It's Isabelle Stoehr's Moment
Oct 29 2005, by Rob Dinerman     [Weymuller Main Draw]   [Weymuller photos]
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2005 SquashTalk LLC

Isabelle Stoehr gets a big win over Vanessa Atkinson. (photo: © 2005 StocktonPhotosInc.) more quarterfinal photos

In the most surprising result of the tournament and the only upset of the night, Isabelle Stoehr of France rallied from two games to love down to defeat top seed and reigning World Open champion Vanessa Atkinson
5-9 5-9 9-6 9-3 9-3 in the quarterfinal round of the 2005 Carol Weymuller Invitational. Stoehr will now face third seed Natalie Grinham, who was magnificent in dispatching sixth seed Jenny Duncalf in three dominant games. The bottom-half semi will feature Vicky Botwright, who won 3-0 over Alison Waters, and second seed Nicol David, the British Open champion, who dropped the first game of her quarter with Shelley Kitchen before asserting herself in four well-played games.

Atkinson's last New York appearance had been last February in Grand Central Station, when she won the Tournament Of Champions event, coming back from a two games to one deficit against the now retired Rebecca Macree in the second round before ultimately defeating Linda Elriani in the final. But the red-haired Dutch star has had her difficulties holding leads in the Weymuller event---she lost in five to Rachael Grinham three years ago after leading two games to one---and she had seemed unsteady Thursday night in falling behind Fiona Geaves 2-1 before catching fire in the 9-2, 9-0 final chapters.

The vulnerability she showed even in winning that too-close-for-comfort opening match resurfaced last night once Stoehr, whose late-game errors had cost her in the opening two games, eliminated those tins and started putting more offensive pressure on the increasingly beleaguered top seed. By the outset of the fourth game, a confident Stoehr had wrested control of the play away from Atkinson, who got more and more tight and fatigued as Stoehr's opportunistic and accurate shot-making kept throwing points on the pile.

Stoehr's breakthrough victory may spell opportunity for Grinham, a finalist in the most recent editions of both the World and British Opens, who is currently playing as well as she has ever played. The key to Grinham's game are her remarkable retrieving skills, which were on full display last night to a degree that understandably drove Duncalf to distraction and, more pertinently, to a host of tins that appeared to result more from the need Grinham's movement created to cut every shot close than from any deficiency in Dencalf's stroking technique.

Grinham was also hitting the ball sharply to all corners of the court, a tactic whose effectiveness was abetted by the fact that Duncalf, who later ruefully noted that she felt as though her feet "were stuck in mud," seemed to be having trouble seeing the ball off Grinham's racquet and reacting to it with anything like the high standard normally associated with Duncalf's outstanding game. The one opportunity Duncalf generated to reverse Grinham's virtually match-long momentum, was when she managed to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the third game after playing from behind throughout the first and second.

But a few tins crept back into Duncalf's game at that stage, and Grinham was able to swiftly erase that deficit and motor on through the remainder of that close-out game. The last two points of the 9-4, 1 and 4 tally were indicative of the entire match, namely a look-away Grinham forehand rail that a faked-out Duncalf failed to react to, followed by a Duncalf mid-court tin when she lost a low ground stroke in her feet. If Grinham can keep playing at this level for the rest of the weekend, she is going to be very difficult for Stoehr, her Saturday opponent, or anyone else to beat.

The match between Botwright and her British compatriot Waters seemed to turn permanently in the former's favor when Waters, leading 7-4 in the opening frame, fell heavily while stretching for a drop shot in the right front corner.
Though uninjured, she seemed distracted by this mishap and a bit leery of a possible recurrence, with a resulting tentativeness in her play that doomed any aspirations she might have of upsetting her higher-ranked opponent. Botwright took advantage in winning that game 9-7 as well as the two that followed, exhibiting a smoothness and front-court acumen that enabled her to move fairly comfortably to her 9-7, 4 and 5 ticket into the semifinals.

There she will face David, who fell too far behind the fast-starting Kiwi Kitchen (a former New York tournament winner when she captured the 2004 Quentin Hyder Invitational) to catch up in the first game. Kitchen was volleying fearlessly and with excellent results and hitting with noteworthy pace. She continued in this vein through most of the rest of the match, but in each of the final three games of this entertaining 7-9 9-6 9-5 9-5 drama, David was able to come up with enough winners and mobility to register each of those hard-fought game in her column.

The semis will be at 5:00 and 6:00 this evening in the Heights Casino Annex on Clark Street, with the final set for 2:00 Sunday afternoon.

RESULTS:        Women's Carol Weymuller Squash Open, Heights Casino, New York, USA

Quarter-finals:
[8] Isabelle Stoehr (FRA) bt [1] Vanessa Atkinson (NED)                   5-9, 5-9, 9-6, 9-3, 9-3
[3] Natalie Grinham (AUS) bt [5] Jenny Duncalf (ENG)                     9-4, 9-1, 9-4
[4] Vicky Botwright (ENG) bt Alison Waters (ENG)                            9-7, 9-4, 9-5
[2] Nicol David (MAS) bt [6] Shelley Kitchen (NZL)                          7-9, 9-6, 9-5, 9-5

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