White's Hopes Dashed by Kneipp
By Colin McQuillan
May 13, 2004 All content © 2004 Squashtalk
[last update was 14-may-04 ]

John White held the early advantage but Joe Kneipp controlled the fifth game (photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert)

[also read semis report by press officer Tom Maidment]

Australia’s Amsterdam based sixth seed, Joe Kneipp, tonight showed that last December's appearance in the World Open's Semi Finals was not a fluke.

The immensely talented Kneipp, whose performance has become much more consistent in the past 18 months with the coaching of his brother Dan, sprang yet another surprise in the Brit Insurance Super Series Squash Finals that have seen stars falling all week by defeating the much fancied John White of Scotland, the second seed, 8-11 5-11 11-8 11-6 11-5 in an 80 minute semi-final at The Broadgate Arena in London.

He will need another seed-busting performance for the final.

Thierry Lincou had plenty in the tank for Nick Matthew (photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert)

He will face the top seeded Frenchman, Thierry Lincou, who later defeated England’s Nick Matthew 11-5 11-10 (2-0) 11-6 in 42 minutes. Mathew has been forced to face four men this week who have held the world top ranking in recent months. In the pool rounds he beat two of them, Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power, and lost fairly honourably to a third, John White, but the physical toll showed last night as he took 6-2 leads in the second and third games against the straight firing Frenchman only to fall tiredly away in the later stages of each game, losing the match in a single hand from the second. His reward is a third place play-off in which he will once again have to face White, probably in compensation mode.

“I will have to try to lift myself for one more effort,” the Sheffield 23-year-old told SquashTalk. “It has been a great week for me and I would like to finish on a positive note. Thierry was very good tonight and I just didn’t have the acceleration to get up and volley his driving well enough.”

Lincou acknowledged that it was his tight deep driving, especially on the backhand wall, that took him into the final. He defeated Kneipp well in the first qualifying round in the Fleet Group but accepted that the Australian had improved each day since then.

Joe Kneipp got "better each "day (photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert)

“He will be looking for revenge, I suppose, but I think I played well today and finishing in three games was ideal with the other semi being much longer and harder. I am please to be in another final and I hope this time I can make it mine.”

Lincou lost the 2001 Super Series Final to another Australian, David Palmer, in five games after beating White in the semi-finals.

White, who has won both the British National Championship and the English Open this season, had looked in good enough shape this week to add a first Super Series Finals win to the domestic haul he has managed since changing to Scottish registration and moving his base to Nottingham.

His semi-final, however, shaped up to be a peculiarly demanding Queensland Closed event. Kneipp was born in Tolga, in the Atherton Tablelands just three hours drive North of White’s own Queensland hometown of Alligator Creek. Perhaps it was this old country understanding that kept his nose to the grindstone as White powered to a two game lead with a little assistance from a referee, Dean Clayton of Middlesex, who seemed unable to distinguish between lets and strokes on the backhand backswings of both players.

KNEIPP HAS GOOD ODDS COMING FROM TWO DOWN
Interestingly, according to the statisticians running the Horizon Web Streaming from Broadgate for the PSA, White has lost only twice this season from two games down, and one of those occasions was against Kneipp.

Kneipp led 7-4 here in the opening game but was stopped dead in his tracks by two successive penalty strokes handed out by Referee Clayton on his backswing and lost the game in a series of unforced errors as he dwelt upon the injustice of it all.

White is a man who knows when to impose pressure and his four hand run to 11-5 in the second game suggested that he might be capable of controlling the reest of the match. But Kniepp began to expand his range of shots in the third game, often catching the lanky second seed guessing in the front court and increasingly able to fire in perfect length deliveries as his opponent dropped off the chases into the deeper corners.

KNEIPP IMPROVING DAILY
A splendid cutting backhand drop shot at 6-3 in the third game sent White hopping in the wrong direction and provided the first real intimation that Kneipp, who has improved daily rather in the style of his old mentor, Geoff Hunt, might actually reach the Super Series final in his first year in the play-offs.

A run of four winners to differing quarters of the court gave him the initiative of the fourth game and by the end of it he was forcing the previously dominant White into a string of despondent tinned errors after spearing him on a wonderful forehand drop across the face of the front wall at full extension.

The fifth was all Kneipp after White dropped off a 3-0 lead with a backhand into the tin under real pressure. Two more hands and a fortuitous forehand service from the left box that dropped straight into the backwall nick saw the underdog at matchball. A clean little backhand volley drop saw him in the final.

“It has just got better every day,” Kneipp told SquashTalk. “At the end of a long season you cannot prepare much for one event. You just have to work on it as you go.

"I never expected to make this final. But you can bet I will be trying for one more improvement tomorrow.”

Brit Insurance Super Series Squash Finals
Broadgate Arena, London
Semi-Finals Results

[6] Joe Kneipp (Aus) bt [2] John White (Scot) 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-5 (80m)
[1] Thierry Lincou (Fra) v [7] Nick Matthew (Eng) 11-5, 11-10 (2-0), 11-6 (42m)

Special Offer! Get the SuperSeries Videos 2003, 02, 00 produced by Jean De Lierre including the great '03 Nicol-Power match.