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USA Gets Win over Austria
Quarter Final Impressions by Daniel Kneipp, Oct 24 2003

[last update was 24-oct-03 ] By Dan Kneipp All content © 2003 Squashtalk

Scotland vs France
I had trouble concentrating on the squash during this encounter. McWhitey
got so wrapped up in patriotic fervor during the matches that he spent the
whole time singing the Scottish National anthem at the top of his voice and
telling stories about his childhood, growing up in the highlands. Naturally
the referees found this disturbing during rallies and tried to quieten him
down. The French didn’t seem phased by this performance, and the crowd
always loves McWhitey, so it was allowed to continue.

Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power in the quarters, © 2003 Fritz Borchert

A small part of that paragraph may have been embellished a little. It’s
quite possible that due to scheduling clashes I was only able to watch a
couple of the quarter finals, and not much of Scotland versus France. Kiwi
Glen Wilson watched McWhitey play Lincou and told me it was a spectacular
match. Lincou was retrieving so well that McWhitey was forced to hit four
nicks in one rally, and that was typical of how tough of a battle it was.
McWhity won 9-1, 9-6, 9-7.

The #3s were on next. France has a lot of depth in their team, something
that is missing in Scotland’s side. Lavigne was always going to win at 3,
which he did, meaning the semi final place would be determined by Gaultier
versus Heath. The Frenchman has gone ahead of Heath for the first time in
the PSA rankings, 11 to Heath’s 14. The result was true to seeding, France
taking the match 5-9, 9-4, 9-6, 9-1.

USA versus Austria.

The host nation versus the States was always going to be a close encounter.
Both teams had tough pool encounters and were desperate for the consolation
of 17th place.

Preston Quick versus Leopold Czaska
I hadn’t seen either of these player on court before. Quick’s game is the
most noticeable. He hits the ball very crispy, often hard with good timing
and contact. The only problem is he often hits it in the wrong place. He
would make a lovely hard crack of the ball, and it would end up bounding
twice at the back of the service line, or be a metre away from the wall. It
was hard not to watch him and think of golf. You get a guy stepping up to a
120 metre par three and cracking a pitching wedge , but ending up twenty
metres to the left of the green and in trouble. Then the next guy pulls out
a six iron and hits it softly and smoothly onto the green. If Quick was able
to take a bit more time with his shot and concentrate on better length and
depth his game would increase dramatically.

The first game involved a lot of handouts and the scores seesawing back and
forth. From 5-5 Austria was able to get a 7-6 lead. Quick has a very unique
backhand volley drop. He doesn’t really ‘drop’ the ball, instead whacking it
in at a great pace, usually millimetres above the tin. He used this to help
win the first game 9-6.

In the 2nd game I saw one of the best shots of the tournament. At 4-4 Czacka
tried to lob over Quick’s head, but instead had to witness a jumping
overhead backhand inside-out straight nick winner. Quick had the first game
point at 8-7, but Austria brought it back to 8-8. Errors by Quick let the
game slip away, Austria winning it 10-8.

The next two games went pretty quickly. Quick made lots of errors in the
third game, virtually giving it away, but made amends in the fourth. After
losing the third 4-9, he stormed through the fourth with more control and
less mistakes and took it 9-3.

USA started out strong in the final game, going to a 4-1 lead. There was
lots of scrambling play and desperation by both players. This lead was
reversed by constant pressure by Austria, and the return of Quick’s errors.
I was sitting beside Tim Wyant during this and he assured me that Quick
doesn’t normally make this many errors, and was obviously a little nervous
because of the occasion. Quick mightn’t have been hitting the ball as well
as he can, but he wasn’t going to lie down. One rally Austria was completely
in control, sending USA to every corner of the court at top speed. But Quick
kept retrieving, and despite not being in control, won the point and got the
score back to 7-7. There were a few more handouts, a backhand nick winner
from Quick, and finally a backhand drop shot winner to give the USA a 1-0
lead.

Jamie Crombie versus Gerhard Schedlbauer
At this point I learnt a valuable lesson. There may even be an ancient
proverb that deals with it. Something along the lines of “When watching a
squash match and writing the scores and incidents down, never give the only
pen you have to a friendly, yet desperate looking Austrian wielding a camera
and squash memorabilia”. He asked me nicely and I stupidly gave it to him,
expected him to just need to jot down a phone number or something. Peter
Nicol had finished his match on the other court, and my Austrian friend
proceeded to chase him off into the horizon with my only means of note
taking.

So I can’t provide too much detail on the start of this match – USA won the
first 9-6, Austria won the second 9-6. Crombie can be very good at holding
the ball and flicking it at the last moment. If a player is good at this it
can be very tiring for his opponent. Schedlbauer was beginning to show signs
of fatigue. As has been the case throughout this tournament, the ref was
determing way to many points incorrectly. Both players were getting bad
calls, and both players were unhappy with it. Crombie did a good job of
showing his displeasure humourously. He took the third game 9-2

It was the fourth game that the extra work that the Austrian was being made
to do really showed. Most of the rallies were being determined at the front
of the court. There was some wonderful drop shots exchanges, but Crombie was
winning virtually all of them. He raced to a 5-0 lead. It didn’t look like
the Austrian had the fuel in the tank to try to climb back from this
deficit. Schedlbauer’s movement got worse and USA went 7-0. At this point
the Austrian started trying to hit nicks from all parts of the court, not
being able to run enough. Crombie hounded the nick attempts down and took
the next two points and the victory for the US.