Power Shakes off the Rust
RICKETTS TO TENACIOUS FOR WHITE   

By Martin Bronstein © 2003; all rights of reproduction reserved.
May 12, 2003 

Ricketts kept on attacking against White, photo © 2003 Fritz Borchert for Squashtalk

Anthony Ricketts does not play squash with just his heart Or his brain. Or his intellect. Ricketts plays squash with every fibre of his being. His entire life and hopes are invested in every shot, every rally and every match.

Squash is not an intellectual exercise for this very likeable young Australian; it's his very life force.

This makes him a very hard man to play and John White, the world number four, found this out today in the frigid Broadgate Arena. White found an opponent who was just as fresh, fit and committed in the last rally of the fifth game as he was in the first rally of the first game. You have probably got my message by now: Ricketts cares.

Together with Jonathon Power and Ong Beng Hee, White and Ricketts make up the Harrow Group and it is this group that, I surmise, will create the most excitement in the first three days. White can hit the ball as hard as anybody and he can do it all day long and make it disappear down the nick as often as not. Ricketts can almost match him for muscle. Between them they upped the pace considerably from the three matches that preceded them. The crack of rubber on glass went on for 87 minutes as they fought for the all important victory. In the group matches, two losses usually mean you are out of the semi-finals and with Power waiting for them in the next
rounds, both of them wanted a victory under their belt.

Power had too much repertoire for Ong Beng Hee, photo © 2003 Fritz Borchert for Squashtalk

They hammered the ball at a relentless pace which meant that even loose balls were hard to retrieve. But it was Ricketts who had the harder job as White effortlessly thundered the ball around the court, always looking for the nick. Ricketts, his body taut with intensity, often over-anticipated
White's shots and then found himself trying to go the other way ; he spent
quite a bit of time falling over or almost falling over.
The 24 minute first game was edgily close; White led, Ricketts recovered
and led 13-10, White cracked his way back to 14-13 and when Ricketts buried
White's serve, White called set three and won them from an opponent whose every sinew seemed to be twanging.

Ricketts, slowed himself down in the second and ran to an unbelievable 11-2 lead. White calmly took the next seven points in a row to put the game in doubt at 9-11 but then made an error to break his own run and from there Ricketts ran out to 15-12.

White was untroubled by the reversal and almost ran through the nine minute third game from 5-7 to 15-9, as he started to find the nick. Ricketts started to float the ball towards the end in an attempt to slow the game down, but White just continued pasting it.

It was Ricketts' turn to start in a positive frame of mind in the fourth game and, with the help of a free point, the referee penalising White for an audible obscenity (which I didn't hear) took the game 15-7.

The fifth was dramatically close to 8-all, but Ricketts had amassed four of those points on strokes. He was also putting in some fine drop shots and doing some wonderful scampering to keep rallies going that he should have lost. Finally it came down to Ricketts' pure, raw desire to win that saw him home 15-11 after 87 dynamite minutes.

Jonathon Power will not relish facing either of them. He has played very little in the last couple of month and while he beat Ong Beng Hee in his first group match, 3/1, he will have to raise his game considerably in his last two matches. Ong Beng Hee, who had such a miserable time last year in this tournament, was in better form and mentally more relaxed today . He kept Power on court for 68 minutes before losing 15-5, 13-15, 15-8 and 15-9, and very upbeat after the loss.

"I feel much happier now. Last year I was tired, I was thinking too much
and couldn't play my game. Now I am more relaxed. I learnt a few things
playing Jonathon. But the hardest thing when you play him is the way he hold his
shot. He holds it for so long that it gets very tiring.," Beng Hee told me after the match.

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