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2002
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2003 TOC NY
US Open Qualifier Day
Two (final)
By Martin Bronstein from Symphony Hall Boston
©
2003 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.
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Grant
Toughs it Out
Sept 12 2003, Downtown Boston, MA -
Boston Racquet Club
In a marathon match that went through the two hour barrier, England’s Adrian Grant just managed that tiny bit extra in defeating Shahier Razik, who should be called either The Comeback Kid, or Digger.
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| Canadian Shahier Razik (front) fights for every point against England's Adrian Grant (photo: ©2003, Debra Tessier) |
These two player are about the same standard and generation: I came across them for the first time at the World Junior Champs in Cairo in 1996 when Razik made the quarterfinals of the individual and Grant, then just 15 years old, showed immense maturity under pressure in helping England win the team title.
Now Grant is ranked just above Razik, 22 to 27, but on this day, there was hardly any difference in standard. Although Grant played just a little more positive in always being first to go short in an effort to find the winner.
Their match was played in the Boston Racquet Club in front of about 30 very well behaved spectators, who sat for the most part, in absolute silence, treating this squash match with the seriousness of an Arthur Miller play whose theme was Man’s Inhumanity To Man.
Because of the paneled walls of the court, the sound was even different from the normal everyday plaster court. These walls were part of the reason for this long-running play, as Grant was to explain to me later: ”These panels soak up the shot and slow the game down. Whenever I tried to increase the pace to get away from Razik's preferred leisurely pace, I couldn’t do it.”
Grant could do most other things (as could Razik). Keeping the ball tight to the wall, constant good length, wonderful dropping duels at the front often ending with Grant picking up a ball an inch from the ground and sending it soaring into one of the back corners.
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| Adrian Grant(front) and Shahier Razik (photo: ©2003, Debra Tessier) |
For the first part of the first game it was all Grant, winning drops and boasts and some nice deception gave him a 7-1 lead, which is when Razik made the first of his comebacks to climb back to 8-9 . Grant stopped the run with a nonchalant chop drop shot from the T that died in the nick to go 10-8 up and then kept control to win 15-8. But the game took 27 minutes. There were few short rallies as the slow wall and the very hot court made winners scarce.
Grant really settled down in the second game and it was his winners or errors that decided over half the points. He was making Razik do a lot of work and unless he killed the ball stone dead into the nick, Razik would make some amazing retrievals to keep the rally going.
Although Grant led most of the game Razik evened it at 9-all and then 10-all. The next rally was very long, an exhausting slog with both player forced into the four corners. They were both holding their shots in an effort to make the other man commit himself but they were both fast enough to recover. It ended with an unexpected forehand boast from Grant to go 11-10 up. He followed this with a volley drop on the backhand and a disguised forehand boast to lead 13-10 and then won a delicate dropping duel to get to game point. His winner was another well timed forehand drop shot and he was now two games up.
The third game was even most of the way with rarely more than two points in it but Grant lost his patience a little, tried to end the rallies before the proper moment and made six errors. His last was at 12-12 and it was a costly error to put Razik ahead 13-12. Grant dug his way out with a backhand drop to level the game, got an unlucky vertical nick (Front and side wall), got caught in the line of fire and was Stroked to put Shahier at game ball. The final point ended with the referee calling 15-13 in Razik’s favor but with Grant coming off the court saying that one of Razik’s shots was a clear carry. The referee was unmoved and the result stood.
They had now been playing one hour and 17 minutes and, I am happy to report, there had been very little dialogue with the referee. The time was taken up with playing squash rather than lets and arguments. If all squash were played like this…..
The final game was gripping as Grant tried to find the same control as in the first two games but Razik was onto his game and stayed with him until 7-7. Finally Grant surged ahead 11-8 and if we thought the end was nigh we were so wrong. Razik, who had dug himself out of the impossible situations in a dozen rallies, now pulled his major comeback out of the hat to get to game ball 14-12. (This included a sock change because he said he was slipping at the front of the court “my feet are soaking wet.” He first asked to change shoes, and then socks, but as he had no spare socks, someone had to bring him a pair. He appealed to the referee on grounds of safety -none of this made any sense to me – and he got 90 seconds to change socks and then put on the same shoes.)
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| Shahier Razik (front) and Adrian Grant with some amazing court coverage at the BRC. (photo: ©2003, Debra Tessier) |
Grant was awarded a stroke to get to pull back one point and then embarked a series of very determined shots, a whole bag of them forcing Razik to scamper all over the court. Grant got his point, Razik called set three and watched all three points disappear in Grant’s direction. The first was a wonderfully disguised backhand boast at the right front corner. Razik then evened it at 15-15 with a backhand cross court that Grant could not catch. A forehand slam from Grant put him at match ball, and the final point fizzled when Razik’s appeal for a let was denied. It had taken 40 minutes to win the game 17-15 and Grant left the court to lie down, flat on his back, after the longest match of his career.
England coach Paul Carter said that it was one of Grant’s best ever performances, focused and positive and few would argue with that judgement.
His reward was a meeting with the man of the moment John White, in the first round. Lucky for Grant, White is a man who doesn’t like long rallies.
[Meanwhile at Fenway Park, the Red Sox bombed Chicago 7-4 in front of 34,834 fans. Which included me. Missed the first two innings because of Grant and Razik]
FINAL QUALIFYING RESULTS.
Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt Mark Chaloner (ENG) 15-8, 15-11, 15-12.
Adrian grant (ENG) bt Shahier Razik (CAN) 15-8, 15-10, 13-15, 17-15.
Graham Ryding (CAN) bt Paul Price (AUS) 9-15, 15-8 15-11, 15-8.
Nick Matthew (ENG) bt Simon Parke (ENG) 11-15, 15-7, 15-9, 15-8.
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| Nick Matthew (front) took Simon Parke's breath away. (photo: ©2003, Debra Tessier) |
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| The always entertaining Simon Parke (photo: ©2003, Debra Tessier) |
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| Graham Ryding (front) got the best of Paul Price to make the main draw. (photo: ©2003, Debra Tessier) |
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