16s 2nd Half: Heath Opens Up

by Martin Bronstein
All content © 2002 Squashtalk

Darwish stifled by Lincou's attack, © 2002 Fritz Borchert

As I was saying earlier in the week, Martin Heath loves the Open and Lee Beachill is jinxed when it comes to injury and illness. The two strands collided on court in the third round, when Heath got his best result of the year – so far he has lost in the first round of six PSA events – in beating Beachill to get through to the quarter-finals.

True Beachill retired with a badly twisted ankle but Heath was ahead 2/1 and leading the fourth when Beachill went for a ball in the back corner, got into a collision with Heath and went to the floor clutching his ankle. Referee Jack Allen felt the injury was self inflicted and so Beachill was given just three minutes to recover. If the referee had considered that Heath contributed to the injury, there would have been unlimited time. When something like that happens, it is always a difficult call for the referee, everything happens so fast. Who trod on whose foot? Did one player make every effort to clear? If Beachill tripped on Heath’s foot, whose fault is that? These are question that can only be truly answered with the help of a slo-mo replay, which they rarely have in squash.

So Beachill was given ‘no let’ (cruel!) and although he tried to play on it was obvious he was on his way home and so Heath will be meeting David Palmer in the quarters. The controversial Australian dismissed Amr Shabana of Egypt in four and felt very pleased with himself telling SquashNow that: “I have beaten the three of the best shotmakers around (Shahier Razik, David Evans and Shabana) and I’m not even at the top of my game, so I have to feel good.” He will also have to feel very saint-like in his behaviour because the new directives to referees are in effect and any Palmer-like explosions will be dealt with very quickly and severely.

Power pushes past Chris Walker and into the quarters, © 2002 Fritz Borchert

French champion Thierry Lincou is another player who seems to have peaked for this event. He took out Karim Darwish of Egypt in four, winning the last two games 15-3, 15-7. Lincou is ranked 6 and Darwish 13, but the gulf between the two is much wider. It should be remembered, though, that Darwish, who was world junior champion up until Monday when James Willstrop won the title, is the youngest player in the top twenty, still only 21 years old. He is the sort of classy, talented player that is destined for the top five within three years.

Chris Walker, the oldest player in the top fifty, never mind the top twenty, managed to get a game off Jonathon Power in their quarter final match, but for the 35 year old player it was a case of one-game glory as Power got into the stride to take the next three games 15-5, 15-3, 15-7.

The quarters now shape up thus:
Peter Nicol vs Anthony Ricketts
Simon Parke vs John White
Martin Heath vs David Palmer
Jonathon Power vs Thierry Lincou

Third Round Results:
Tuesday:
Martin Heath (Sco) bt Lee Beachill (Eng) 15/10, 6/15, 15/12, 7/1 rtd
David Palmer (Aus) bt Amr Shabana (Egy) 6/15, 15/11, 15/3, 15/11
Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Karim Darwish (Egy) 12-15 15-5 15-3 15-7
Jonathon Power (Can) bt Chris Walker (Eng) 12-15 15-5 15-3 15-7[1] Peter Monday:
Nicol (Eng) bt [21] Mansoor Zaman (Pak) 15/8, 15/8, 15/11 (31m)
[9] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [7] Ong Beng Hee (Mas) 15/8, 15/8, 15/5 (43m)
[26] Simon Parke bt [4] Stewart Boswell (Aus) 7/15, 15/13, 5/15, 17/15, 15/12 (100m)
[5] John White (Sco) bt [10] Mark Chaloner (Eng) 15/9, 15/13, 10/15, 15/9 (56m*)

CORRECTION; In a previous report I said that Ricketts could overtake Ong Beng Hee in the rankings. He already has, the December rankings show Ricketts at No7 and Beng Hee at No.8