Madrid Women's World Open Squash 2007

MARTIN BRONSTEIN REPORTING FROM MADRID SPAIN
QUARTERS OCTOBER 27

RACHAEL RULES THE ROOST

It appears that Rachael Grinham has a unique effect on opponents called Natalie: she drains their brain and dissolves their resolve. She did it yesterday in the semi-final against Natalie Grainger and today she did it to her younger sister Natalie.

After two wonderful games of touch and all-round-the-court squash, both won by Rachael, Natalie’s composure left her and she subsided into a series of errors that put her in tears – seven errors in all – and gave her big sister her first world championship. Natalie had said yesterday that if she had to lose she would rather lose to her sister, but judging by the expression on her face during the last three rallies, she’d rather not lose at all.

It was a totally unexpected lapse of resolve from Natalie, after putting together two totally professional performances against Omneya Abdel Kawy and Tania Bailey in the previous two rounds.

As for Rachael, she has a unique talent which, coupled with her total focus and iron-hard will, makes her look unbeatable. It was a match that provided wonderful squash without any histrionics from the players, and, unbelievably, not one let was called in the entire 47 minutes of play. This is what you get from two players who know how to move and how to clear. Being sisters probably helps. There was one point during the second, long 20 minute game where I thought Rachael had hit a reverse into the tin. Suddenly the referee called Let and then changed the call to give the point to Rachael, this at the behest of Natalie who felt she had interfered with her sister’s stroke. All referees would love matches like this.

From the beginning Rachael was in the driving seat using the front left corner as her all-purpose get-out-of-jail card. And why not? Susan Devoy, the former world champion, built her whole career around the backhand drop to the left corner. You would think that Natalie of all players would know her sister’s game by hear by now. And perhaps she does. What she doesn’t know is how to counter that devilish ploy. Before the match I spoke to Jenny Tranfield, former top tenner and now a practising doctor. She said of Rachael:

“She’s doing all the same things that she has always done. She is posing no new questions. The problem is how do you counter it?” said Tranfield who has a doctorate in psychology and works as a management consultant.

Natalie started to play the ball high and long making sure that if Rachael went for the drop it would have to be a long risky drop. And so ensued some great rallies, both players using the height of the court and playing incredibly tight down the walls. The suspense built as we waited to see who would boast or drop first – and it was usually Rachael. Natalie fought back to 4-6, then hit the tin with a forehand drop to make the score 7-4. The serve change hands five times at that score before Natalie’s forehand drop hit the tin to put her sister at game ball – and Rachael made sure of the game with – yes, you guessed it – a well-timed backhand drop. The game had lasted 12 minutes but seemed much longer – there had been 27 engrossing rallies.

Natalie took charge of the game after the first seven rallies that left the score at 1-1. She was now keeping Rachael under control and built up a 4-1 lead, kept the lead at 5-3 and then 6-3. The rallies were long and suspenseful as they fenced for the right position before going short. The control, length and width were superb: in the entire match the ball was hit out of court just twice, which considering they way they were using the height says much for their accuracy.

After fencing for seven rallies, Natalie, playing with confidence, ran to a 5-2 lead and then 6-3 but she was unable to keep the lead nor stop her sister’s fightback and from 6-3 up she was 6-8 down, a damaging run that surely affected her confidence. She won dropping duel to get to 7-8, missed her sister’s tight cross court drop to lose the serve, got it back with a delightful forehand crosscourt flick and forced extra points with a with a perfect forehand drop.

Another forehand cross court drop scraped the tin and Rachael took the next two points with winners to win the 20 minute game 10-8.

The damage had been done. Natalie never settled in the third game; She said later: “I probably thought too much. I was having a fight with myself either to go for it or get more basic.” She decided to go for it with disastrous consequence. She made seven unforced errors, four of them in the space of a couple of minutes to put Rachel at match point 8-1. It was at this point that I thought I saw tears in Natalie’s eyes, but she gave it one last try, scored one more point before her last error – a back wall boast that went out of court. Rachael finished the match with a forehand drive that found Natalie out of position and the game was hers 9-2 and with it her first-ever World Open title.

This has been a wonderful few months for Rachael, having reached five finals in a row- and won four of them including the two most important titles in squash, the British Open and the World Open.

“I’m happy to be playing so well, Before this I had a downward spiral but some good training over the summer paid off. Once I started playing well, I got more confidence and when I won the British Open, I was even more confident,” she said.

“Natalie made a lot of mistakes she wouldn’t normally make probably because she was thinking too much.” Natalie would confirm this in her interview and said that she was happy to seeing her sister playing well again and that she found Rachael far more difficult to play than other players.

As for the spectators, packing the seating around the court and in the gardens outside the marquee, the disappointment was that the match didn’t last for a couple of hours

The main sponsor for the tournament was the Madrid bid for the 2016 Olympics who were obviously trying to impress the IOC that they could stage major sporting events. They will be happy with the way the tournament progressed and we can only hope that a big Spanish Open is once more part of the international squash circuit for men and women.

FINAL
Rachael Grinham (AUS) bt Natalie Grinham (AUS) 9-4, 10-8, 9-2 (47mins)

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