British Open Rematch.
Oct 29 2005, by Rob Dinerman      [Weymuller Main Draw] [Weymuller photos]
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2005 SquashTalk LLC

British Open Final Rematch Emerges In Brooklyn By Rob Dinerman

Natalie Grinham and Isabelle Stoehr (photo: © 2005 Debra Tessier) more semi photos

Dateline October 29---Third seed Natalie Grinham and second seed Nicol David, who faced off earlier this month in the final of the British Open, both triumphed this evening (though with considerable difficulty) in their respective Carol Weymuller Invitational semifinals and will now have a rematch Sunday afternoon at 2:00 at the host Heights Casino Annex in Brooklyn Heights. Grinham, who lost that British Open final two weeks ago, faced down two game-balls against her in the first game and dropped the second against eight-time French national champion Isabelle Stoehr before winning in four, while David trailed Vicky Botwright throughout the match and indeed had a match-ball against her at 8-7 in the fifth before finally winning 10-8 in the bottom-half semi.

Stoehr was the only non-top-four seed to crack the semis, and she did so in rousing fashion by coming back from two-love down to race past WISPA No. 2 and top-seeded Vanessa Atkinson Friday evening. This was the best career win for the French star, whose career had hit something of a plateau in recent years after a very strong showing as a junior. Any thoughts of a possible emotional hangover from her Friday evening heroics against Atkinson were swiftly dispelled in the first game of her Grinham semifinal, during which it became immediately clear that Stoehr, far from being satisfied with reaching the semis in such dramatic fashion, had her sights on additional upsets before the weekend was through.

Her mobility and stroking prowess were fully the equal of the higher ranked Grinham, who was being forced to scramble and extemporize by Stoehr's aggressive volleying tactics and imaginative shot-making, and the first game seesawed dangerously along to a tiebreaker. Grinham seized the first point of the best-of-three session before tinning a drop shot and then doing the same with a daring crosscourt drop serve-return. This gave Stoehr her second game-ball of the game (she previously had led 8-6), which she failed to convert only because of a nervy Grinham cross-court drop winner from off the back wall, especially unexpected in the wake of the similar (if anything, easier) attempt she had tinned on the prior point.

Possibly still daunted by this daring Grinham maneuver, Stoehr then lost track of Grinham's subsequent chip serve, tinning it and thereby ceding the
10-9 game in very deflating fashion. But Stoehr stared this disappointment (and a swift 2-0 second-game deficit) down, responding with a determined mid-game surge in the second that was aided by a rare spell of backhand drop shot tins on Grinham's part. This combination enabled Stoehr, who as noted had already rallied to victory after trailing an elite WISPA protagonist 24 hours earlier, to storm from 4-6 to 9-6 in the second game and equalize a match in which to that point if anything it was the highly favored Grinham who was fortunate not to be behind two games to love.

But it was at this mid-match juncture, with a second consecutive upset win by Stoehr seemingly a very real possibility, that Grinham evinced the superior big-match experience that has kept her in the top five of the world rankings for the past several years and has made her the World and British Open finalist she is. She kept up and indeed increased the pressure, both offensively with her solid angles and wall-hugging rails, and defensively by getting back so many seeming Stoehr winners and responding with such telling lobs and re-drops, that Stoehr (as Jenny Duncalf had also done the night before in her 3-0 loss to Grinham) started cutting her shots too close, with metallic results.

Solidly back in control by early on in the third game, and by this time chastened by the firepower Stoehr had demonstrated, Grinham never let up through the 9-2, 9-1 match-ending games. Realizing that the longer the points lasted, the more of them she wound up winning, Grinham extended the rallies and played relatively risk-free squash, though the forehand re-drops she consistently scored on when drawn up front cleared the tin by remarkably small margins in some cases.

As the third game (and then the fourth) slipped swiftly away from her, Stoehr seemed fatigued more mentally than physically and began trying the kind of low-percentage shots that were bound to get her in trouble. Though the match lasted slightly more than an hour, the first two games took more than twice as long as the last two, and Grinham was able to win going away.

Nicol David and Vicky Botwright (photo: © 2005 Debra Tessier) more semi photos

Not so David, whose rallying 90-minute 5-9 9-1 3-9 9-6 10-8 victory over an inspired and top-of-her-game Botwright was a tribute to both her own fortitude (bolstered by the British Open title she recently captured) and her English opponent's excellence. Nicol started a bit slowly, as she had the prior evening in dropping the first game of her 3-1 quarterfinal win over Shelley Kitchen, and Botwright seized this opportunity with a series of front-court winners.
She then let down early in the second, opening the door for a suddenly aggressive Nicol to cut the ball off, control the tee and run away with that game.

But in the third, Botwright returned to the level that had characterized her play in the opening game, scoring repeatedly on drop shots and wonderful length. The pendulum swung back in David's direction in the match-equalizing fourth game, leading to a climactic fifth marked by a terrific struggle for the tee and an undulating tally (Botwright 4-1, then 5-5, then Botwright 7-5 and eventually, after many late-game hand-outs, 8-7) before David came up with perhaps her best series of points of the entire match in catching Botwright at 8-all and moving successfully through the tiebreaker.

Grinham and David have had some memorable big-tournament matches in the last year. They hooked up in a titanic five-game World Open semifinal last autumn that so exhausted the victorious Grinham that she had nothing left for her final with Vanessa Atkinson the next day. And, as noted, they played in the British Open final a few weeks ago as well, with David triumphing on that occasion.

Semis Recap

Natalie Grinham d Isabelle Stoehr, 10-9 6-9 9-2 9-1; Nicol David d Vicky Botwright, 5-9 9-1 3-9 9-6 10-8.

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