Team Kneipp - Qatar 2003 Preview I

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... Joe faces Olli...

May 19, 2003 by Joe and Dan Kneipp [draw/results]

Qatar PSA Masters Preview — The Bottom Half [also see top half preview]

Doha's Great Squash Venue,
photo © 2003 Chris Walker

The first day's action in Qatar has already seen three of the eight
matches being won by the unseeded underdogs. Helping to emphasise that often the most unpredictable, raw and aggresive squash occurs in the first round. Here is the second half of the tournament as we see it.

[11] Chris Walker [Nick Taylor (Eng) moves up to his place] versus Wael El Hindi (Egy)

A year ago Chris Walker was ranked seven in the world and collected on a bet from Ross Norman that he could be in the top ten on his 35th birthday. His ranking has taken a dive since then having blown out in the last couple of months to 29. It is the first time in nearly two years that he is outside of the top 20. He was 13 in January so he had the benefit of being seeded here (see Top Half Preview for explanation).

Which means that the left handed Englishman would have a lot to gain from this one particular tournament as it would have created an opportunity for him to get back into the top 24 and ideally the top 16. Unfortunately he has had to withdraw less than a week before the event began and will certainly be forced to qualify for the next
tournament he plays in. Because he is a seeded player there is a shuffling of players to accommodate for his withdrawal. The #17 ranked player of the tournament Nick Taylor moves into Walker's place and the first reserve Dan Jenson gets Taylor's spot.

Nick Taylor moves up to replace Chris Walker,
photo © 2003 Debra Tessier

Nick Taylor is ranked 22 this month but has been in the low teens earlier in his career. He got looked over recently for selection on the England squad for the European Team Championships, the selectors opting for a much younger James Willstrop — the current World Junior champ, but still a player ranked 15 places below Taylor. The selection gamble being an indication of the English team's strength that allows this risk, and the long term vision of the selectors who obviously see many years of representation for Willstrop.

None of that will be comforting to Taylor whose ranking should have earned him a team position.

Taylor has had a little fortune in Qatar to make up for his disappointment. His first round opponent was originally supposed to be Egypt's top player Karim Darwish who is currently ranked 8. Instead Taylor now has the fifth ranked Egyptian Wael El Hindi who is ranked 38.

2002 was El Hindi's best year so far on the PSA circuit, breaking into the high 20s for the first time. He is another player that is capable of upsets and is willing to do anything on court for victory especially blocking and milking.

This will be the first time that El Hindi and Taylor meet in a PSA event.

[7] Ong Beng Hee (Mas) versus Del Harris (Eng)

Del Harris in the main draw,
photo © 2003 Debra Tessier

Bengy has spent most of the past twelve months ranked 7, 8 or 9. He is now 10 and has a pack of players breathing down his neck ready to overtake him for the vital single figure ranking. The former World Junior Champ had a very meteoric rise up the rankings, going from the 70s to the 40s, then 30s, 20s, teens and eventually single figures in less than two years. Since then he has hovered between 7 and ten for a very consistent two years. Despite this being a spectacular effort in itself, he is getting impatient and wants to make the next step to the top four, which will require at least a quarter final berth here to get the ball rolling.

Del Harris was one of the stars of the game in the late 80s and early 90s. He understandably doesn't have the same drive or ability to train and focus as he used to and is using this time in his career to really enjoy himself and take advantage of the good life that his sporting prowess has enabled.

Harris has had a very gradual fading from the top ranking. The last time he was in the top 10 was in 2000. He then spent nearly two years in the teens up until half way through last year. He was ranked 30 in January, but since then has gone to 53. Part of this reason is that over the past twelve months Harris has only participated in four tournaments (or made the main draw of four). The Pakistan Open in March of 2002 was the last time he won a first round PSA match, but during the past league season he had victories over White, Lavigne and Taylor.

Beng Hee and Harris have played three times over the past three years. They met in the first round of the 2000 Greenwich Open, with the Englishman winning in four. This was the most recent tournament that Harris had made the final of, eventually losing to me. Their other two encounters happened at the 2001 and 2002 Hong Kong Open with Bengy winning both times although the scores were close.

[13] Joe Kneipp (Aus) versus Olli Tuominen (Fin)

Olli Tuominen,
photo © 2003 Debra Tessier

My ranking has been bouncing around the low teens for most of the last twelve months. I still haven't cracked the magic 10, but have been painfully close at 11 and currently at 12.

Touminen's results have been inconsistent of late. He spent all of 2002 sandwiched between 16 and 21. He is very fit, intense and aggressive with his on court play and can steam roll better players. But a couple of near misses in recent tournaments has seen his ranking go out to 30 for this month. He nearly beat Palmer in the first round of New York and should have beaten Heath in their second round five set encounter at the World Open.

That is the difference between being 30 and being 14.

Tuominen's best result to date would probably be beating John White in the first round of the 2001 Hong Kong Open on the way to a quarter final berth, losing to eventual finalist Lincou. The same year he made three PSA finals (winning one) and a semi final, helping him reach his career high of 16.

He his certainly not a player to be taken lightly as victories over Ong Beng Hee, Martin Heath, Del Harris, Chris Walker, Omar Elborolossy, Nick Taylor, Graham Ryding and Gregory Gaultier indicate.

We have played each other three times over the past six months — once in Dutch league, once in German league and once at PSA's Catella Swedish Open in February. I have won each time but will be aware of the Fin's hunger to stop that trend.

[4] Stewart Boswell (Aus) versus Gregory Gaultier (Fra)

Boswell over the last twelve months has been ranked either four or five. He should be seeded five for this tournament, but Palmer's withdrawal has given him the all important top 4 seeding. The only players that Boswell lost to last year was Nicol, Power, Palmer, White and Parke. All of these players are currently in the top four, with the exception being Simon Parke who used to be. Over the past two years Boswell has only lost once in the first round, going down to Egyptian Amr Shabana at the Pakistan Open of last year.

Boswell was supposed to be in Rotterdam on Saturday playing the Dutch League finals. He was also supposed to be in London on Monday taking part in the Super Series Finals. He withdrew from both events, apparently due to a recurring back problem. There isn't many tournaments or leagues on at the moment so a league final and a Super Series Final appearance are not only important pay cheques, but big ones for our game. Boswell wouldn't withdraw from these if he only had a niggling injury. His French opponent will jump on any sign of weakness or injury at the first opportunity.

Gaultier has finally cracked the top 20 this month. He has been in the 20s for the last six months and his breakthrough means that for the first time there are three French players in the top 20. That strength was shown by France again nearly upsetting England in the European Club Championships. But it is not just France that is strong at the moment. The top 20 players in the PSA ranking emphasises the current strength and diversity of different nationals. Currently there are four Aussies, four Poms, three Frenchies, three Egyptian (one at 21), two Canadians, two Scots, one
Malaysian, one Pakistani and a Welshman. A South African, a Fin, an Italian, a Belgian and a Hollander are all hovering ten to twenty places away. This bodes very well for October's World Team Championships in Austria that will be fought out mainly between Australia, England, France, Egypt, Pakistan and Canada. Considering the Australia versus England clash could include matches between Palmer and Nicol, Beachill and Boswell, Parke and Ricketts, and Kneipp and Willstrop, it wouldn't hurt to start looking for ticket availability.

Gaultier is beginning to beat some of the consistent top twenty performers. Over the past year he has had victories over Alex Gough in Sweden, Del Harris in Antwerp and Martin Heath in New York. He hasn't played Boswell in PSA yet and will have his work cut out for himself if the Aussie isn't hampered by injury.

[9] Martin Heath (Sco) versus Omar Elborolossy (Egy)

Scottish Champion Martin Heath is currently ranked 15, his lowest ranking in over four years. He spent all of 1999, 2000 and 2001 in single figures, but then spent most of last year bouncing around the low teens. An unexpected but well timed quarter final appearance at the World Open last year has prevented his ranking from blowing out to the 20s. Heath's performance can often hinge completely on that day's mindset, which can lead to very inconsistent performances that range from magnificent victories to surprising and disappointing upsets. Nothing emphasises this more than the list of players who have beaten him over the past twelve months — Nick Taylor, Karim Darwish, Olli Tuominen, Alex Gough, David Palmer, Gregory Gaultier, Stewart Boswell, Rodney Durbach and Wael El Hindi. Only Palmer and Boswell were in the top ten and ranked higher than Heath when they beat him.

Taylor, Darwish, Tuominen, Durbach, El Hindi and Gaultier were all outside of the top 20 when they caused the Scot to exit the tournament in the first round.

If the rankings are to be trusted (and they are not) this in theory should be the most closely contested match of the first round. Heath the world #15 plays against Elborolossy the world #16.

Elborolossy moves back into the position of #2 ranked Egyptian, still behind Darwish but now ahead of Shabana. The tall, thick set Egyptian has been very consistent with his performance over the past four years, never slipping into the thirties, or quite making the single figures, fourteen currently his career best. Has had career victories over White, Hill, Lincou, Shabana, Evans, Price and Castelyn.

The only major tournament last year that Elborolossy progressed past his seeding and made the final 16 was the British Open where he had a spectacular 16-17, 17-15, 17-16, 17-14 victory over Anthony Ricketts. Aside from this win he hasn't gotten past the first round.

The Scot and the Egyptian have played five times in PSA during their careers. Elborolossy won both encounters in 1997, but Heath made amends in 1999, 2000, then last year at the Pakistan Open. When trying to guess this match's victor, the unpredictability and schizophrenic results of Heath can't be underestimated. If forced to back a winner I would sooner place money on Afghanistan's entrant winning Miss Universe this year ....in a bourkha.

[5] Thierry Lincou (Fra) versus David Evans (Wal) [now replaced by John Williams (Aus)]

World #6 Lincou made his first major semi final in New York since bulldozing his way to the final of the Hong Kong Open in 2001. In doing so got a monkey off his back by beating Jonathon Power in four reasonably comfortable games, a player he previously hadn't even taken a game off. Power reversed that result in the recent Super Series Final and if the matches go according to the seeding they'll be able to have a deciding match in the quarter finals.

Lincou can't afford to think about that possible match up as he has a hard enough hurdle to face in Welshman David Evans.

I was intending on discussing how Evans has made the final of one major tournament over the past four years. It was a very good tournament to make the final of and even better to walk away with the 2000 British Open trophy.

He has beaten most of the top players in the game but of late hasn't had the consistency and reliability of putting the wins together to progress far enough into the tournaments. His current ranking blow out reflecting this — going from 8 in January last year to 34 now. But this is all irrelevant as apparently he has had to withdraw with food poisoning meaning a frantic trip has allowed Aussie John Williams into the emergency replacement position.

This means Doha now has seven Austalians present of the thirty-two players (including 'throw another shrimp on the barbie' White). Williams is currently ranked 37 and has played Lincou twice in PSA. They met in the second round of the PSA Masters of 2000 (held in Egypt then not Doha), then in the final of the 2001 Windy City Open. The Frenchman won both times.

[10] Karim Darwish (Egy) versus Dan Jenson (Eng)

Darwish was the world junior title holder until Englishman James Willstrop recently took that honour. Darwish's predecessor was Malaysian Ong Beng Hee, but that hasn't stopped him moving ahead of him in the rankings, Darwish now 8 with Bengy 10. No one doubts Darwish's abilities and capacity to go a very long way in today's game, but his ranking shouldn't be this high yet.

Last year the only top ten player that he beat was Beng Hee. Of the past nine major tournaments (32 or 64 draw) Darwish has only got past the first round three times and of those three occasions only made one quarter final. You can't do that and get a ranking of 8. Well you can actually if you win lots of matches at the medium sized tournaments in Pakistan that aren't frequented by many European or Aussie players. I know this is a subject we've talked about a lot--perhaps that helps emphasise how frustrating the system can be and what a good argument it creates for linking ranking points to the standard of player you beat (so that if Nick Matthew had beaten the world #1 in the first round he would have gotten a lot more points than Jonathon Power who probably has a comfortable victory in the first round over a player ranked 36 in the world).

Darwish's opponent is Australia's Dan Jenson. The only top twenty player that Jenson beat since 1999 was Mansoor Zaman during last year's medium sized CAS International in Pakistan. The more noteworthy result of that tournament was Jenson putting a stop to Jansher Khan's comeback hopes in the first round. The tall Aussie has been battling injury problems for numerous years now and hasn't been able to find the form or fitness that jettisoned him into the top ten so quickly after leaving the junior ranks.

Jenson had the unfortunate position of being the first reserve despite two players already withdrawing from the tournament. Then Chris Walker withdrew last week, creating an invaluable spot in the main draw. Darwish and Jenson haven't played each other in a PSA event.

[2] Jonathon Power (Can) Shahid Zaman (Pak)

Power's dramatic 15-14 fifth set victory over Nicol in the Super Series Final was very impressive and exciting but unfortunately for the Canadian will have no affect on his ranking points and won't stop a kilt wearing Aussie from breathing down his neck. If Johnny McWhite reaches one stage further than Power in this tournament (providing it is the quarters or beyond) then he could replace Power at #3. I don't expect this sort of thought to even enter the Canadian's head. He will simply go about with his usual on court performance that includes a symphony of winners, graceful movement and deceptive speed, melodramatic whinging, Oscar-deserving theatrics coupled with over acting that would only fool the audience of 'Bold and the Beautiful' and perhaps a couple of referees that might as well be watching television instead of the squash judging by their grasp of milking, fishing, blocking, checking and other farming and rugby behaviour not originally intended for a glass sporting room.

Power had a wonderful run of tournament victories last year, winning three at the start of the year, then had a small drought before winning in his backyard in November.

His first round opponent will be #35 Shahid Zaman from Pakistan. Zaman's major career victories are over Karim Darwish, Price and an out of form Dave Evans at this tournament last year. You should feel fairly comfortable putting the family estate on there not being an upset for this encounter.

There are some juicy matches scheduled for the second round and quarter finals. Watch this space, but don't forget you can count on there being at least two first round upsets. At New York's Tournament of Champions there were seven upsets out of the first sixteen matches, but the top eight seeds still all made it through to the quarterfinals. What a crazy game.

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