Grainger, Atkinson Escape
April 6, 2005, WISPA News
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

Jenny Duncalf came out strong against Natalie Grainger (photo: © 2005 Debra Tessier)

Action in the Texas Open moved onto the WISPA glass court for the round of sixteen – and opened with a fascinating lunchtime battle as sixth seed Natalie Grainger, from Washington DC, ran into an on-fire youngster and found herself two games down to 22 year old Jenny Duncalf, seeded ten.

The arena in the Plaza of The Americas in downtown Dallas was thronged with lunching office workers intrigued with the proceedings. And just as they thought that their home player would be shown the door she seemed to give up on the idea that she could win with a combination of loose play and peppered tins! Instead, Grainger began to take the pace off the ball, hold shots a little longer and wait until genuine openings appeared.

These tactics brought her back into contention and then ahead 7/3 in the fifth. But Duncalf is nothing if not dogged. She saved a match ball at 8/6 with a dying drive, won the next point and felt that she had a clear stroke to take the game to setting but the referee decided otherwise. This evened up the contested decisions at the end and left Grainger to close out the match.

Duncalf, who had beaten Grainger in five at the Tournament of Champions in February was understandably disconsolate. “I was playing well and hitting the back corners for the first couple of games, but then she slowed it down and I started slashing at the ball” she explained.

The match had taken 62 minutes; and next up was another winning Natalie, taking a minute longer to complete the job, in one less games.

Omneya Abdel Kawy squeezed out the 3rd game against Natalie Grinham (photo: © 2005 Debra Tessier)

Natalie Grinham was cruising against Omneya Abdel Kawy and seemed to have everything under control for a quick finish. But having kept her nose in front for the whole of the third and reached match ball the Egyptian produced one of her outrageous and deadly volley drops off serve to cling on. The next four points were reeled off with a series of kills and she had squeezed the game. She continued to compete strongly in the fourth but Grinham had been stung. Her drops were shorter, lobs longer and she resumed normal control.

"I had taken off well and I thought her head would go down. She really surprised me, she got really steady went for shots and made them" Grinham said before exiting to contemplate the battle of the Natalies that would take place in the quarters.

Jenny Tranfield joined them in the last eight with a straight games win over Shelley Kitchen. Kiwi athleticism versus English obduracy, with the latter prevailing. Kitchen fought out every rally but just couldn’t dent the defences of the 30 year often enough to discomfort her.

Tranfield’s reward, if that is a fair description, is a meeting with holder and world number one Rachael Grinham who followed her sister into the quarters via a 42 minute victory over a disbelieving Tania Bailey. "She played so well, everything she did was perfect. I played 120% and there was nothing I could do!" Bailey despairingly reported. When the ball was not tight, dying or drifting into a nick it was placed out of reach in a far flung area of the court. Grinham was showing that a spell of slightly indifferent form since she took over the burden of top ranking may now be behind her.

Vicky Botwright winces with pain after getting hit full on with the ball as she crossed in front of Samantha Teran. (photo: © 2005 Debra Tessier)

In the fourth of six ties involving English players Vicky Botwright stifled the challenge of surprise package Samantha Teran who had put out Rebecca Chiu the night before. The Mexican raced to a five point lead in the first but then slowly found that Botwright getting to grips with her driving and general lack of interest in going short, and became able to stretch her a little too far in response. The only black spot of her day was that which angrily formed on her thigh after being struck by the ball as she moved across Teran a smidgen too early!

Botwright will face fourth seed Nicol David, victor over Isabelle Stoehr. The French miss was getting on court for the first time having had a walkover in the first round, but being fresh could only earn her a game as Duracell David powered on. Only in the second game did she falter, not keeping the ball deep enough and allowing Stoehr too much room at the front.

As dusk descended and offices emptied, departing staff were able to enjoy the spectacle of Linda Elriani driving full bore into the quarters. Her year of consistent quality brought about by a sustained spell of fitness shows no sign of letting up and Madeline Perry, no slouch herself at present, was left flailing. Deep driving, feathered floating; she was unstoppable, and her comment “I felt really good out there” was nothing more than stating the obvious.

The final match up of the evening seemed likely to be a straightforward passage for world champion Vanessa Atkinson despite her opponent being the burgeoning WISPA Tour talent that is Alison Waters. WISPA Player and Young Player of the Year in competition. While Atkinson settled into her game from the start Waters was not overawed and as she started to slot overheads home across court and generally pressure the Dutchwoman she took both to second and third game to become improbably ahead. However, Atkinson then started to become more difficult to shift from the tee, volleying early and deeply, and causing the Waters error ratio to rise as she was stretching further and further to lay string on ball. Atkinson had regrouped and both the fourth and fifth fell to her without undue alarm – though the episode as a whole had been a trifle worrisome. “Alison was on fire. I felt pretty good but sometimes being the underdog brings out the best in an opponent. She was volleying so well that I had to keep her back and get better width to pull through” the winner said.

Atkinson now plays Elriani and must hope that she is not caught in the teeth of yet another volleying storm.

TEXAS OPEN, Plaza of the Americas, Dallas TX
Results, Round of 16 – Wed 6 April

Rachael Grinham (Aus) beat (1) Tania Bailey (Eng) (15) 9/5 9/1 9/1 (42m)
Jenny Tranfield (Eng) (8) beat Shelley Kitchen (Nzl) (11) 9/3 9/1 9/3 (30m)
Natalie Grinham (Aus) (3) beat Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) (9) 9/2 9/2 8/10 9/5 (63m)
Natalie Grainger (USA) (6) beat Jenny Duncalf (Eng) (10) 7/9 6/9 9/1 9/3 9/7 (62m)
Vicky Botwright (Eng) (7) beat Samantha Teran (Mex) 9/5 9/3 9/1 (38m)
Nicol David (Mas) (4) beat Isabelle Stoehr (Fra) 9/5 4/9 9/1 9/2 (43m)
Linda Elriani (Eng) (5) beat Madeline Perry (Ire) (12) 9/3 9/0 9/1 (31m)
Vanessa Atkinson (Ned) (2) beat Alison Waters (Eng) 9/5 6/9 6/9 9/2 9/0 (64m)

Note: Matches use the WSF 9 point traditional hand-out scoring, with a 1 or 2 point tiebreaker at 8-8.

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