Editor's Note: "SquashTalk continues to be committed to following the USA "selection tour". However we continue to note, with growing concern, the tiny size of the draws in these events and the apparent lack of action to change the format to address these issues."

Damian Walker and Latasha Khan, former multiple-time 2000’s S. L. Green champions, emerged triumphant from their respective U. S. Team selection events in the Westchester/Connecticut region this past weekend. Inspired by the vocal support of the squash membership at his “home” Squash Alley club in Stanford, the unseeded Walker surged strongly back from a semifinal two games to one deficit against top seed Jamie Crombie, then made his rally stick the following day in his final against the much-younger recent Dartmouth all-American Ryan Donegan, while a few MetroNorth stops south at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY, Khan repulsed a third-game final-round match-ball against her upset-minded opponent, two-time Intercollegiate champ Michelle Quibell, who was unable to convert that opportunity or to prevent Khan from prevailing in the fourth and fifth games that followed.

Byed to the semis of the six-player women’s event, Quibell engaged Meredeth Quick at that juncture in yet another chapter of a rivalry that has gone back and forth during the past year: Quibell defeated Quick in the ’06 U. S. Nationals semis but lost badly to her in the early-January William White final at Merion. As befits the back-and-forth nature of their series (whose eight or so matches have been almost evenly divided), this one came down to a fifth-set tiebreaker, with each contestant having at least one match-ball opportunity, before Quibell finally won that stanza 10-9. Quick had won her first round in straight sets against the junior standout Olivia Blatchford, whose contemporary Emily Park was similarly luckless in her 3-0 loss to Khan’s eventual semifinal victim, Ivy Pochoda.

As noted, in successive matches Quibell first won a match in which she FACED a match-ball and then lost a match in which she HAD a match-ball. The latter circumstance occurred after she had pocketed the first two games of her final against an out-of-sorts-appearing Khan, who may have been affected by her flight from Korea just one day prior to her first match, and who definitely was tinning her normally reliable backhand straight drop shot excessively far more than she could afford to do against her fired-up opponent, who was eager to capture this rematch of the ’06 U. S. Nationals final 13 months ago and who seemed poised to accomplish that mission when she followed a 10-8 opening-game with a downhill 9-3 second and an 8-6 advantage in the potentially close-out third.

But at this stage Khan showed the resolve of the record seven-time U. S. Nationals champ that she is, bootstrapping her way through that end-game and pressing on through a 9-6, 9-3 finish. Nevertheless it has become clear that Quibell has solidly improved her game (especially on the backhand flank which has always been her strong suit) and has become eminently capable of knocking off even the redoubtable Khan in the meetings that await this pair.

While Khan was struggling and ultimately prevailing, her fellow 2002 U. S. National champion Walker (who also took this title one year earlier) was forced to make a tactical adjustment after the third game of his semifinal against Crombie. Realizing that the longer the exchanges went, the fewer of them were landing in his column, Walker started noticeably forcing the action at the outset of the fourth game, going for shots as soon as a plausible opportunity to do so arose, reducing Crombie’s recovery time and finishing off his 7-11 11-8 5-11 11-7 11-2 victory with a barrage of nicks and wall-holding rail winners.

He then started fast against Donegan (pre-final straight-sets winner over first Ben Oliner and then Francis Odeh), but nearly faltered at the very end when he surrendered his double-match-ball 10-8 third-game lead. But Donegan’s attempt to emulate the eleventh-hour heroics that Khan was pulling off at almost exactly the same time 10 miles south against Quibell was thwarted when Walker got to yet another match-ball and converted that third opportunity on a volleyed forehand that arrowed into the front-left nick and rolled insolently out at Donegan’s feet.

Weekend Recap

Men’s Event

Qtrs:
Jamie Crombie d Greg Clement, 3-1;
Damian Walker d John Fulham, 3-0;
Francis Odeh d Richard Chin, 3-1;
Ryan Donegan d Ben Oliner, 3-0.

Semis:
Walker d Crombie, 3-2;
Donegan d Odeh, 3-0

Final:
Walker d Donegan, 11-4 11-7 12-10.

Women’s Event
Qtrs:
Latasha Khan bye;
Ivy Pochoda d Emily Park, 3-0;
Meredeth Quick d Olivia Blatchford, 3-0;
Michelle Quibell bye.

Semis:
Khan d Pochoda, 3-0;
Quibell d Quick, 3-2.

Final:
Khan d Quibell, 3-2.