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December 5, 2003, ©2003, Team Kneipp               < see also Team Kneipp Index >

Lee Beachill outlasted and outshot John White to win the Qatar Final © 2003 Fritz Borchert

Qatar Classic Final
In the semi final it seemed to be Beachill who was playing the better squash, and he took that form into the final. Both of these players attack wonderfully, and as expected from players that are willing to go for shots a lot of points were decided by either winners or errors.

In the first game the score stayed close through the single figures, but at 9-8 to Beachill he placed more pressure, made less mistakes and won 15-12 in just under 20 minutes.

McWhitey wasn’t playing badly, but it became obvious that he couldn’t play at any level other than his best if he was going to win this encounter. The second game emphasised this as Beachill won the first six points before McWhitey was able to get on the board. From 6-1 Beachill went to 9-1. He conceded the next couple of points, but quickly closed the game out 15-5 in a very fast 11 minutes. Beachill did this through constant pressure and intensity and by being very unpredictable and hard to read as to whether he was going short or long. His shot selection was superb, and his game was helped by McWhitey hitting the ball back to himself frequently, giving plenty of strokes away, particularly on the backhand.

Things didn’t change that match in the third game. Beachill’s intensity didn’t change, but McWhitey concentrated a little more, and cut out his error rate. He lost the first point, but otherwise he was in the lead for the whole game. I think the reason McWhitey won this game was both his experience and what a tough competitor he is. I didn’t think he was playing the better squash of the two, and I kept expecting Beachill to overtake him and close out the match in similar dominating fashion that he had done to both Nicol and Matthew. But you don’t get to the final of the World Open and the #2 ranking in the world without knowing how to win games and matches when you’re not playing your best and the other guy is playing better than you. 15-11 to McWhitey in 19 mins.

The concentration and discipline that had been missing in the Scot’s game came together in the fourth. Suddenly he was happy to play much more length, didn’t hit his shots too close to the tin, giving himself a greater margin for error and displayed complete confidence in his shot ability. He raced to an 8-3 lead, but then his troublesome backhand that kept hitting the sidewall and spraying balls back at himself appeared again. Beachill leveled the scores at 11-11. The 22 points prior to this had only created three let situations. But the match tension led to seven lets being played to determine the next two points. McWhitey won both of them and then was able to continue to a 14-12 lead. Six lets were called on this vital point before the Scot held a backhand shot that looked like he was going to hit a drop with, then flicked the ball cross court leaving Beachill flat footed. 15-12 in 25 minutes.

Sometimes I get blasé about some of the very sporting aspects of our game. Both of these players are incredibly clean, and this match was played in a wonderful spirit (aside from some bad decisions at the end against McWhitey, the refereeing in this match was the best I have seen for ages). But the nicest thing was seeing that between games Beachill’s quarterfinal conquest – world #1 Peter Nicol – was sitting and giving him game strategies and drying his sweaty racquet grips. How many individual sports could even imagine this sort of behaviour?

Beachill had done a lot more running throughout the match, so it seemed more likely that the fresher and more experienced McWhitey would be the fifth set victor. No one told Beachill this. He maintained the pressure that had got him into the final and took winners when the chance presented itself. Throughout the match had been playing the forehand working boast incredibly well. He had gotten about seven clean winners off this shot, and another 10 or so times that left McWhitey lunging and struggling to pick the shot up.

Beachill was using these, and his backhand drop that was both consistent and lethal. From 4-4 McWhitey began making more and more errors. Beachill got to 9-6 from five McWhite errors, mostly his backhand spraying out and either giving strokes away or opening the court up for a winner. McWhitey was able to close this gap a little to 11-9 to the Englishman, but made four more errors including a tinned boast off the serve to give the match and the title to Beachill.

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