Round 1, Day 2: Joe Gets Through

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

Dec 15, 2003

A few things were different about today’s match preparation leading up to Joe's first round match. Successful squash can be all about doing things the same way game after game, so dealing with a different circumstance isn’t always easy. Once you work out what is the best food habits, sleep patterns and game preparations to play consistent, high quality squash, then the idea is to try to replicate those conditions at all tournaments.

Warmups at the Impressive Lahore World Open Venue photo © 2003 D Kneipp

It is extremely rare for a PSA or league match to be played before 4pm, and they’re never before midday. I think there’s even a clause about this in the PSA handbook. Because of this Joe and I never train early in the morning. He used to do it a lot more when he was younger, but I see no advantage in it at this stage of his career. It means that if we do two courts sessions, one will be early afternoon, like 1pm, and the other in the evening. Early morning sessions mean he is training under conditions unlike that of a tournament, and his body is never as sharp meaning the quality of the session isn’t as good and injury mishaps are more likely. Joe’s first round match was today at 11:50am, much earlier than normal. He tried to get to sleep earlier (unsuccessfully) and eat breakfast earlier (appetite wasn’t there). Here’s how his game and some of the other games on day two panned out.

John White (Sco) versus Jean-Michel Arcucci (Fra)
McWhitey is an erratic player. It’s part of being a shot maker. Every player has good and bad days, but if your game is based on low percentage, hum-dinger, whip-cracking shots that leave the crowd impressed, then some days things just won’t work as well. The World Open can’t be won in the first round (although it can be lost) and McWhitey didn’t play anywhere near his best, making a lot of unforced errors and loose shots, but he still did all he needed to do to win the match. Arcucci’s movement was bad, particularly moving foreword and to the forehand. McWhitey’s pace and shot range, particularly his three corner boasts expose bad movement quickly. Arcucci can play better squash than today’s performance, going down in straight games, but the closeness of the score had more to do with McWhitey not playing his best squash. You can be assured that he will fine tune it as the tournament goes along.

[2] John White (SCO) bt Jean-Michel Arcucci (FRA) 15-11, 15-12, 15-13 (49m)

Joe Kneipp (Aus) versus Liam Kenny (Ire)
We were on a flight recently and sitting next to a Scottish man who said he was a squash fan. The conversation got to Doha’s tournament – an event he normally watched, but wasn’t able to this year. He asked us how the Scottish players went. The conversation went something like this:

Us: Do you mean Peter Nicol? You know he now plays for England?

Him: Yeah I know, but it’s still hard to forget he’s no longer Scottish. So I guess Scotland didn’t do well at the tournament?

Us: Actually it did. An Aussie guy who now plays for Scotland made the tournament final.

Him: The Aussie girls used to be very strong how are they going?

Us: Well kind of good. An Aussie girl just made the final in Doha and won the World Open. The only thing is she now plays for New Zealand.

Him: So who are you playing in LahoreUs: It’s actually an Irish guy who is originally from Australia

Joe’s opponent Liam Kenny is part of the Nicol, McWhitey and Owens nation-changing stable. He has good racquet skills, but doesn’t usually make the main draw of a Super Series event.

Joe started out the first game in great form, taking advantage of the greater speed and intensity typical of the top ranked players. He won the 1st comfortably, but went down 1-5 in the 2nd with some dumb shot selections and annoyingly lack of patience. It can be very frustrating watching him when he plays like that. Kenny was playing great shots short, particularly feather drops that were impossible to scrape up, and holding his volley wells so that Joe was being sent the wrong way. Joe didn’t allow this to happen for too long, increased the pace and his length and eventually Kenny hit the wall in the third as Kneipp won reasonably comfortably in 3.

[11] Joseph Kneipp (AUS) bt Liam Kenny (IRL) 15-8, 15-11, 15-9 (36m)

Lee Beachill (Eng) versus Ritwik Bhattacharya (Ind)
If you follow the squash news reasonably passionately (which obviously I do) it’s easy to get to know a player’s standard and reputation by their results, even before seeing them actually play. Spanish player Borga Golan is a good example of this. Most players including the top ones had heard of him before seeing him because he went from an unknown to top 50 within twelve month by winning three tournaments.

India’s Ritwik Bhattacharya is another player that Joe and I have heard and read about, but never had a chance to see. So we were happy to watch how he went against Beachill – the current inform player.

Beachill has just come off the best result of his life, winning the Qatar Classic. It’s always interesting to see how a player does just after a groundbreaking success like this. Their next tournament is either wonderful because their confidence is so high, or it’s mediocre because they achieved a major goal and are now more relaxed and less focussed and hungry.

Beachill didn’t play badly at all. His movement probably wasn’t as good as it can be, but his lethal backhand that can be so ridiculously hard to read was doing it’s normal damage. Ritwik looked silly in the first game and got completely wiped off the court, appearing out of his league.

The four players on the tour that I enjoy watching the most would probably be Johnny McWhitey, Joe Kneipp (obviously I’m biased but I never tire of watching his matches), Lee Beachill who hits the ball wonderfully and has very clever shot selection, and Amr Shabana who looks like the racquet is simply an extension of his arm and if he wants to put it in the nick or make the other person go the wrong way, well damn it he will.

Ritwik was on court with one of these players - Beachill, and was playing after McWhitey and Kneipp. Tough company to keep. From the 2nd game onwards he showed that he was every bit as impressive in his own way. Joe and I had an argument while watching this match. I went as far as saying Ritwik’s backhand would probably be the hardest hitting on the tour. Joe thought it was probably ‘as hard’ as McWhitey, but not harder. Regardless it’s bloody hard, particularly from an off-balance position or when the ball was behind him. He didn’t end up beating Beachill, losing in 4, but he got ridiculously close to doing so. The scores were tied one game each and 12-12 in the third. If Ritwik could have won the next three points rather than lose them it would have been very interesting. Let’s not forget that Beachill last week showed he was the best player at a tournament that had everyone there. Ritwik had to qualify to make the main draw of this tournament. He matched Beachill in most areas around the court as they both gave each other a nasty work out.

Beachill was winning most of his rallies by the deception of his backhand. It often sent his Indian opponent completely the wrong way. But Ritwik’s volleying was what was causing all of the trouble for the Englishman. He was standing well in front of the T, and was volleying everything with incredible reflexes and strength, particularly to good length on the backhand, putting Beachill under pressure forcing him to do a weaker shot which Ritwik would volley short. Beachill was getting to plenty of these, but Ritwik was then dispatching the ball to the forehand for a winner. He was winning most of his points either on nick winners, or on the forehand length, but both were set up by awesome volleying.

SquashTalk readers looking at the score of this game will think that Beachill just had an ordinary game. He didn’t play his very best squash, but it was still bloody good. I would go as far as saying that Ritwik played good enough that the standard he showed in the final three games would beat ten players out of the top twenty. I mentioned to Beachill that he couldn’t have been expecting a first round match against a qualifier to put up such a fight. He just laughed and agreed. Ritwik was understandably pissed off at his draw, moaning that he played well but had to contend with Beachill and not Stefan Castelyn.

[8] Lee Beachill (ENG) bt [Q] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) 15-7,10-15,15-13, 15-10(41m)

Stefan Castelyn (Bel) versus John Rooney (Ire)

I didn’t see this match personally but I’m still able to give a very good rundown of what happened. Castelyn played a few points (around ten minutes worth) then shook hands conceding the match citing back problems. He did the exact same thing last year here for the Pakistan Open, with the score 10-1 against Bengy before he retired. Rooney and Johnny McWhitey will both be happy with this scenario. Rooney gets an unexpected free ride into the 2nd round, a place he isn’t expected to be in, and McWhitey gets a much lower ranked player than expected as an opponent. Win-win situation for everyone except the Belgian.

[Q] John Rooney (IRL) bt [27] Stefan Casteleyn (BEL) 9-3 ret. (11m)

Martin Heath (Sco) versus Tommy Berden (Ned)
Heath has had a bad run of results lately. Berden has also struggled to find the form that he had a few years ago. It was the Dutchman who was able to find the form lately. Heath’s loss in four will plummet his ranking for January, probably outside of the top 20, and even the top 24.

Mansoor Zaman leads Pakistan's sole seeded interest in the second round of the $170,000 Bank Alfalah Men's World Open Squash Championship after his two cousins Shahid Zaman and Farrukh Zaman were vanquished in today's (Monday) second day of first round action in Lahore, Pakistan.

Farrukh Zaman, who was elevated to 32nd seed on the eve of the event, was beaten 15-13 15-6 10-15 11-15 15-7 by Spain's unseeded Borja Golan in 66 minutes. Shahid, from Quetta, was unable to offer any serious resistance to fourth seed Thierry Lincou, going down 15-9 15-4 15-8 to the Frenchman in 23 minutes.

Lincou will now meet Egypt's 18th seed Omar Elborolossy, who ended the run of another Pakistani when he defeated qualifier Shamsul Islam Khan 15-6 15-11 16-17 15-8 in 42 minutes.

Borja Golan's second round opponent will be eighth seed Lee Beachill, the Englishman who clinched his first Super Series title, the Qatar Classic, in Doha ten days ago. The world No9 from Pontefract beat Indian qualifier Ritwik Bhattacharya 15-7 10-15 15-13 15-10 in 41 minutes.

RESULTS: Bank Alfalah Men's World Open Squash Championship, Lahore, Pakistan

1st round:
[1] Peter Nicol (ENG) bt Hisham Moh'd Ashour (EGY) 15-14, 16-17, 15-7, 15-6
[30] Davide Bianchetti (ITA) bt Gavin Jones (WAL) 15-8, 15-11, 15-13
[10] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) bt Jonathan Kemp (ENG) 15-11, 15-8, 15-4
[26] Rodney Durbach (RSA) bt [Q] Raj Nanda (AUS) 15-13, 15-2, 15-7
[13] Mansoor Zaman (PAK) bt Lars Harms (SUI) 15-11, 15-6, 15-6
[28] Moh'd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) bt Glenn Keenan (AUS) 15-3, 15-6, 15-8
[18] Omar Elborolossy (EGY) bt [Q] Shamsul Islam Khan (PAK) 15-6, 15-11, 16-17, 15-8 (42m)
[4] Thierry Lincou (FRA) bt Shahid Zaman (PAK) 15-9, 15-4, 15-8 (23m)
[23] Nick Taylor (ENG) bt John Williams (AUS) 15-13, 15-12, 15-11 (37m)
[14] Graham Ryding (CAN) bt [Q] Peter Barker (ENG) 12-15, 15-7, 15-13, 15-11 (64m)
Borja Golan (ESP) bt [32] Farrukh Zaman (PAK) 15-13, 15-6, 10-15, 11-15, 15-7 (66m)
[8] Lee Beachill (ENG) bt [Q] Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND) 15-7, 10-15, 15-13, 15-10 (41m)
[17] Alex Gough (WAL) bt Joey Barrington (ENG) 15-9, 15-12, 8-15, 15-11 (74m)
[11] Joseph Kneipp (AUS) bt Liam Kenny (IRL) 15-8, 15-11, 15-9 (36m)
[Q] John Rooney (IRL) bt [27] Stefan Casteleyn (BEL) 9-3 ret. (11m)
[2] John White (SCO) bt Jean-Michel Arcucci (FRA) 15-11, 15-12, 15-13 (49m)