Grinham and Kitchen Advance

Vanessa never looked worried today. (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert)

Top Dutch and USA players had an easy first round ride on this wet, blowy day in Belfast.  Natalie Grainger, down to 14 in the world  after being world number one  in 2003, had the easiest day of all when  Scotland’s  Pamela Nimmo retired after two games with a bad back after just 14 minutes of play.  Not even a good training session really, although it won’t detract from her gas tank when she meets world number two  Vanessa Atkinson, the Dutch champion, in the second round on the all-glass court.

Atkinson, keen to get back the number spot that Nicol David took away from her, was on  very good form in dismissing England’s  Dominique Lloyd-Water in straight games in just 26 minutes.   Lloyd –Water at 25 is five years younger than Atkinson, but simply does not have the skill to really trouble someone with Atkinson’s experience. Atkinson was moving well and using her boasts to great affect – one of the few players on the circuit who can use that shot as an effective attacking weapon rather than a shot of last resort.  Lloyd-Water could come up with few surprises and Atkinson never looked worried  as she won at a trot giving up just six points. She has not played since Hong Kong, a break of a month, which she said was perfect for her.

“It fell just right and I had the incentive to go for it – so I put in a good month of training.  I am hitting the ball well and my  movement is good and  when your movement is right everything else falls into place,” she told me  immediately after the match and barely breathing heavily.

RACHAEL  GRINHAM FIGHTS OFF LATE EL WELEILY CHALLENGE

Rachael Grinham had an easy first game . (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert)

On of the most interesting matches of the afternoon involved the world number three, Rachael Grinham, the elder of the Grinham sisters,  and the world number 23, Raneem El Weleily of Egypt, who at 17 is the youngest player in the tournament.

The first game was a total disaster  as  the young Egyptian  went for winners and failed almost every time.   Grinham won  9-1 and  seven of her points came from  El Weleily’s errors.

She’s a very misleading player, this talented youngster. She seems to stroll about the court with the same urgency as someone on an after-dinner amble.  Her racket work is without effort, whether a nonchalant half volley or a soaring lob. 

In the second game it was Grinham’s  turn to hit errors, three in a row to give  her opponent a 3-0 lead.  False hopes for the Egyptian contingent behind the court as  Grinham settled down again  and ran to an 8-4 lead.  El Weleily had cut out most of her errors and Grinham earned her points with good length, some fine winners and two penalty strokes.  The serve changed hands five times as  El Weleily  tried desperately to save the game.  She got one more point on a Grinham error before losing the 12 minute game 9-5.

Raneem controlled game three . (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert)

The third game see-sawed in dramatic fashion but it was El Weleily who  took control by distributing the ball to the back court  and keeping Grinham moving.  This was the reigning world junior champion controlling the world number three so we know what sort of future she has.  At 7-3  El Weleily  took her foot off the peddle and with two errors helped Grinham  not only catch up but  lead at 8-7. They were both being careful and not going for low percentage shots so the rallies were longer than in the previous games . Perhaps the exertion was beginning to tell on Grinham and she went for a winner off  service and hit the tin to put El Weleily at 8-8 and then another error  helped El Weleily to game ball.  A careless cross court went above the red line and El Weleily had the game 10-8 after 14 minutes.

From the start of the fourth game it appeared that all the advice that was being poured into her young ears by  Omneya Abdel Kawy and Engy Kheirallah was paying off.: El Weleily steamed ahead to a 7-1 lead  using the height and width of the court superbly to  prevent Grinham from taking control . The serve changed hands four times and then Grinham started her long march back into the game. Grinham’s five points in a row was essentially El Weleily’s undoing. She did get to game ball at 8-6 at which point another battle took place and the serve changed hands five times before  Grinham  won her next point to get to 7-8, and then another point to force extra points.  Grinham earned the next point to get to match ball with some clever play and then the inevitable happed: El Weleily went for a drop from the back of the court and hit the tin to end the  53 minute encounter.

Had she managed to win that fourth game, the chances are that  Grinham would have run out of steam. But that is where experience comes in – and one thing the Australian does have is plenty of experience.

KITCHEN ON FORM

Irish Laura Mylotte fell to Rebecca Chiu. (photo © 2006 Fritz Borchert)

The scoreline of Shelley Kitchen’s  straight games win over Tegwen Malik – 9-4, 9-6, 9-5 – is misleading.  The New Zealander, who is now down to 15 in the world, had to work very hard indeed to suppress the talented Welsh champion, ranked 24.  The match was played in overdrive with both players hitting the ball with pace, going short with confidence and making great retrievals.

Kitchen won the first game 9-4, but  it lasted 14 minutes, which is long by any standards. The second game was exhausting to watch  and although Malik played well she found herself 0-7 down which was very unflattering considering her standard of play and the effort she had put in.  Finally the ball began to roll in her favour and she climbed back into the game to trail by one point ,  6-7,  but was unable to  get beyond that as Kitchen fought for every point to take the  17 minute game 9-6.  They had fought through 41 rallies to finish that one game – and that does not  include the rallies that ended in a let.  This was tough, competitive squash and  should be encouraging to Kitchen who latest results have been very disappointing.

They continued at the same pace in the third game which Kitchen led from the beginning and never let go to win 9-5 after 45 minutes of relentless rallying. She will meet Natalie Grinham in the second round and if she can keep up that same level of attack and accuracy, she could test the world number four..

WOMEN’S WORLD OPEN Belfast, Northern Ireland

FIRST ROUND  (Partial results) at the Belfast Boat Club:
[1] Nicol David (MAS) vs [Q] Lauren Briggs (ENG)
[12] Engy Kheirallah (EGY) vs [Q]Samantha Teran (MEX)
[5] Vicky Botwright (ENG) vs Isabelle Stoehr (FRA)
[9] Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY) Amelia Pittock )AUS)
[3] Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt  Ranee el Weleily (EGY) 9-1, 9-5,8-10 10-8 (53mins)
[15] Rebecca Chiu (HKG) bt Laura Mylotte (IRE) 9-1, 9-2, 10-9 (24mins)
[6] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) vs [Q]Nicolette Fernandes (GUY)
[11] Laura Lengthorn (ENG) vs [Q] Tenille Swarts (SRA)
[10] Alison Waters (ENG) bt  [Q] Rebecca Botwright (ENG) 9-1, 10-8, 9-5 (24mins)
[7] Tania Bailey (ENG) bt Sharon Wee (MAS) 9-5, 9-1, 9-3 (28mins)
[13] Shelley Kitchen (NZL) bt   [Q] Tegwen Malik (WAL) 9-4, 9-6, 9-5 (45mins)
[4] Natalie Grinham (AUS)  bt [Q] Jaclyn Hawkes (NZL) 9-0, 9-1, 9-4 (28mins)
[16] Annelize Naude (NED) vs Kasey Brown (AUS)
[8] Madeline Perry (IRE) vs Aisling Blake (IRE)
[14] Natalie Grainger (USA) bt  Pamela Nimmo (SCO) 9-3, 9-3, ret (14mins)
[2] Vanessa Atkinson (NED) bt  Dominique Lloyd Water (ENG) 9-2, 9-4, 9-0 (26mins)