Quarterfinals:
preparations & Kneipp vs Lee Beachill

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

Dec 19, 2003, Lahore, Pakistan --- [HH Quarter final report; complete results]

Joe Kneipp Basks in the aftermath of his win photo © Dan Kneipp 2003

Quarter Final Preparation from an Insider.

Successful squash is all about routines. Work out what works in every aspect of preparation and try to repeat it. How much sleep do you need? How close to your match should you eat? What food should it be? How much warm up? How much training leading up to the tournament, etc. That's why so many athletes have superstitious habits. 'I put my left shoe on first and I won, so I better not change that routine.'

It's hard to be playing in the quarterfinals of the World Open and not allow the importance of the occasion affect preparation and attitude.

Joe plays his most successful squash when he's preoccupied and not thinking about his upcoming match. His preparation is better if we go and watch a movie or check out some local tourist sites than if we hang around the courts and talk about his upcoming match. Some players are the complete opposite of this. Their best preparation is to be at the court and watching squash. It's about finding out what works for you.

Most pros are very meticulous about practicing on the day of their match. The tournament desk usually has a schedule that either allocates practice times or you sign up with your hitting partner (either another pro, or a coach). Practice is organised in half hour blocks, usually from about 10 in the morning. It has been a tougher logistical challenge here at the World Open. Half of the first round matches were held on the glass court. There is a lot of matches that need to be hosted on the court each day, and a lot of players that have wanted to practice each day. So practice times have started very early and have been short.

Joe and Dan in match preparation photo © Deb Tessier 2003

Dealing with this for us has been very easy. Most of Joe's matches have been late afternoon. If we had to deal with an early morning practice time our schedule would look like this:

5pm — Play match
6pm — go back to hotel
7pm — massage
8pm — dinner then relax and stretch
11pm — try to sleep (guaranteed to be fruitless)
8am — wake up
9am — hit
9:15am — go back to hotel
10am — breakfast

Then kill time and perhaps try to sleep until 3pm when the shuttle to the court leaves.

If you're dealing with a player that performs better when they're not being immersed in squash this schedule is terrible. So I have simply stopped the practice hits. The benefit the practice hit creates for Joe (confidence, court knowledge) is far outweighed by the disadvantage it provides our preparation because the whole day becomes completely squash orientated.

I think Joe is the only player not taking these practice hits. Some players are doing it to their detriment. One bloke here was having trouble sleeping. It was so bad that he lost a match I expected him to lose. He said he didn?t have any energy and struggled to move well, then explained that he couldn?t sleep at night, and had to get up early for his practice court. Instead of forgoing his practice hit and concentrating on good sleep he walked on court tired but with a great knowledge of how well he was hitting the ball that day, and how the court was playing. This is a good example of how players will stick to their playing routines, but in this case to one player?s detriment.

The Match
Today's match between Joe and Lee Beachill was awesome. It's always incredibly nerve racking for me to watch a close, tough encounter of my brother's, and obviously if he wins an important match I'm going to think it's great squash. But one of the referees told me afterwards that throughout the tournament he hadn't watched any complete matches aside from the ones he was adjudicating. He said that he couldn't leave this match without watching its conclusion. It was excellent squash.

Kneipp 10-15 15-10 15-6 11-15 15-10 photo © Dan Kneipp 2003

Beachill is a great nick-slapper. He has incredible deception, particularly on his backhand. He went for his shots and forced Joe to play more aggressively. This is only the 2nd time that these two have played, the first being in the round of 16 at last year's Canadian Classic. Joe won that battle in an epic five setter, eventually running Beachill into the ground. He was able to do a similar thing here. From 7-7 in the fifth Joe played tight percentage squash, keeping the intensity high, going short when the opportunity was there and not making mistakes. He went to a 13-9 lead, then was aced in bizarre circumstances. For about the third time in the match Beachill served and Joe wasn't ready. Joe went to retrieve the ball, but from the spectator's perspective it looked like he was going to play it. Beachill was doing very good lob serves that were forcing Joe to boast. The serve was one of these, but Joe hit it back to Beachill because he wasn't ready. The ref thought otherwise and gave the point to Lee. If Joe was going to cheat he would pick a much more opportune moment to do it, but I understand (but was annoyed) at the ref's decision. 13-10.

FINISHING IT OFF

Kneipp finishes it off in contrast to Aussie compatriot Ricketts photo © Deb Tessier 2003

It was at this point that I tried not to think of the match between Ricketts and Shabana. The Aussie lead 14-10 in the fifth but couldn't win the match, eventually losing 17-16 from a nick off the serve. Shabana the day before had blown a 14-9 match ball lead over David Palmer in the fourth by being too tentative and worrying about the score (but made up for it in the 5th). Lincou had done it in the third round playing below par, but didn't today. I tried not to think about how disastrous it would be to have to deal with "I was up 13-9 in the fifth and couldn't close out the match." It would be better to not have the lead then have to deal with the ramifications of that result. Joe didn't miss his opportunity. He played a smart point that finished with a forehand cross court drive. Beachill got to it and tried to boast but clipped the tin. 14-10. A similar rally and pressure in the next point had Beachill flicking at the ball on his backhand. His cross court when out on the side wall and Joe booked a semi final berth.

OFF THE AIR
The tournament's official website has live scoring, so friends and family around the world were following the score. Mum and dad were sitting in front of the computer in Australia despite it being around 1 in the morning. At 7-7 in the fifth game the site suddenly cut out. Friends in the Netherlands said the same thing. Mum and dad were trying other computers and rushing to neighbours' houses to see if it was just their server. It wasn't, they were in the dark at the most important stage of the match. That has to be the worst scenario for squash parents.

It had a happy ending!

Quarter-final Results:

[11] Joseph Kneipp (Aus) bt [8] Lee Beachill (Eng) 10-15 15-10 15-8 11-15 15-10

[4] Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt [19] Nick Matthew (Eng) 14/15 15/7 15/3 15/11
[7] Karim Darwish (Egy) bt [30] Davide Bianchetti (Ita) 17-16 15-9 15-5
[9] Amr Shabana (Egy) bt [5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) 14-15 15-14 15-12 12-15 17-16