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USA disappointed against Hong Kong
by Rob Dinerman Oct 27, 2001 © 2001 Squashtalk
[last update was 28-oct-01 ]

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

USA FALLS TO HONG KONG, WILL PLAY AUSTRIA FOR 19TH/20TH FINAL PLACEMENT By Rob Dinerman, photo © 2001 Debra Tessier, Squashphotos.com

Damian Walker (right) and Richard Chin

Facing a must-win confrontation with a worthy Hong Kong contingent in their bid to match their No. 17 ranking the last time the World Team Championships were held in 1999, the U.S. team fell short this afternoon and lost, two matches to one, in the semi-finals of the 17-24 play-offs.

The Americans now play fellow semis loser Austria(who were defeated by a New Zealand team the U.S. had sorely hoped to play in the final)for the 19th/20th final ranking. Whatever the outcome of that match tomorrow with Austria, today's defeat assures a subpar overall performance for an American team that saw its initial high hopes for a strong showing doomed by a difficult draw, health issues and a failure to come

through in several clutch situations that have arisen during the past frustrating several days.

Much of the character of this match with Hong Kong had its genesis in the physical problems that have plagued the team's top player, Damian Walker, throughout the whole tournament. Walker has been valiantly playing through an upper respiratory infection incurred during the lengthy flight from America's east coast to the host city, Melbourne, Australia, a condition that it was hoped would lift but which has actually worsened due both to a series of gruelling matches and an onslaught of allergies in recent days.

Though Damian has been heroic in surmounting his ailments to defeat his opponents from New Zealand and Norway in the last two matches, his unsteady health and formidable quality of his Hong Kong opponent, Faheem Khan, a Pakistani based in Hong Kong who enjoyed a top-15 world ranking just a few years ago, meant that there was real pressure on the U.S. No. 2, Richard Chin, who was due to play the opening match against the youngster Vincent Cheung.

Although Chin did get the team win over Norway yesterday off to a good start also from the lead-off position by notching his first win of the competition, it must be said both that Chin had been struggling with his form all week and that historically he has for the most part not handled this kind of pressured match situation successfully, either in his previous team competitions or in any of his three losing S. L. Green finals. In the latter stages of his first game with Cheung, this bugaboo and the tense lack of confidence that has crept into his game all week resurfaced, and Cheung seized the opportunity to make off with the first game, 9-6. Deserted by the patience and rhythm that had characterized Richard's win over Norwegian Richard Petterson just one day earlier, Chin became involved in a hectic series of exchanges and lost the second game badly, 9-1.

He regrouped and rode a suddenly hot hand to an easy third-game victory, but, with a tiring opponent and a chance to swing the momentum permanently his way, Chin fell behind in the final fourth and lost it, 9-4. Chin's defeat meant that ailing Walker had to somehow pull off an upset over the aforementioned Khan to get the team outcome onto the racquet of U.S. No. 3 Preston Quick, whom the Americans were confident would be capable of defeating his opponent Roger Ngan, if the match went that far.

Though the first game did not start auspiciously for the England-born American Walker, who dumped the opening serve tamely into the tin, it became an epic battle, the kind whose outcome often determines the entire course of the match. It was a game Damian had to win, given his condition, the go-for-broke manner in which he competed, the early lead he was able to extract from a very skilled opponent and the amount of energy he expended in the attempt.

When that game got agonizingly away in a tiebreaker, 10-8, the fatigued Walker's cause was effectively doomed. He gamely hung in through each of the succeeding pair of games, but Khan's combination of delicate working boasts, lobs and drop volleys enabled him to emerge with each game, 9-4 and 9-5, thereby clinching victory and a spot in the finals of the 17-24 bracket for his country, which will now face New Zealand, a 2-1 conqueror in pool play several days ago of an American team that now will be denied the opportunity for revenge that it would have dearly loved to have earned.

In the best-of-three "dead rubber" that followed, Quick triumphed in straight sets over Ngan, a result that if anything made the overall team defeat even more painful to absorb. The stars have simply been misaligned for an American team that entered the competition full of optimism and ambition but now must attempt to defeat Austria, knowing that even if they do so(and that will be plenty challenging), their overall performance and placement will be considered a disappointment.

Whether Walker, who has taken more than enough punishment this week contending with some of the world's best players in his depleted state, should even play in the last match is an interesting question. The U.S. team was rocked right off the bat by vastly superior teams from Egypt and France and never seemed to regain its confidence. Perhaps the best approach for this last match would simply be to go out there, have some fun(which has been scarce this week) and give it their best shot. Playing out the string is never an appealing prospect, but hopefully the experience, though painful, that especially the younger team members gained in this competition will serve them will in the future.

This column will have both a report of tomorrow's match with Austria and a summarizing article about ten days after the tournament has concluded.