July 28, 2000 copyright 2000 Squashtalk.com :

World teams tournament special to SQUASHTALK From Martin Bronstein in Milan JULY 28 2000

EGYPT AND ENGLAND AGAIN.
For the fourth consecutive time the final of the Men's World Junior Team Championship will be contested between England and Egypt. Egypt won in 1994, England took upset victories in 1996 and 1998. Don't ask me to bet on the same happening in Milan tomorrow. On paper Egypt are favourites, but these Brits have proved to be made of stern stuff.

TIRED OR SHARP?
Egypt had an easy time today; France virtually declared no contest by resting their number one Gregory Gaultier, giving Egypt an easy victory in under an hour. On the other hand, England faced Pakistan and their two first strings had a severe testing:

Philip Barker was on court for 85 minutes to gain his victory while James Willstrops was in constant motion for 65 minutes. The question is will England be tired or sharp? Will Egypt be full of energy or match blunt? Forget the questions, this is team squash, where emotion can sometime overcome skill.

A MOTHER'S WORDS
Farrukh Zaman, related to the famous Qamar Zaman, is a tall, delicate player with a line in diguised cross court flicks that had Philip Barker completely bamboozled in the first game. He was the more elegant player but Barker is a player of unending determination. He played the ball straight and volleyed on his backhand at every opportunity, taking his opponent short, ensuring that his opponent could not relax.

It was an energy-sapping exercise that finally paid off in the final game when poor Zarrukh could barely lift his racket and was reduced to attempting weak volley drops, finding the tin each time.

Even Jahangir Khan on the Pakistani bench could not help him in that last fatal game and Barker won after 85 minutes, 7-9, 9-5, 6-9, 9-5, 9-1. I remarked to his mother (his parents have been here the whole two weeks) that Philip had put up a tough performance. "Only for his country would he play that hard," she replied. Gets you right here, don't it?

OH TO HIT THE BALL ONCE LIKE JIMMY James Willstrop is unable to hit a ball into the middle of the court. I believe he has a contract with the paint on the wall, or he is in league with the devil. Regardless of where he is standing, where his racket is or where he is looking, he can cream the ball tight down the wall, send it lobbing across court so high that when it comes down there are bits of satellite attached. And he can do this with the tightest drops.

After a while you feel sorry for his opponent, in this case the very talented Shahid Zaman. Trust me, these Zamans will be in the top ten in five years and you will know their faces.

EVEN A GENIUS HAS NERVES
Willstrop lost the first game on the account of his error rate - almost every other shot. But once the first game was out of the way he settled down and made Shahid feel very useless. He took the next two games 9-4, 9-0 in 16 minutes and in the interval before the fourth, I saw Jahangir gesturing to Shahid. And it was very easy to read: drive down the walls because Willstrop is much too good at the front. It worked and Shahid levelled it at 2/2 by winning the game 9-3.

DON'T WORRY COACH, I'VE GOT IT UNDER CONTROL
Willstrop dictated the fifth game with his precision drops and loopy lobs to take a 7-0 lead and Shahid tried to comeback but Willstrop was no longer troubled and served for the match at 8-3. Shahid saved it with an incredible dive. Willstrop got the serve back and Shahid hit the ball from the back of the court straight on to Willstrop's racket. Then he hit the ball out of court and Willstrop served again for the match only to be stroked. Shahid hit the tin and Willstrop finally won on his fourth match ball after 14 minutes.

VICTORY AS AN ANGST RELIEVER
There was great relief on the faces of the English management, because they knew it could have gone the other way. David Campion, the English manager said to me in the press room; "If the Egyptians have half as much commitment as we do they'll be alright." Pakistan will have to beat France to take third place, which may be much harder after their loss.

TOUGH ON THE CANUCKS Fifth and sixth place will be decided tomorrow between Spain and Malaysia. Spain beat Wales 2/1 while Malaysia just snuck in over Canada.

This match was being played on an adjacent court to the England /Pakistan encounter, and my head was swivelling like a ventriloquist's dummy. Matthew Guiffre gave Canada a good start with a 3/0 win over Marcus Yeap and then Shawn Delierre took on the very experienced Azlan Iskandar. This match was on at exactly the same time as the Willstrop match. Schizophrenia would have been a blessing at that point.

The mercurial Delierre, who wants to be John McEnroe and Jonathon Power at the same time, lost the first two games for four points, took the third 9-2 and then made one of his incredible recoveries from 2-8 to win 10-8. But that was it and he lost the fifth 9-1 . With the match tied Robert Nigro repeated Delierre's feat and came back from 2/0 down force a fifth game which he to Kelvin Ho 9-5 after an 81 minute battle. That's a tough way to go out and Canada, seeded fifth, will now have to be content with seventh place, if they can beat Wales.

SCOTLAND THE BRAVE
Best climb up the ladder has to be Scotland who bested India, young Steven Baker again defying the doctor to play at third string. Coach John Kirby admitted that it was foolish to play but he said that Baker said he would do violent things to him if he didn't play. Steven is 16 years old and from Glasgow where they build them really tough. Baker went in with the match tied 1/1 and won in four. This puts Scotland in contention for 13th. spot, six places up from the 19th place finish in Princeton.

THOSE WINNING AMERICANS
If Bryan Petterson says the US had a bad draw, it's not an excuse. They wanted to get into the top 16 but they were in a tough pool. There are teams in the top 16 that the US could have beaten, but in their pool they had Malaysia and Switzerland who are weathered sqush countries.

They lost both of those matches but have won every match since. They beat New Zealand today which isn't half bad, Pat Malloy coming back from two games down to win at two, Richard Repetto losing in three and 16 year old Julian Illingworth winning in four to put the US in contention for the 17th spot. Only Argentina stand in their way. Tomorrow is the final day. I've had 14 days of continuous squash. But it beats two hours of golf.

• Golestan Radwan: Egypt
• Tomas Barva, Czech Republic
• David Blick, Alaska USA
• Kim Tunney: Midwest USA
• Andre Maur: Atlanta USA
• Paul Ansdell: Massachusetts USA
  

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