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FITZ-GERALD,
OWENS CRUISE TOWARDS FINAL COLLISION
SquashTalk News, Dec 7 2000.
Martin Bronstein reporting from Lambs
Club London
photos from top: Fitz-Gerald, Grainger, Owens by Fritz Borchert)
all © 2000
GRAINGER
LOSES IT - IN DOUBLE QUICK TIME
With all due respect to Sarah Fitz-Gerald - and she commands all my respect
- she didn't win her semi-finals match as much as Natalie Grainger almost
gave it to her gift-wrapped ready for the 
Christmas
tree. Grainger tends to be a slow starter but today she never even got
the engine turned on never mind getting into first gear.
The alternative is always that Fitz started so well she never gave Grainger a chance, but Grainger made a lot of bad decisions, went for winners too quickly and simply allowed Fitz-Gerald the front of the court, where she was whacking the ball with pace and accuracy and time after time Grainger found herself trying to scrape the ball off the back wall.
ONE
GOOD RALLY.
After losing the first two games, club mate Julian Wellings had a few
words with Grainger and the first rally of the third game was probably
her best, played tight down the back wall and 
almost
forcing Fitz-Gerald to make the first bad move, which she did with a backhand
drop into the tin. Fitz-Gerald disputed the ref's decision in the next
rally when he said the ball had gone out of court but he stood firm and
Grainger had the first point of the game.
Instead of keeping to the game plan, Grainger went for winners, made three more errors and never got another point. The whole disappointing match was over in 22 minutes 9-2, 9-2, 9-1 and Grainger will want to forget about today as quickly as possible. Perhaps she should remember the Geoff Hunt rule: no matter how bad your opponent is, don't play short until the second game. As for Fitz-Gerald, she is looking better each day and is almost back to her old self.
AND THE OTHER HALF WAS ONLY A LITTLE BETTER
We can only put Rebecca Macree's poor performance in the first two game
down to nerves. She lost the first 9-0, almost before I had time to start
the stop watch. She got one point in the second which lasted just under
eight minutes. Owens was playing a mixture of her medium pace game and
her whack 'em hard game while Macree, perhaps encouraged by her performance
in the last two rounds, was going for strange winners.
At least six times she tried high overhead drops from the back of the
court and hit tin 
every
time. When she hit the ball high back across the court, she was putting
Owens under pressure and getting some winners. But this never sunk into
her brain.
In the third game which lasted 19 minutes (certainly the longest game of the tournament) Macree made a fight of it, forcing seven errors from Owens but Owens could always go back to her medium pace game on the left hand wall, where she is supreme: every ball is inch tight. If an opponent is prepared to get into a 60 shot rally down that wall, they might win, but few of them are and soon they are trying to scrape the ball off the wall to send it cross-court and that's when the trouble begins.Owens maintained control to win 9-4 after 37 minutes, to set up the final against Fitz-Gerald.
"I'm looking forward to it. This is my last tournament for three months, Hurghada, and I want to finish on a high note. I know Sarah wants revenge for the world open but I would like to do it twice just to show it wasn't lucky," Owens said, adding " I played better today, more in control. I know when I came off my game plan, because I lost points."
Will she try slowballing Sarah in the final? "Probably. It all depends. In the world open she started playing slow down the wall, which is just not her game, Owens said. We can only hope they bring their killer instinct with them to make up for these placid semi-finals.
FULL MATCH REPORTS DIRECT FROM LAMBS CLUB DAILY FROM M BRONSTEIN.
SEMI FINAL RESULTS.
Carol Owens (Aus) bt Rebecca Macree (Eng) 9-0, 9-1, 9-4. 37 minutes.
Sarah Fitz-Gerald (Aus) bt Natalie Grainger (Eng) 9-2, 9-2, 9-1. 22 minutes.
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