Tranfield Upsets a Tired Grinham
by Edel Costigan in Dublin © 2004

Semi Final Upset. Jenny Tranfield ousts Natalie Grinham.
[main draw/results]

Photo Right (© 2004 Debra Tessier) : Natalie Grinham was too tired after her marathon against Rebecca Macree and went down in straight games to Jenny Tranfield.

April 17 - Jenny Tranfield took advantage of Natalie Grinham's two hour semi final struggle on Friday evening, to score an upset 43 minute win over the world #4, 9/3 9/0 9/6.

The match started with long rallies, which bode trouble for Grinham, as she looked just a half a step slow from the outset. Tranfield started things off by building a 4-0 lead off of a string of Grinham unforced errors. With Grinham having difficulty shaking off the aftermath of her quarterfinals, Tranfield signalled that she was only going to surrender if Grinham played superior squash. Tranfield kept the advantage by playing good solid squash, moving Grinham around the court, waiting for the loose shot and put it away. Tanfield took the first game in a dozen minutes.

The second frame started off slowly as both players held one another to 0-0 with numerous hands out. Then Tranfield began to attack again and hit some beautiful touch shots mixed with good retrieving to go from 2-0 to 7-0 love without Natalie Grinham being able to respond or even regain the serve. At 0-7, Tranfield immediately won back the serve and she ran out a 9-0 game and a 2-0 advantage.

In the third game Natalie dug herself an even deeper hole as she started out with a string of unforced errors, that combined with good running by Tranfield gave her a seemingly insurmountable 2-0, 5-0 lead. At 5-0 the players bumped and Tranfield had to walk off the soreness in her leg. After this chance to regroup, Grinham engineered some momentum and pulled back to 5-5 as she raised her game to a higher level.

It looked like a comeback was on but she could not sustain the effort.Tranfield kept her focus and her nerve and won the game on a tin by Grinham.

HOLLANDER STOPS LOCAL STAR
After this big upset, the crowd was urging on Irish #1 Madeline Perry to do the same. But Vanessa Atkinson, defending champion, signalled her intention to control the match, as she maintained perfect length throughout the first game and kept Perry under constant pressure forcing her into errors.

Irish star Madeline Perry reached the end of the road against Vanessa Atkinson tonight. (photo: courtesy of www.grinhamsisters.com)

In game two, Madeline Perry came out determined to make some noise, and went for her shots putting some pressure on Atkinson. Both players demonstrated great racquet skills as they each exchanged winners. It looked like Perry would pull this game out but to the dissapointment of the crowd she went down 7-9.

Many felt that she needed to take that game but Perry proved them wrong. She came out for the third focused and played attacking squash. Atkinson seemed to lose some of her razor-sharp focus and Perry ran out a 9-1 winner in just 7 mins

To the assembled crowd, it looked as if Madeline was now going to make it a match, but Atkinson returned to the court with other ideas. She put Perry under pressure from the start with her pace and court coverage, drawing the errors from Perry. Her backhand volley drop was very effective. In the end Atkinson wore Perry down but not without a gallant effort from Perry.

Semi final Round Results, Fitzwilliam Club, Dublin Ireland, Saturday Apr 17
[ Draw/results]

[1] Vanessa Atkinson (NL) def [7] Madeline Perry (IRE) 9-2 9-7 1-9 9-4
[8] Jenny Tranfield (ENG) def [2] Natalie Grinham (AUS) def [5] Rebecca Macree (ENG) 9-3 9-0 9-6