Nicol David's A Touch Too Strong
Oct 30 2005, by Rob Dinerman      [Weymuller Main Draw]  [Weymuller photos]
Squashtalk Independent News; © 2005 SquashTalk LLC

Nicol David takes the 2005 Weymuller Cup (photo: © 2005 Debra Tessier) more final photos

Recently crowned British Open Champion, Nicol David, wasted no time in demonstrating to an enthusiastic New York crowd that her victory last week in Manchester was decidedly no fluke.

Staring down first a match-ball-against predicament in her Saturday evening semifinal with Vicky Botwright and then a one-game-to-love deficit vs. third seed Natalie Grinham in yesterday afternoon's final, second seed Nicol David raced through the latter portion of the second, third and fourth games to capture the 30th edition of the Carol Weymuller Invitational, held for the first time in the Heights Casino Annex after always being previously hosted by the main clubhouse a few blocks away. In defeating the valiant Grinham 5-9 9-6 9-4 9-3, David became the seventh Weymuller champion in as many years (preceded from 1999-2004 sequentially by Michelle Martin, Leilani Joyce, Sara Fitzgerald, Carol Owens, Cassie Jackman and Natalie Grainger), emphatically consolidated the British Open championship she had won over the same final-round opponent just a few weeks back and clearly staked her claim, at least for the time being, as the best woman squash player in the world.

She also for the third consecutive day proved her ability to climb back after falling behind in a match's early stages. She had dropped the opening frame against Shelley Kitchen in the quarters and Botwright in the semis prior to doing the same against Grinham in the final. David had then motored past Kitchen in the remaining trio of games Friday night but had trailed Botwright 8-7 in the fifth before running out her 10-8 victory from there. Her Grinham final was more in line with the Kitchen path, as David, shaking free of whatever physical effects her 90-minute semifinal just 18 hours earlier may have exacted, started cutting the ball off more and moving better as the second game progressed, forcing Grinham increasingly into retrieval mode.

Grinham's game is to a large extent based on her excellent mobility---in fact, she and the similarly smallish David were the two fastest players in the tournament---but even the well-conditioned Aussie was found herself gradually yielding ground, on both the court and the scoreboard, under the pressure of the David attack. The momentum the latter had established by the end of the second game made it crucial that Grinham take a stand in the third. This she did by battling David to a standstill in the first portion of that game, at the end of which, after many hands-out and a host of extended all-court points, the score stood even at 4-all.

Grinham's stamina and relentless determination had forced mid-match meltdowns in both her three-game quarterfinal with Jenny Duncalf and her four-game (9-2, 9-1 in the third and fourth) semi with Isabelle Stoehr, but this time it was her lot to suffer the same fate that she had previously inflicted on those two very talented opponents. A surging David, her confidence understandably at an all-time high after her British Open triumph and one-day-earlier rally against Botwright, surged from 4-4 to 9-4 in one hand to take that pivotal third game, then did the same in going from 1-3 to 9-3, also in a single hand, to sprint exuberantly across the finish line. Grinham never stopped battling right to the end, but even she could do nothing to prevent David's charge to the championship.

Carol Weymuller Open, Heights Casino, Brooklyn NY
Finals
[2] Nicol David (MAS) def [4] Natalie Grinham (AUS) 5-9 9-6 9-4 9-3

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