Tournament of Champions Squash at Grand Central in NYC

[TOC DRAW and RESULTS ] [Also Sunday's Princeton-Yale Mayor's Cup]

GREGORY WINS, WHITE TAKES THE CHEERS

Tonight, courtesy of the irrepressible John White, we may have seen one of the best rallies in recent years. It produced the biggest roar of delight that I have ever heard in 30 years of covering squash. Gregory Gaultier played the straight man, but then when John The Entertainer is on court, his opponent is usually forced to play the supporting role.

When the match started, White looked like anything but a star. He was dreadfully off form and could do very little about it as Gaultier whacked and drifted the ball about the court. The White winners were simply not working and the sound of the tin was the percussive accompaniment as Gaultier took the first game 11-8.

White appeared to settle down at the start of the second keeping pace with Gaultier to 3-3 and then there followed a truly dreadful period when he could hardly do anything right. Visions of a 3/0 tonking began to appear in our minds. Gaultier was 8-5 ahead and was forced to hit a back wall boast. White went forward, did a double-feint with his racket and missed the ball entirely. This was a bad day at the office for him and Gaultier duly took the game 11-5 easily, probably thinking that Christmas had come very, very early this year.

White pulled himself together and was now playing his game and picking his time to go for winners. Gaultier seemed to let up and was not putting the pressure on White as he did in the first two games. In fact he looked a little sloppy in giving up three errors in the first five rallies. White was leading 8-5 when they got involved in a long rally, both players using all the court and picking up everything as well as cracking in drops from all angles. It was one of those occasions when you could feel the entire audience had stopped breathing as the tension built and built and built. Finally White went for a backhand drop and hit the tin. A huge roar of disappointment went up. Obviously this was a White crowd and they loved everything he did.

But being John White he left that error behind and hit three winners in a row to win the game 11-6 much to the delight of the crowd.

THIS BIG ONE LIFTS THE ROOF

Gaultier picked his game up again in the fourth and the contest was now evenly balanced, until White hit another dreadful patch and from leading 4-3 he found himself 9-4 down. He whacked his calf with his racket which is his expression of extreme frustration after an error. His leg was red with the blows but White, ever the pro, pulled his way up 8-9 and then gave up a stroke to put Gaultier at match ball, 10-8.

White hit a forehand drive to end a long rally to get to 9-10 and then came THE RALLY. The fact was Gaultier was always in charge and had White on a piece of string. Four times Gaultier slammed for the nick and four times White, who was now gasping with fatigue between shots, forced himself to lunge to get the ball back, On one shot he swivelled through 360 degrees and found he could still get the ball to the front wall. The rally ended with White, against all odds hitting a winner. The crowd exploded in cheers, shouts and pure ecstacy at what they had witnessed superhuman effort from a man who was almost out on his feet. The noise the loudest Ive ever heard at a squash match -ent on for two minutes. Gaultier was indicating that he wanted to get on with the match and the referee was imploring the spectators to quiten down.. Let me tell you now, this rally will be spoken about in wonder and watched on DVD for years to come.

So it was now 10-10 and the tie break. Gaultier made and error, White made an error to make the score 11-11 and then White smacked Gaultiers serve into the nick and followed that with a an outrageous backhand cross court kill. Another ear-bashing ovation from the crowd and White was in a fifth game, whether he could take it or not.

The fifth was anticlimactic how could it be anything else? and Gaultier had youth on his side. He played with care and slowly built up a 6-3 lead. White tried to pull back but after two points were added to his score he gradually saw the game slip away as Gaultier kept the pressure up , made no errors to win 11-7.

It had been a terrific match and one that gave every spectator more than their moneys worth. But, as I said at the start, John White always delivers.

WILLSTROP TAKES CARE IN OUSTING BOSWELL

The final quarter-final saw James Willstrop playing a very circumspect game against Stewart Boswell. There were a lot of patient length rallies and very few trips to the front of the court. The Willstrop flair and arsenal of shots were nowhere to be seen. In fact I thought he was playing Boswells game, which was a dangerous thing to do. The object of squash is to impose your game on the opponent. True the left wall rallies were normally interrupted with Willstrop going cross-court, but this was by no means an attempt at a winner. Willstrop grafted diligently to wint he 17 minute game 11-8 but then found in the second game that it was Boswell who was hitting winners. Not many, but enough keep a couple of points ahead to win the game 11-8 and tie the match. This was fascinating squash without being exciting and we waited for things to hot up and get a few fireworks lit.

Willstrop relaxed a little, in the sense that he allowed his flair to emerge and with some fine kills and long drops from the back of the court he gradually took control from an opponent who was either tired or disheartened. Willstrop took the game 11-5 and then took command from 5-5 in the fourth game to pull away to win 11-7. It was a solid workmanlike job from Willstrop whose reach and racket skills still make him an outstanding player and very hard to beat. Boswell, once the world number four, is still trying to get back into the top ten but despite having Rodney Martin as an adviser, cannot seem to get the sort of attacking skills that any player who aspires to the top must have in todays game.

BRONSTEINS UNRELIABLE FORECASTS

In tomorrows semis, I take Gaultier to beat Willstrop and Palmer to beat Ashour. Is it possible to be wrong twice?

QUARTER FINALS (BOTTOM HALF)

Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt John White (SCO) 11-8, 11-5, 6-11, 10-11(1-3), 11-7. (67mins) James Willstrop (ENG) bt Stewart Boswell (AUS) 11-8, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7 (60mins)

WOMENS CHALLENGE CUP

Shelley Kitchen of New Zealand, with a huge dose of confidence still boosting her game after knocking Nicol David, the world champion, out of the World Open in October, strode the McWil court with great confidence and simply overwhelmed Vicky Botwright with superb length and court coverage. She has never beaten the world number seven before and Botwright seemed unable to adjust her game. Tomorrow the other semi-final will pit American number one Natalie Grainger against Vanessa Atkinson of the Netherlands. My guess is that the final on Wednesday will be between Kitchen and Grainger; if Kitchen can maintain that length and steadiness, Grainger will have her hands full.

CHALLENGE CUP Shelley Kitchen (NZ) bt Vicky Botwright (ENG) 11-5, 11-5, 11-6.

SUNDAY:
David Palmer (AUS) bt Mohammed Abbas (EGY) 8-11, 11-10(2-0), 11-10(4-2) 11-8 (69mins)
Ramy Ashour (EGY) bt Wael El Hindi (EGY) 5-11 7-11,11-5, 11-4, 11-8 (79mins)

Web	www.squashtalk.com

NEW ... Get the New Jonathon Power Instruction Video at the SquashTalk eStore!