Hyder Trophy Squash 2003 NYC

SquashTalk >News > 2003 Hyder Trophy Final Report

CURRENT EVENTS
St Louis Open
Kolkata PSA
Seattle WISPA
POF WISPA

RECENT EVENTS
CAS Islamabad
English Open
SquashWorks

CONTENT
Hall of Fame
News Index
RSS Version
Club Links
Gear Links
E-boast Newsletter
(sign up now free)

www.princesquash.com

Razik And Wee Triumph
GENEVER AND RAZIK MEET IN MEN'S HYDER TROPHY FINAL
[Men's Draw / Resuts] [Women's Draw/Result]

By Rob Dinerman © 2003; all rights of reproduction reserved.
May 18, 2003

SQUASHTALK PRO SQUASH HEADLINES
	Recent Events: Garrard St Louis Heliopolis Quito Seattle Other info: Audi interviews Video recordings Player profiles Rankings Calendar

Shahier Razik and Sharon Wee both fulfilled their No. 1 pre-tournament seeding in the 35th edition of the Quentin Hyder invitational, the longest continually running softball tournament in the United States, which was hosted this year for the first time by the Sports Club/LA on Manhattan's upper east side. Each prevailed in four hard-fought games over British opponents in their respective finals, and after losing the second game, both were able to garner a competitive third game, which they then used as the springboard to a one-sided fourth-game close-out. Razik overcame the tenacious second seed Peter Genever 15-7 12-15 15-10 15-6, while Wee won her third career WISPA title (preceded by the '98 Nigerian Open and the 2002 Japan Open) with a 9-0 5-9 9-7 9-2 score that prevented her eighth-seeded 19-year-old opponent Alison Waters from winning her first career WISPA tournament.

RAZIK WINS THE MEN'S TROPHY

The men's final was for the most part defined by the smoothness and wondrous touch that characterizes the Egyptian-born Canadian Razik's game, which in this case was more than enough to subdue the strong-willed Englishman Genever in the third and rubber career meeting between these two PSA veterans. Genever is a rough-around-the-edges battler who grinds out long enervating points, an approach that had eventually proved an effective antidote to Viktor Berg's charismatic game in Saturday evening's showcase semi-final. His workmanlike blue-collar style contrasted with Razik's innate grace and a degree of anticipation that often enabled him to begin moving for Genever's shots before the latter had completed his swing.

What really doomed the second seed's upset aspirations, though, was the early deficits that faced him in each of the three games that he lost. He fell behind 5-1 in the first game, 4-0 in the third and 6-0 in the final fourth. Even though Genever was able to rally to 4-5 in the first game and to 3-4 in the third, he was never able to draw even in either game (or to muster any comeback effort at all in the fourth) and the burden of always playing from behind became a definite and attritional factor as the match wore on. So too did the way in which Razik flowed seemingly effortlessly to the ball, as compared with the immensely strenuous fashion in which the mustachioed Genever powered his way around the court. Razik is as flexible as a fish in water, able to change direction or adapt to any permutation in a point in an unflappable manner reminiscent of Mark Talbott, the now-retired WPSA superstar. But unlike Talbott, Razik also possesses a sweet short game, especially his drop shots that seem to melt on the front wall.

Those traits betrayed him only once this match, in the last stretch of the second game, when he contributed three tins to Genever's game-ending mini-burst from 11-all to 15-12. However, with the match finally square at a game apiece, Genever, who had been forced to work awfully hard in eking out that second game, ran into a bad tinning patch early in the third and was never able to close the gap to under two points. The final 15-10 score was deceptive, as Razik led 14-7 before letting up for a few points at the end. Even in losing that game, though, Genever still seemed to retain the never-say-die determination that is so major a part of his squash persona.
But even this quality finally forsook him early in the fourth game, which swiftly got away from him (6-0 and 11-1) and out of reach. It must be said as well that by the time this 100-minute Hyder final concluded, even the 80-odd spectators jamming the Sports Club/LA main gallery had become sated and jaded by the length and predictable patterns that characterized the lion's share of the points, and had ceased or at least noticeably toned down their previously boisterous applause. Everybody was good and ready for the match to end, seemingly including even the doughty Genever, who appeared by midway in the fourth game to have grudgingly come to terms with the fact that Razik, his superior by more than 20 points in the PSA rankings, was playing too well, and in any case was by that time too far ahead, to be overtaken.

Shahier Razik displays his speedy court coverage
© 2003 Debra Tessier for Squashtalk

Appropriately, the match came to a close on a final Razik forehand straight drop shot that gently kissed the front wall just above the tin and settled comfortably on the floor almost without bouncing, while from some distance away Genever watched with unhappy resignation as one of the only balls all weekend that he didn't chase sealed his fate. Very few players in the world are able to out-work him, but on this day Razik clearly out-played him, as he had also done to the entire powerful 16-man field, which he had dominated without dropping a single game prior to the final.

SHARON WEE STOPS WATERS' RUN

The powerfully built Wee is not blessed with either formful strokes or a
natural touch, but her strong legs and admirable ball placement, especially
the high and well-angled lobs she throws up off both flanks, has brought her
into the top 25 of the WISPA rankings. She also hangs in exceptionally well
even when under duress and is not afraid to mix it up while jockeying for
position at the tee. It took the slender Waters, a 3-0 quarter-final victim
of Wee's just two weeks ago in Salt Lake City, a full game-plus to acclimate
herself to the physical nature of this match, but once she got her game in
gear midway through the second, she was able to erase a 5-1 deficit in one
hand and continue her momentum all the way through the remainder of that game.

Waters, who had reached the final via a pair of Saturday upsets over the higher-ranked Wendy Maitland and Amelia Pittock, was especially effective when the play was concentrated in the right front-court, where she collected a number of tins from Wee (who looked uncomfortable with her forehand straight drop shots) and was able as well to wrong-foot her Malaysian opponent by holding the ball and alternating forehand cross courts with her own usually accurate straight drop. Wee seemed flustered at the way that second game had turned against her after such an encouraging start, but she returned to the court for the third game with renewed determination to carry the attack as much as possible.

The match swung on the back-and-forth end portion of this game, in which
once again Waters faced down an early deficit on a spurt that carried her from 3-7 to 7-all, a repeat of the second game now a real possibility. A stroke call at this juncture got Wee the serve back and a blasted forehand cross court brought her to 8-7 and the first of what turned out to be FIVE
unconverted game-balls. Throughout this tense stage of the match, both women
battled fiercely as nearly 15 minutes passed without a change in the score. Realizing the importance of taking this game, both on the scoreboard and psychologically, Waters fought back like a tigress every time she faced a match-ball, but on the sixth of these Wee forced her into such a tight spot deep in the back left corner that she was unable to steer the ball back into play.

Falling just short in that game seemed to take a lot out of Waters, who quickly dropped the first two points of the fourth game on a tinned forehand volley drop shot and a shallow backhand Wee rail. The budding English star kept the match fairly even until the middle of that game, but at 2-4 she tinned a backhand drop shot and was fooled by a Wee cross court that opened the gap up to 6-2. Waters managed to get the serve back for the last time on a drop shot winner, but a long point ended up in Wee's column and, with the finish line now in clear sight, she buzzed energetically through the final three points, closing the CJSquash.com WISPA women's Open out with a backhand working boast that a fatigued Waters was unable to flag down.

MSRA AWARDS PRESENTED

The Hyder tournament as a whole was a celebration of squash at all levels, professional, amateur and age-group, and constituted both the conclusion and highlight of the 2002-2003 MSRA season. It was by all accounts the best event the MSRA has run in at least a decade, and a tribute especially to Tournament Chairman Alec Decker, who was ubiquitous in his fulfillment of the myriad administrative responsibilities such a mammoth undertaking entails, and to new MSRA President Alex Lau, who gave a gracious welcoming speech during the Saturday night festivities.

The major MSRA annual awards---notably the Edwin Bigelow Trophy For Excellence In Play to Damien Mudge, the Eddie Standing Sportsmanship Award to Tim Wyant, the Robert H. Lehman Award for most improved male player to Muzikar Andrabi, the Fernandez Trophy for most improved female player to Yvonne Lodders, the top junior Kate Brodsky Award to Marilla Hiltz and Garnett Booth, and the Wedgewood Trophy to Libby Welsh for her contribution to women's squash in the city ---were presented by MSRA officer Zoe Brunson Saturday evening. It is clear that a new day has dawned for the MSRA and that a new and promising era seems to be very much in the making.



	Schedules/Results Team previews


	Latest news Tournament Calendar Bronstein Global Gallery Videos History Pakistan Squash Camp Index Features Index Player Profiles Worldwide Clubs Worldwide Links Rankings Opinion/Perspective


	About Squash Just starting Books Letters to editor Job Exchange Improve Yourself Find a player Guestbook Advertise on SquashTalk Editorial Staff About Squashtalk

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.