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USA Drops first two Matches to Favored Opponents
by Rob Dinerman Oct 23, 2001 © 2001 Squashtalk
[last update was 23-oct-01 ]

2001 SquashTalk coverage will feature regular US Team updates from squash journalist Rob Dinerman.

U.S. TEAM IS SHUT OUT BY EGYPT AND FRANCE IN MELBOURNE, FALLS OUT OF CONTENTION FOR TOP SIXTEEN

A combination of shaky health, a tough draw sequence, inconsistent officiating and an agonizing near-miss proved a little too much for a doughty American contingent to handle as the World Team Championships opened in Melbourne, Australia.

With consecutive 3-0 losses to Egypt and France, ranked sixth and seventh respectively in the world rankings, the only remaining chance for the Americans to advance to the top-sixteen competition brackets is for them to defeat a favored New Zealand team tomorrow for a compassionate treatment on the part of the seeding committee.

MODIFIED FORMAT
As the team event began on October 21st, the schedule differed from the expected format in several respects. Normally there are eight-team pools based on previous performance, and the U.S., which finished seventeenth the last time the world team championships were held two years ago in 1999, had resigned themselves to being consigned to the 17-24 bracket, which they were resolved to try to win in order to be promoted to the 9-16 bracket in 2003.

Instead, the 24 team entrants were broken up into six four-team pools, with each team playing a three-match round-robin against the other teams in its pool, following which the teams would be assigned to pools of eight teams each(1-8, 9-16 and 17-24)and compete within their pool. This approach actually meant that every team in theory could win the overall championship, but also placed a great premium on landing initially in a pliable four-team pool.

As a practical matter, the top two finishers in each of the six pools were assured a spot in the top 16, with the remaining four positions going to the four third-placed teams who performed the best. This fact would have an important determinative influence on the dynamics of the U.S.-France tie, especially at the No. 3 position, of which more anon.

EGYPTIAN CHALLENGE
As previously noted, the Americans drew Egypt as their opening assignment. Even with the recent retirement of their leading player, Ahmed Barada, who never recovered either physically or emotionally from a severe stabbing attack two years ago, the Egyptians were known to be a formidable contingent, and a heavy favorite to triumph in Pool F. Both U.S. No 1 Damian Walker and No. 2 Richard Chin came up with their best efforts in their opening games against Omar Elbarossy and Amr Shabana respectively, with Chin frustrating his talented but mercurial opponent and riding some unforced tins to a late-game lead.

But both Egyptians closed out those first games strongly and, once in the saddle, dominated their remaining two games. For Walker, who was playing with a severe head cold incurred during the course of the long flight to Australia, this was kind of a role reversal, as throughout the team trials he had been pressed by his younger challengers in the first game, survived that game with clutch play at the end and never looked back thereafter. Often when an underdog is making a bid for an upset, the success of that attempt is contingent on his cashing in early not only for the very tangible benefit of having that game on the books but also to acquire momentum and confidence that he will need as the match drags on.

In the final match, American No. 3 Tim Wyant fell, also in straight games, to Mohammed Abbas, who commandeered the center of the court and volleyed his way to victory. Though Chin and Walker would, barring medical exigency, be playing in the top two positions throughout the entire team event, Manager Richard Millman's plan is to alternate his two youngsters, Wyant and Preston Quick, at No. 3, and this adjustment led to a major crossroads moment for the U.S. team in the match two days later against France, a team that has had all of its top three players ranked in the world top 50 within the last year, yet entered its match against the Americans with an attitude edge perhaps borne of some latent fear of being in a no-win situation against a team that, if everything went right, might be able to defeat them.

First up this time was the No. 2 position, Chin against Jean-Michel Arcucci-there is a draw before every team match as to the ordering of the matches, the one proviso being that the No. 1 match never be the third and final one. Irked by his subpar performance against New Zealand the previous day, Arcucci responded with a forceful performance. The 32-year-old Chin, a three-time U.S.team member and also a three time(though never victorious) U.S. National Championships finalist, is capable of tight, patient and error-free squash, and in fact produced exactly that output in his match against Arcucci. But, even at his best, he has never possessed the firepower to really compete at the top level, and the limitations of his game were a real contrast to the Frenchman's far superior firepower, which enabled him to strike winners of awesome severity and finality en route to dropping only three official points(the competition features nine-point scoring, though with the "American" 17-inch tin), none in the third and final game.

Chin was followed by Walker at No. 1 against France's star, Renan Levigne. To Damian's credit, he refused to try for low-percentage winners, preferring to play long and conservative points even though this tactic requires a level of stamina that his upper respiratory problem caused him to lack; in fact, he committed a mere six unforced errors the entire match, much fewer than his opponent, whom Walker pressed all three games until midgame, when the talented Frenchman inexorably pulled away each time-9-5, 2 and 4, though the match(as often happens in English scoring)was much closer than this score.

QUICK BATTLES GAULTIER TOE TO TOE
By this stage of the late afternoon, most of the remaining team matches had ended and, by the time former Trinity star Preston Quick entered the court to do battle with 2000 World Junior Champion Gregory Gaultier, it was known that four of the teams that were likely to place third in their pools had all won at least two games against their stronger opposition. This meant that to stand any chance of being granted a spot in the top 16, Quick would have to win at least two games against Gaultier AND the U.S. team would have to defeat a New Zealand team whose mid-teens preliminary ranking was a few notches higher than the American position at No. 19.

Quick began his formidable mission against the highly favored Gaultier on a sensational note, giving the Americans their first taste of success by emerging victorious from a grueling first game, 9-7. An angered Gaultier tried to humiliate Quick and punish him for his temerity, but Preston refused to be intimidated and stayed right with Gregory through mid-game, whence Gaultier engineered a game-ending run to win the second, 9-5.

The third game was the real crucible, replete with attritional points and controversial calls, and Quick was actually serving at game-ball. But this golden opportunity(from both the individual match and team pool vantage point)slipped cruelly away, 10-9, and a re-energized Gaultier, though never completely in the clear, rode that hard-earned momentum through a 9-3 fourth and final game. Though the American chances of making the top 16 probably slipped away with that squandered tird-game game-ball opportunity, the match tomorrow with New Zealand will still be crucial in determining the USA's positioning in the upcoming 17-24 place play-off.

It will be interesting to see how the team responds to the disappointments of these opening rounds, and whether the hits they have taken have toughened them up or tired them out for the imposing competition that lies ahead.