[ Complete draw & results ]

Beats Jenny Duncalf in Straight Games

In an overpowering display of athleticism and touch, top seed Natalie Grainger surged to a 9-3, 4 and 6 victory over fifth seed Jenny Duncalf this afternoon at the Heights Casino Annex in the final round of the Carol Weymuller tournament. A frustrated finalist a year ago after losing in five to her nemesis Rachael Grinham, Grainger left nothing to chance this time around, seizing control of the play early on and denying her increasingly frustrated opponent, who had reached that stage with a pair of upset 3-2 wins over first second seed Vicky Botwright and then third seed Vanessa Atkinson, her opportunity for the Cinderella finish that her pair of pre-final route-goers had appeared to foretell.

Although Duncalf jumped out to an ephemeral 2-0 lead early in the first game, Grainger immediately responded by commandeering the tee and imposing the full panoply of her formidable arsenal --- a punishing deep game complemented by nick-finding drop shots, clever angles and, more importantly, the ability to mix it up to a degree that kept Duncalf guessing and frequently re-tracing her steps. The latter was also falling into a pattern of constantly hitting her serve-returns cross-court when receiving from the right box, thereby presenting Grainger with the freedom to set up early and attack Duncalf’s returns. The smaller British woman was also passing up balls she could have volleyed, many of which after bouncing behind her either caught the deep nick or barely caromed off the back wall, leaving her nothing to swing at.

Grainger moved swiftly from 4-3 to 8-3, whereupon she hit a lob serve right at Duncalf, who jumped out of the way rather than attempt a cross-hand return, only to see the ball hit dead into the back-wall crack and roll out to end the game on this ominous note. The degree to which everything seemed to be going Grainger’s way seemed to be symbolized when on the opening point of the second game, another Grainger lob that floated innocuously towards the back also rolled insolently out of the back nick as Duncalf, who had expected an open ball that she could lash past a back-pedaling Grainger, stared at it in dismay and disgust.

Duncalf did recover from this series of capricious misfortunes to earn her way to a 4-1 second-game lead, but it was during Grainger’s ensuing and inexorable eight-point run, interrupted only twice by a loss of serve, that she really assumed a psychological strangle-hold on the action. She was driving Duncalf into the back corners and eliciting weak responses that gave Grainger so many options that there was no way that Duncalf could cover all of them. A forehand Grainger drop shot off a flailing Duncalf working-boast gave her a 5-4 lead, preceding two Duncalf top-of-the-tins from up front, after the second of which she angrily heaved her racquet skyward. At 7-4, Grainger hit one of several backhand straight drops sprinkled throughout the match that clung too tightly to the left side wall for Duncalf to excavate back into play, and on game-ball she hit another lob serve directly at Duncalf that led to a weak return that Grainger poked into the open court which Duncalf didn’t even bother to chase.

When Grainger moved to a 6-2 lead in the third game, it appeared the match would end meekly and within minutes. Duncalf was flustered and demoralized and Grainger was executing her short game brilliantly. But a forehand straight drop caught the tin and unleashed a furious flurry from out of the blue that brought the score to 5-6, then to 6-all as a visibly concerned Grainger tried to “steal” a point with a drop-shot backhand serve-return that instead rang loudly off the tin. Suddenly Duncalf, who had seemed finished just moments before, was back in the hunt, awakening memories of her comeback 3-2 victories over Grainger both four years ago in the opening round of this Weymuller event and a year later at the Yale Club in the Tournament Of Champions, when Duncalf trailed two games to love but arm-fought her way to a fifth game which she won going away against an exhausted Grainger, who faded during that 9-1 fifth game.

The large crowd, clearly excited by Duncalf’s mid-game rally, had no idea that she had scored her last point of the weekend. A Grainger backhand counter-drop got her back the serve preceded a tense front-court exchange that ended when she muscled a backhand cross-court winner for 7-6, followed by a forehand volley blast down the open right wall for 8-6. At match-ball, she again drove Duncalf deep into the recesses of the back-left, forcing a despairing Duncalf working-boast that Grainger gently nestled just above the tin with a sweet forehand drop shot for a clear winner and a well-deserved visit to the winner’s circle. It was her fifth WISPA tour title this year on American soil and her third in a row in the immediate New York area, preceded by her final-round wins in February over Atkinson in the four-women Tournament Of Champions and over Meredeth Quick less than a week later in the U. S. Skill Levels tourney.

RESULTS:    Women's Carol Weymuller US Open Squash Championship, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Finals [1] Natalie Grainger (USA) d [5] Jenny Duncalf (ENG), 9-3, 4 and 6.