day, Men's Quarter Finals in Brescia Italy
Brescia, Italy. Thursday
INTERESTING NAMES,
PITY ABOUT THE SQUASH
I could write a helluva lot more about the beauty of the women and some
of their exotic names than the squash they played. WISPA often has a 'short
game' problem in early rounds, even at major events. Here in the shopping
mall in Brescia with players lower down the ranking list, the problem
occasionally became chronic. Number one seed Madeleine Perry from Ireland
at 26 in the rankings was 80 places better than her first opponent, Laurence
Bois of France, but it might as well have been 800 places. I'm sure the
French lady can play better than this, but on this court, obviously outclassed,
she could do little right. The first game was over in 3 minutes, 9-0,
the second in 4 minutes, 9-3, and the third 9-3 in 5 minutes. All Perry
had to do to win was remain standing. She did and she is now in the quarters
having hardly moistened her shirt.
TRIO OF TOUGH AUSSIES
Veteran French international Corinne Castets then faced, slim, blonde
(careful Bronstein) Heidi Mather of Australia, a name I have not come
across before in junior or senior circles. While Mather showed the running
and length of the young Castets showed, through some wonderful racket
work, that she has been around for a long time. Mather did all the running
and retrieved drops that Castets thought were winners. It was a case of
young legs and a good basic game getting the better of old legs and sophisticated
shots. Castets could have won the first game but allowed it to slip away
from 7-all, She could have won the second when she forced extra points,
but lacked the determination to battle for those two last vital points.
By the third game she was definitely looking forward to the showers and
the lithe (stoppit!) Miss Mather won it 9-1 for a 31 minute victory.
Mather is one of three Australian entries, together with Lisa Camilleri and Amelia Pittock, both former members of the national junior team. Camilleri is expected to go a long way and she was all business against Holland's Dagmar Vermeulen. (What a mellifluous name that is; sounds like the name of very expensive chocolates.) Her squash was less than required to even slightly challenge Miss Camilleri and it was all over in 17 minutes, 27-2 to the Aussie.
BREAKFAST WITH KATLINE
And then came the totally gorgeous, lithe, blonde, wonderfully proportioned
Katline Cauwels of Belgium. (Don't you think that men who can't control
their libido should be banned from covering women's sports?) I had breakfast
with Katline this morning. Well, we were the only two people in the vast
dining room, of this 2 month old hotel that has forgotten to hire staff.
On the first morning I was the only person in the entire hotel. I ended
up slicing my own salami.
Anyway, Katline and I sat at separate tables (we didn't want people to talk ) and in the course of our shouted conversation she told me she was the Belgian number two, was finishing off her thesis at university and would like to go full time on the circuit but would have to take a part time job to help pay for the travel. I quite forgot what I ate for breakfast.
Katline was playing Frania Gillen-Buchert. Now there's a name to roll around your tongue at elocution classes. Despite her name, Frania is Scottish via South Africa with a Polish father and some Scottish blood hanging around her family tree. She's been living in Scotland for eight years or so, so is a genuine Scots prospect. I think. Katline took 21 minutes to beat her in three; her long history of international squash at junior and now senior level was simply too much for Frania Gillen-Buchert. And did I mention that Katline's face has enough angelic beauty to fill frescoes on half a dozen churches?
SOUTH OF THE BORDER
AND NORTH OF FLORENCE
And then Mexico's Samantha Teran took on lucky loser, local player Chiara
Ferrari. What a name! Makes Sophie Loren sound like a barmaid. Chiara
Ferrari was as beautiful as her name but played squash like a Chevvy sedan.
Samantha wasn't much better and between them they could barely put together
a ten shot rally together and the back wall remained almost untouched
for the entire 23 minutes of the regretful match. Things didn't get very
much better when number two seed Isabelle Stoehr of France played another
Dutch player Milja Dorenbos. Milja Dorenbos…set that to music and make
the top ten in a day. Milja was simply outclassed and should be made to
play 1000 length shots a day for a month.
FINALLY — SQUASH
We had to wait for England's Helen Easton to play Italy's national champion
Sonia Pasteris to get some real squash, for a match to go beyond 30 minutes
and three games. And Miss Easton is built ... ah ... if she were laid
horizontal she would make the Himalayas look like Holland. If ever a body
will never need silicone, Miss Easton, ah, umm Sorry. I really am very
sorry.
The squash was very good; Easton did not expect the sophistication and mobility of Pasteris and lost the first game quite handily 2-9. From that moment on, each point was a battle with both players using the height and width of the court as well as putting in the drops at just the right time. Pasteris' gritty determination was wonderful as were some of her remarkable retrievals.
Easton kept her moving and forced her into some memorable retrievals and gradually ground her opponent down to take the next three games, due more to her greater experience than superior squash.
And finally Amelia Pittock, student of the great Vicki Cardwell, demolished Aurelia Eneide (say that name very slowly with an Italian accident and you could experience eternity). Aurelia speaks Italian like a native and English like an Australian, showing her roots. She got four points in 20 minutes, but she looked quite gorgeous doing it.
FIRST ROUND RESULTS,
WOMEN:
[1] Madelein Perry (Ire) bt Laurence Bois (Fra) 9-0, 9-3, 9-3 (17mins).
Heidi Mather (Aus) bt Corinne Castets (Fra)9-7, 10-8, 9-1 (36mins).
[4] Samantha Teran (Mex) bt Chiara Ferrari (Ita) 9-4, 9-4, 9-4, (23mins)
Amelia Pittock (Aus) bt Aurelia Eneide (Ita) 9-2, 9-2, 9-0. (20mins)
Katline Cauwels (Bel) bt Frania Gillen-Buchert (Sco) 9-5, 9-5, 9-5. (21mins).
[3}Helen Easton (Eng) bt Sonia Pasteris (Ita) 2-9, 9-4, 9-5, 9-0 (41mins)
Lisa Camilleri (Aus) bt Dagmar Vermeulen (Neth) 9-1, 9-1, 9-0 (17mins)
[2] Isabelle Stoehr (Fra) bt Milja Dorenbos (Neth) 9-4, 9-1, 9-1 (24mins).
HARD GRIND FOR THE
MEN
Only Peter Pistijn had and easy route into the semi-finals, playing far
better than he did yesterday while his opponent, Swiss Andre Holderegger
played well under his normal standard. His shoulders dropped halfway through
the first game and he never looked like getting on even terms with the
Belgian champion. With his dark good looks and bandanna Holderegger looks
like one of those evil pirates that Errol Flynn would polish off with
one swipe of his blade, but today he was a pussy and lost the third game
15-1, his head down and his mind far away.
The next match was an engrossing battle between two players who seemed to think carefully about each shot and while it was a 3/0 result for Spaniard Borja Golan, it took him 50 minutes of intense rallies to defeat Swede Christian Drakenberg, the man who brought off a stunning victory in the European team championships when he defeated Chris Walker, ranked seven in the world.
Golan always seemed to hold the upper hand and Drakenberg spent most of the time reacting to Golan's carefully plotted attack. Golan kept this domination because he holds his shot well and chooses his shots superbly. He then anticipates his opponent's moves and the total package makes him very hard to beat. He has improved considerably in the eight months he has been John Milton, where he trains with Alex Stait, Alister Walker as well as Mark Chaloner and Rodney Durbach.
"I volley more now and I am better in my head, better concentration," he told Squashtalk, adding that an ankle injury kept him off the court for two months and has only been training since December.
Top seed Davide Bianchetti finally reached peak form in the third game against Manchester's Andrew Whipp, the 21 year old student at Sheffield University. He was far from outclassed by the world number 47, but Bianchetti knows how to construct a rally to either putting in a winner or forcing an error from his opponent. It is a process of each shot being just a little bit more difficult for your opponent to play until he/ she is finally struggling to reach the ball at all. After winning the first two games in 25 minutes, Bianchetti seemed to slow down in the third, having bags of time to use his sublime racket skills. He was now caressing the ball all over the court, forcing Whipp into the step'n'fetchit role.
In the process Bianchetti demonstrated why he should really be up in the top 20 rather than his present position where he has been failing to qualify in major tournaments and hence unable to get big ranking points. Whipp thought his own game was below par, but always giving Bianchetti a three or four point start made life hard for him.
"Davide played very well. He was stead and didn't make any errors, while I couldn't get over my bad start. He'll beat Pastijn 3/0 in the semis," Whipp said. The final match showed two Englishman running their legs off as they each covered the entire court and picked up impossible drops. Hadrian Stiff, the number two seed had to work very hard indeed to win 3/0/ Ryder was really quite remarkable in his coverage and movement and there were times when Stiff must have wondered what he had to do to win a point from this incredible mover.
He chose set three at 14-all in the first 18 minute game and played each point well to win 17-15. Ryder led the entire second game, fearlessly slotting in winners all over the place. He led 7-2 and then 11-7, but once again Stiff played the endgame well and once again they were 14-all and once again, Stiff came out the winner. The final game was just seven minutes long with Stiff winning 15-5. Would it have been different had Ryder won that second game ? Apparently not.
"It was really hot in the court and there seemed to be no air. I felt really ill tonight - something I ate, " he said. Stiff congratulated him on the way he got everything back. "After two rallies, I wondered what I had to do to get you out of position," Stiff told Ryder while agreeing that there seemed to be no air in the court.
MEN'S QUARTER FINAL
RESULTS.
Davide Bianchetti (Ita) bt Andrew Whipp (Eng) 15-11, 15-10, 15-7. (38mins)
Peter Pastijn (Belgium) bt Andre Holderegger (Swi) 15-5, 15-7, 15-1 (37mins)
Borja Golan (Spa) bt Christian Drakenberg (Swed) 15-6, 15-10, 15-12 (50mins)
Hadrian Stiff (Eng) bt Chris Ryder (Eng)17-15, 17-15, 15-5 (45mins)
Squashtalk.com
All materials © 1999-2005. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published
by Squashtalk LLC, 409 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 102, Acton, MA 01720 USA, Editor
and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send
comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2005 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced
in any form except for one-time personal use.
