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USA Earns first win over Norway
by Rob Dinerman Oct 26, 2001 © 2001 Squashtalk
[last update was 26-oct-01 ]

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

AMERICANS BREAK THROUGH AGAINST NORWAY, PREPARE FOR ENCOUNTER WITH HONG KONG

Showing a resiliency that even three consecutive pool competition defeats were unable to dent, the U.S. team came up with their best performance of the World Team Championships in Melbourne, Australia today, defeating a worthy Norwegian contingent and losing nary a match in the process.

As a result of this triumph, the Americans now face a Hong Kong team they have to defeat in order to maintain their hopes of matching the No. 17 finish they recorded the last time this event was held back in 1999. Their previous losses earlier this week to Egypt, France and New Zealand eliminated the U.S. team from consideration for the top-16 brackets and consigned it to the 17-24 play-off, which, unlike the round-robin formats that had heretofore prevailed, is run as a straight eight-team quarters-semis-final main-draw event.

The match with Norway began with the No. 2 position and therefore pitted American Richard Chin against Raymond Petterson, a fine and much younger athlete who looked to rally rather than to end the point. Determined to recover from a winless week so far, and chastened by the aggressive shotmaking tactics that had been his undoing in his last match against New Zealand's Richard Sharplin, when his early-match hot hand had disastrously given way to tin-filled trio of losing games, Chin showed a degree of rhythm and patience that had been lacking in the Sharplin match and avoided his previous tendency to try to end the point too soon. Though his decision to maneuver his opponent around the court and gradually amass an advantage may have been less dramatic than attempting an early winner would have been, this revised approach served Chin well, as he thoroughly controlled the pace of the exchanges and sailed to a 9-3, 1 and 3 victory without ever getting into major trouble. Chin's performance in the opening match gave the U.S. the same 1-0 lead that they had unfortunately squandered in the final pool match against New Zealand two days ago.

American Damian Walker, who had been responsible for that hopeful early margin with his four-game triumph over Paul Steele, now was in the position of being able to clinch a team victory if he could defeat Norway's first string, Richard Larsen. Long considered the linch-pin for any success the Americans could hope to attain in this gruelling world-level competition, Walker draw heavily on the savvy and many years of pro tournament competition that had landed him in the PSA top 40 rankings during the 1990's. Galvanized by the opportunity Chin's initia win had created for the U.S. squad, Walker seized the play right from the outset and never looked back en route to 9-3, 2 and 3 to seal the team's advance to the semi-final round.

With the team outcome already resolved, the remaining match (consequently known as a "dead rubber" in international team-match-play parlance)between the No. 3 players was two games out of three rather than the usual three out of five, and Preston Quick, who had barely come up short in several important previous matches, left nothing to chance this time around, blasting his way to a 9-0, 9-4 sweep against Norway's Tom Andre Hansen.

As noted, the Americans now face Hong Kong in one semi-final tomorrow, with New Zealand going against Austria in the other semi. Although the U.S. team members would love another crack at a New Zealand team they nearly defeated in pool play, they cannot afford to look past a Hong Kong group led by Faheem Khan, a native Pakistani currently based in Hong Kong and formerly ranked in the world top 15.

Khan will be a formidable test for Walker, who still hasn't fully shaken the upper respiratory problems that have plagued him from the start of this tournament. This will certainly be sterner competition than the Norwegians were able to muster, and it will be interesting to see if the Americans, who finally saw their efforts bear fruit after nearly a week of frustrating defeats, can build on the momentum they have created for themselves and carry it forward to additional victories.