If you can't stand the heat ...
May 8 2004 By Rob Dinerman, SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004 
 [Hyder Trophy Main Draw Results]    [Qualifying Results Complete]   

Shelley Kitchen qualified for her first WISPA ranking tournament final in nearly three years and will face top seed Fiona Geaves.(Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier)

Shelley Kitchen, the 24-year-old rising Kiwi star whose current No. 14 WISPA ranking is the highest of her seven-year professional career, withstood strong challenges from Jenny Tranfield at the end stages of the first and third games to reach the final round of the 2004 Hyder Women's Open via a 9-7 9-4 10-9 victory this afternoon. No. 2 seed Kitchen thereby qualified for her first WISPA ranking tournament final in nearly three years and will face top seed Fiona Geaves, who surmounted some major early-match trouble of her own before defeating Latasha Khan 2-9 9-1 9-4 9-2 in the first match of the day.

Latasha Khan (front) reeled off the final 5 points of the first game by cutting balls off and finishing points with commanding hard and low volleys against Fiona Geaves.(Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier)

Khan began the match in an aggressive and highly effective fashion, projecting a confidence that belied her winless history against WISPA No. 7 Geaves, who at age 36 is by a clear margin the most senior member of the top 20.

Geaves had struggled last night, blowing a 2-0, 5-2 advantage against her British compatriot Lauren Briggs in the quarters before finally winning 9-5 (from 5-all) in the fifth. Whether it was the grueling nature of that lengthy battle or simply the quality presented by her opponent, Geaves was on the defensive from the opening point of her match with Khan, just as the latter's quarter-final foe Katie Patrick had been in that one-sided (9-2, 1 and 1) match.

Khan was playing at a fast pace, hammering the ball off both wings, cutting everything off and manhandling Geaves, who by the end of that opening game was both way behind on the scoreboard and breathing heavily after being run all over the court by her American counterpart. But between games Geaves made a wise strategic adjustment that virtually immediately (after she had tinned Khan's first-point second-game serve to go down 1-0) caused the match to take a complete about-face.

Fiona Geaves was entirely in control in the 4th game.(Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier)

After Geaves's 9-1 match-equalizing second game, the defining moment occurred at the mid-point of the third. With the pair of evenly-divided blow-out games behind them, both women battled intensely for control, resulting in a 4-4 deadlock that lasted a half-dozen tension-building hands. One of them had to eventually break, and it turned out to be Khan, who contributed two unforced tins and a host of open balls to the 5-0 Geaves run that gave her that pivotal frame 9-4.

With the momentum now all hers, she shot out to 5-1 in the fourth and final game, throwing points on the pile in almost every possible way, including one improbable forehand three-wall nick, a cross court straight drop that wrong-footed Khan, a few shallow forehand straight drop winners from fairly deep in the court and a number of well-disguised misdirection shots that had Khan reversing herself and getting into even more trouble. It was a wonderful shot-making display by Geaves and a frustrating ending for Khan to a match that had begun on such a promising note. Despite the unhappy outcome to her most deserving veteran opponent, it must be said that Khan was hitting the ball beautifully all weekend and is right on the brink of regaining the top-20 WISPA ranking she held several years ago.

The Shelley Kitchen vs Jenny Tranfield (front) match was closely contested. (Photo © 2004 Debra Tessier)

Other than in the middle game of the balancing Kitchen-Tranfield semi-final, when the former jumped out to an 8-0 lead to seal her 9-4 victory, the match was extremely closely contested while providing an intriguing contrast between the lithe Kitchen's flowing grace and the powerful Tranfield's dogged physical presence. She trailed for most of the first game after falling behind 5-1, yet she saved a few game-balls and actually closed to 7-8 before surrendering the serve on an ungettable slashed Kitchen backhand cross court and losing the game when she tinned a backhand straight drop shot.

But she appeared to be fully back in the match in the third game, when a combination of her best output of the match and a slew of Kitchen unforced errors (four consecutively from 2-3 to 2-7) gave Tranfield a seeming lock on that game. However, just as unforeseeably as the slump that put her in such a hole was the Kitchen 6-0 responding rally that got her to 8-7 and the first of her two match-balls. Tranfield then collected a Kitchen tin and pocketed two consecutive nick-finding backhand drop shot winners to go up 9-8, game-ball for her, but she then tinned to make it 8-9, Kitchen serving. The New Zealander then hit a wall-clinging forehand winner to get to another match-ball and salted this one away when Tranfield hit a rail right back herself, causing the referee to properly assess a stroke against her that ended the match.

Semis Recap
Fiona Geaves d Latasha Khan, 2-9 9-1 9-4 9-2
Shelley Kitchen d Jenny Tranfield, 9-7 9-4 10-9

(Photos: © 2004 Debra Tessier)

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