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USA nabs 19 over Austria
by Rob Dinerman Oct 29, 2001 © 2001 Squashtalk
[last update was 30-oct-01 ]

2001 SquashTalk coverage has featured regular US Team updates from squash journalist Rob Dinerman.

U.S. TRIUMPHS IN FINAL MATCH AGAINST AUSTRIA, PLACES 19th OVERALL

Battered by a series of demoralizing defeats throughout the week-long World Team Championships, deprived even before the competition began of the valuable on-scene presence of their head coach, Paul Assaiante, whom late-September back surgery prohibited from making the grueling trip to host country Australia, and forced to play their final match against a solid Austrian team without the services of their illness-depleted top player, Damian Walker, the 2001 American team nevertheless displayed their pride and character by coming up with their best performance of the event, earning a 2-1 victory in the 19th/20th place play-off on the strength of fine performances by veteran Richard Chin and youngster Preston Quick.

The overall world championship honors went to the host country, who defeated defending champion Egypt and thereby sparked an uproarious celebration that lasted well into the following morning. England defeated Scotland in the third-place play-off and America's northern neighbor, Canada, hampered by a hamstring injury to their superstar Jonathon Power, fell all the way to a disappointing eighth-place finish.

Although the aforementioned Walker had courageously come up all week with some praiseworthy squash against some of the best players in the world and in the face of an upper-respiratory condition that he was simply unable to shake, by this final match of the competition he had become too spent to realistically make a contribution against a tough Austrian team that had placed a respectable eighth in the European team championships in 2000.

Additionally, the previous day's loss to Hong Kong had been a major disappointment, since it deprived the U.S. team of a chance to exact revenge against a New Zealand contingent that had dealt the Americans a tight and bitter defeat in the pool playdown several days earlier, and also doomed them to a finish below the 17th placement they had earned in Cairo the last time this event was held two years ago.

With not much of a tangible reward to play for, it was decided to rest Walker and give the younger players a chance to gain the kind of competitive experience that hopefully will serve the Americans well in future world championships. One of that latter group is Preston Quick, who recovered from a knee injury last week to surprise everyone with his performance in the mid-August team trials, and who had won both of his "dead rubber" matches at No. 3 in the previous two days against Norway and Hong Kong.

Now promoted to the second spot and playing a lead-off match that would definitely count towards the final outcome, Quick won a hectic and chaotic first game against Austrian Markus Rossler, 9-6, a somewhat ragged affair exacerbated by the hot-court environment, which made the ball difficult to control. Having expended more nervous energy than was necessary in that initial game, Quick made a tactical adjustment in the second, moderating his pace and increasing his ball control. Rossler settled down as well, but Quick emerged with a close 9-7 win. This was a cheering reversal for Preston, who had dropped a few extremely tight "swing" games in the pool part of the tourney.

Buoyed by this turn of events and determined to close his week on a winning note, Quick raced off with the third game, 9-2, to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead.

Though the Americans were understandably encouraged by the lead Quick's triumph had given them, they were also warily mindful of events just three days earlier, when the euphoria over Walker's opening win over New Zealander Paul Steele had given way to despair after Richard Chin and Quick were both subsequently defeated by their Kiwi opponents.

Then as now, Chin was the next match on, this time against the extremely fleet Gerhard Schedbauer, who one day earlier had given Steele a highly competitive match before eventually falling. Though Chin's confidence had suffered badly during a week filled with defeat and frustration, on this day he surmounted his doubts and showed praiseworthy patience even as his opponent retrieved even his most finely-tuned drop shots. Gradually, Chin's cumulative pressure began to draw rashes of tins from his volatile and relatively inexperienced opponent, especially in the second game, where Chin duplicated his 9-3 first-game tally. But it was simply not in the cards for anything to come easily for the Americans at these championships, wherein discompassionate draws, tough refereeing decisions, some subpar play and, as previously noted, health issues all rose up at one time or another to bedevil the U.S. effort.

At this stage, it was the stung but strong Schedbauer who rose up to pose a formidable obstacle in the form of a much-improved third game free of the errors that had played such a role in the first two games. Seizing both a 9-3 third-game win of his own and, seemingly, the momentum, Schedbauer seemed poised for a rallying win over his suddenly perturbed-looking foe for whom, as already referenced, practically nothing had gone right all week.

But to his credit, Chin was able to face down both those haunting memories of the recent past and Schedbauer's very real quality of the present, remaining patient throughout a taut fourth game and staying the course for a 9-7 victory, clinching the overall team win over a slightly favored Austria team.

Though Tim Wyant, who steadfastly and uncomplainingly filled the somewhat thankless non-playing fourth spot for most of the week, wound up losing the No. 3 "dead rubber" match, two games to one, to his opponent, Anthony Fuchs, this closing team win still constituted a satisfying and encouraging conclusion to what nevertheless has to be considered a disappointing 2001 performance for an American contingent that entered the competition thinking it had the right combination of experience and talent to improve on their No. 17 ranking in 1999 but wound up instead taking a step or two back rather than forwards.

An analysis of the U.S. performance and some thoughts on some steps that should be taken to improve in the future will appear on these pages next week.

A final summary of the results of the 2001 World Team Championships is as follows: 1. Australia
2. Egypt
3. England
4. Scotland
5. France
6. South Africa
7. Malaysia
8. Canada
9. Wales
10. Ireland
11. Pakistan
12. Finland
13. Sweden
14. Netherlands
15. Germany
16. Denmark
17. New Zealand
18. Hong Kong
19. United States
20. Austria
21. Mexico
22. Norway
23. Japan
24. Kenya