Round One: Lights out for Grant

by Dan Kneipp, Team Kneipp report index
All content © 2003 Squashtalk

Dec 15, 2003

As expected the first 16 matches of the World Open supplied some predictable results with David Palmer, Simon Parke, Wael El Hindi, Karim Darwish, Anthony Ricketts, and Amr Shabana all moving through to the 2nd round. But the day didn't go without an upset.

Adrian Grant versus Peter Genever

I had said that the match between Adrian Grant and Peter Genever offered a good match and a slim chance of an upset. Genever didn’t let me down, racing to a 2-0 lead. Grant’s ranking is nearly half Genever’s and he had good results in Doha two weeks ago. He won attritional battles against both Bengy and Chaloner – two players who are very fit and patient. In the third game it looked like Genever’s run had finished. He wasn’t looking anywhere near as fresh as Grant and was struggling to get in a good position, so his shots weren’t as crisp as before. He was either padding the ball around with no conviction, or over-hitting them. Grant appeared to be only one step away from everything, and if he over committed to a ball or went the wrong way he was having a second go as the over-hit ball came off the back wall. In contrast Genever’s movement was sluggish and heavy and handicapped by Grant’s better shot timing in the third. Grant loves going short on the left hand wall (his forehand) and Genever knew this and was reading the shots well. This simply forced Grant to put the balls closer to the tin to create his winners. The 15-4 scoreline in the third was a good indication of the playing difference.

But Genever was either resting in the third, or aware that the longer the match went the more likely it would help Grant. Everything he was doing wrong in the third was turned around in the fourth. His padding and over-hitting of the ball turned into crisp shots that put Grant under constant pressure. His movement improved dramatically and suddenly he was dictating all of the rallies. Grant wasn’t too pleased with this form change, but couldn’t stop his opponent from taking a 9-1 lead.

Last year at the Pakistan Open there were continual problems with power outages. Matches would be suddenly thrown into darkness, with either really short delays before the lights came back on, or delays of a few hours on a couple of occasions. Dutch player Tommy Berden played here a couple of years ago and had a really bad case of food poisoning. He went on court to try anyway, but expected the match to be a whitewash. The power went out for four hours and his match was postponed until the next day. By then he was able to recover sufficiently and went on to win his match.

At 11-4 down Grant needed to battle for everything and make a concentrated comeback. Genever hit a great length down the right wall (Grant’s backhand) which Grant would have been able to get to, but probably would have been forced to boast or play a defensive shot. As he was going for the shot the light flickered very momentarily. It was so quick that the ref didn’t even notice. Grant asked for a let and was pleading his case but not getting very far. He deadpanned “Did the lights flick or was it just me blinking?”. His wit was wasted on the ref and half the audience. Grant got the let but couldn’t win the game, losing the match in four.

Amr Shabana (Egy) versus Bradley Ball (Eng)
We said that the Shabana versus Bradley Ball match was going to be an enjoyable nick slapping fest. Here’s how it started:

- Ball served, Shabana returned crosscourt, Ball slapped a winner.
- Ball served, Shabana slapped a winner.

I was already laughing by this time. This match wasn’t great squash (not enough length or discipline and too many errors) but it was enjoyable to watch. Shabana was happy at the start to simply keep padding the ball around, making Ball create his own speed and too many errors from this. Ball needs to spend some time watching McWhitey’s game. Like the Scotsman Ball loves hitting nicks and smashing the cover off the ball, but unlike McWhitey he hasn’t sorted out how to do this at the right time, and more importantly not over hit the ball. McWhitey is able to smash the ball, but still keep it to a good length.

Shabana had a 12-8 lead in the first, but Ball dragged it back and got to 14-13. He couldn’t win the next point, or the ‘Set 1’ shootout.

The 2nd game was similar to the first in that each player took turns having concentration lapses. Shabana got to a 14-8 lead, but couldn’t stop Ball from hitting three straight winners. Shabana wasn’t to be outdone and hit a winner off the serve to go 2-0 up.

I didn’t think any player went for more nicks off the serve as Shabana. Ball does, and you could see it frustrated his opponent. Shabana was doing different serves to try to stop this, but the Englishman was hitting the ball on the volley, after it hit the side wall, and even off the back wall and still putting it in the nick. At 10-7 to Ball he slammed another nick off the serve and Shabana said something in Arabic. I ‘m guessing the translation was something along the lines of “Oh bloody darn it, I would be most grateful if you stopped doing that this instant mate”.

Ball got at 14-12 lead, but couldn’t convert his two game balls. He called set 1, went to receive serve, had a moment to contemplate his decision and changed it to three. It didn’t matter. Shabana got to 17 first and won through to the 2nd round.

Olli Tuominen (Fin) versus Cameron White (Aus)

Olli didn’t start out this match too well, and White did (no relation to McWhitey). It took a while for the Fin to get into top gear and by the time he did White had shown that he can play at a level higher than his ranking suggests, he just doesn’t have the fitness and intensity to keep it up. White’s fading energy levels allowed Olli to hold the T and give White a painful tour of the court, eventually causing him to hit the wall hard. At one stage he was on the receiving end of a volley-drop sequence by Tuominen. White was moving forward very gingerly for the next drop, only to see the ball sailing back over his head for a well weighted lob. As it was in midair and White was changing direction he called out "“Oh not again”. I had to laugh. Olli won reasonably comfortably in 3.

Mansoor Zaman (Pak) versus Lars Harms (Sui)
The first round matches are spread out over two venues. I chose to watch the ones at the Punjab Squash Complex and not the glass court because I thought the match-ups offered more interesting and competitive games. At this stage of a big tournament it’s not surprising for the crowd to be small, mostly consisting of players and coaching. But as the number one Pakistani player was participating I expected it to get much more frantic. It did, including the arrival of a television crew, but not nearly as busy as it should have been.

Lars broke the strings of his racquet on the first rally, and this was indicative of how his World Open campaign was going to go. The start of this match was weird. Mansoor has great racquet skills, can hold the ball very well, is extremely deceptive and good at hitting shots, and can lunge beautifully when under pressure. But he doesn’t seem to like lunging. Quite often even at the start of this match he left easy balls go. Balls that would require a medium lunge, but a typical ball that should be returned at this level. I was bewildered when he did this in the first game. He had done it a lot against Tuominen in his first round loss in Qatar, but I was sure it wouldn’t happen here in Pakistan where he was the local hero and had much more motivation. Sure enough it was happening early in the first match. It’s understandable that ex-greats like Jansher and Jahangir who were freak-like with their movement, fitness and commitment find this frustrating and see it as part of the reason that Pakistan is no longer the squash force it used to be.

Lars led 11-7 in the first game. Pressure from Mansoor and a bad concentration lapse from Lars allowed the Pakistani to win the next eight points in a row to take the game. Part of Lars’ concentration lapse seemed to be from heavy fatigue from the playing conditions. He requested the ceiling fans to be turned on and spent the game break in the adjoining room where the air conditioning was colder.

It was obvious that Lars was drained of energy (I wasn’t able to ask him if he had any health problems – he’s normally a guy that will just keep running and running). The second game was over in 10 minutes, the third in 8 minutes as the local hero moved comfortably into the 2nd round.

Australia's defending champion David Palmer comfortably overcame his first hurdle in the opening day of first round action in the $170,000 Bank Alfalah Men's World Open Squash Championship today (Sunday) in Lahore, Pakistan.

The third seed beat Egypt's Mohammed Essam Hafiz 15-12 15-5 15-12 in 45 minutes to ease into Tuesday's second round at the Punjab Squash Complex. Palmer, the 27-year-old world No3 from Lithgow in New South Wales, won the world title for the first time 12 months ago in his adopted home town of Antwerp in Belgium.

England's world junior champion James Willstrop, making his debut in the senior event, also progressed through to the second round in straight games. The 29th seed from Pontefract in Yorkshire defeated compatriot Lee Drew 15-8 15-8 15-8 in just 28 minutes and now meets Egypt's former world junior champion Karim Darwish, who beat Pakistani qualifier Safeerullah Khan 15-13 15-11 15-9 in 35 minutes.

1st round:
[7] Karim Darwish (EGY) bt [Q] Safeerullah Khan (PAK) 15-13, 15-11, 15-9 (35m)
[29] James Willstrop (ENG) bt Lee Drew (ENG) 15-8, 15-8, 15-8 (28m)
[21] Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt Cameron White (AUS) 15-11, 15-5, 15-9 (38m)
[3] David Palmer (AUS) bt Moh'd Essam Hafiz (EGY) 15-12, 15-5, 15-12 (45m)
[9] Amr Shabana (EGY) bt Bradley Ball (ENG) 15-14, 15-11, 17-16 (39m)
Peter Genever (ENG) bt [22] Adrian Grant (ENG) 17-16, 15-13, 4-15, 15-5 (65m)
[5] Anthony Ricketts (AUS) bt Cameron Pilley (AUS) 15-8, 15-5, 15-11 (35m)
[31] Wael El Hindi (EGY) bt Alister Walker (ENG) 15-9, 15-12, 15-12 (45m)
[15] Simon Parke (ENG) bt Ben Garner (ENG) 15-13, 17-16, 15-14 (50m)
[20] Mohammed Abbas (EGY) bt Viktor Berg (CAN) 15-7, 15-11, 9-15, 15-13 (43m)