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FITZ-GERALD
AND OWENS STAGE A GREAT MATCH
SquashTalk News, Dec 82000.
Martin Bronstein reporting from Lambs
Club London
photo: Fitz-Gerald and Owens at the World Open by Fritz Borchert
© 2000
SARAH SOCKS
IT TO CAROL
On a miserable, rainy afternoon in London, when there seems to be 256
shades of grey to color the entire world, I sat in Lambs Club watching
Carol Owens, the reigning world champion having at it with Sarah Fitz-Gerald,
who has been world champion three times, and thought this is terrific
stuff.
It was top squash with two of the
best - if not THE best - players in the world strutting 
their
stuff. Skilful, clever, intelligent and economical. Not a wasted step
and hardly a loose shot. They were a good match for each other and as
Sarah went 3-1 with the help of two crashing winners - one an overhead
smash into the nick, I thought Owens would be troubled to keep up. But
she caught up with a forehand cross court and then a relentless rally
down the left wall followed by a forehand cross court lob.
GOODBYE
SARAH?
And then, suddenly, Sarah lost it. She tried a winner from Owens' serve
and hit tin. In fact she never won another point as four errors helped
Owens to take the game 9-3 in 11 minutes. Fitz-Gerald was snatching at
the ball , trying to end the rally with volley drops and the expression
on her face was a familiar one of 'I'm gonna lose."
She ran off the court with that unique shake of the head that tries to get rid of the memory of the game. She was talked to by Mike Harris, her coach and Paul Walters, her good friend, which seemed to have some effect. In the second game she took a 6-3 lead but Owens was confident, smashed one of her serves into the nick, hit a lo-o-o-o-ong backhand drop from the back of the court and now it was 6-all.
There was a hint of what was to come when Fitz-Gerald took a tight ball off the left and wall and creamed it low across court. Yesterday I wrote than nobody could do that to Owens. Wrong again. She did it again, same shot to get to game ball and when Owens drove the ball into the tin, it was 9-6 for Fitz-Gerald and one game all.
JUST ONE
RALLY
For me the match turned on one rally in the third game. Owens was leading
2-1 when they had one of the longest rallies so far. But Fitz-Gerald was
in control and she had Owens chasing and diving all over the court with
a series of perfectly placed shots. Owens made some wonderful retrievals
but in the end the point was Fitz-Gerald's. Fitz-Gerald went up a gear,
hit some more backhand cross-court smashes that left Owens standing and
she was 8-2 up. Owens got one more point, but this wasn't the player who
domineered the first game and she lost 9-3.
The fourth game was as the third, but more so. Owens has been on the road for 10 weeks, she's won the world title and she says she had been flat all week. She couldn't summon up the fight and Fitz-Gerald, now hitting the ball with real venom, took the 6 1/2 minute game 9-1. Pity - when they were both fighting it was a treat to watch.
They probably won't meet again until March in Egypt and that will be in a glass court in Owens' favourite venue. Something to look forward to.
FINAL RESULTS.
Sarah Fitz-Gerald (Aus) bt Carol Owens (Aus) 3-9, 9-6, 9-3, 9-1
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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