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US Open Qualifying Day One
By Ron Beck [qualifying
draw]
©
2004 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.
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Zaman
and Barrington Heat it up Downtown
Sept 15 2004, Boston MA -
While most of today's US Open qualifying action took place in the Back Bay, at the Harvard University Murr Center, organizer John Nimick gave squash enthusiasts who work downtown the opportunity to watch some of the qualifying action at the downtown Boston Racquet Club.
The Boston Racquet Club is an initimate, ultramodern downtown setting; but it was most definitely the setting for the most raucous, physical matchup of the day. It was England vs Pakistan, Barrington (next generation) versus Zaman (next generation) and the result was squash at close quarters, in which, according to the match notes of referee Mike Riley, there were more let calls than minutes played --- i.e. approximately 98 calls made in 87 minutes of play. And four of the five games went into a tiebreaker.
When the players let go of each other and just played, it was fine squash, with up and down action and a lot of front court play, but for the most part there were too many calls for lets, and when Riley tightened things up, and gave out no-lets when really no effort was being made to play the ball, things got downright chippy.
Midway through the fifth game, after a nasty spill by Barrington about midway through, things became contentious when Zaman starting making shots he couldn¹t clear. This resulted in numerous penalty strokes and lets and literally handed the game and match to Barrington, but not before both became exceedingly frustrated with each other and the match as a whole.
In the evening, play moved to the Harvard Murr Center. There the feeling of the US Open was already beginning to build, with several of the main-draw players on-hand to watch, and a strong crowd of spectators.
Preston Quick, currently the top native-American player, in particular, played extremely well in his first round qualifying bout with 1999 US Open Champ Simon Parke. In the first game, Quick easily matched Parke's pace, retrieving, and rallying. Creating several extremely long rallies, climaxed by the final rally of the first game, which was well over 50 strokes long. Quick's pace and quickness have Parke frustrated at times, such that Simon uncharacteristically began questioning some of the referees calls.
By and large, the qualifiers have not yet made the leap mentally to the new 11-point scoring system and its tactical differences. So that the matches were being played to a different length but the players had not made the types of adjustments in strategy and play that we have seen to date among the top-ten players.
US Open
Qualifying
First Round Qualifying results:
Joey Barrington (ENG) defeated Shahid Zaman (PAK) 11-10 (2-0); 11-10 (4-2);
10-11 (3-1); 3-11; 11-10 (2-0)
Dan Jenson (AUS) defeated Julian Illingworth (USA) 11-6; 6-11; 11-2; 11-7
Renan Levine (FRA) defeated Mike Puertas (USA) 11-5; 11-4; 11-5
Shahir Razik (CAN) defeated Mark Heather (ENG) 11-10 (6-4); 11-9; 11-9
Ollie
Tuominen (FIN) defeated Jonathan Kemp (ENG) 5-11; 11-3; 11-2; 11-6
Peter Barker (ENG) defeated Parth Doshi (IND) 11-8; 11-4; 11-2
Simon
Parke (ENG) defeated Preston Quick (USA) 11-7; 11-5; 11-8
Paul Price (AUS) defeated Dylan Patterson (USA) 11-5; 11-5; 11-3
