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Last updated 08/30/2003

Great First Round Matchups    

By Dan and Joe Kneipp

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NAVIGATING A MINEFIELD

Dated: Sept 11 , 2002 ©2002 SquashTalk.com

US Open 1st Round preview and reader predictions

The 2002 US Open should be a spectacular event for fans, but for either
Peter Nicol or Lee Beachill it will be a terrible event. One of them is
going to leave Boston with a severely dented world ranking. Rankings work
off a point system based on the size of the tournament. It’s all relative to
the amount of prize money that the tournament is worth, which in turn
determines whether the tournament has 16, 32 or 64 players. Other tournament
factors are given a financial value which increases the tournament’s worth.

Squash Court Takes Shape in Symphony Hall. (photo © 2002 Ron Beck)

For example: The US Open has a prize money pool of $47 500. But the
tournament is a national title, has accommodation for the players and uses a
portable court therefore the value that it is given is $60 000. Other
factors that will increase a tournament’s value are television coverage, if
the players have their meals catered for and flights provided. The idea is
that the more the tournament organisers provide for the players, the more
worth is allocated to their tournament which attracts more of the top
players. Players, organisers and spectators all benefit.

When players look at which tournaments they are going to play they need to
look at the value of the tournament relative to their tournament average.
Simon Parke recently won the SquashWorks Open in Salt Lake City. The
tournament was worth $13 000. So Parke got 262.5 points for winning the
tournament (and probably some Krispy Kreme Dougnuts from the sponsor). His
average number of points per tournament at the moment are 126, so the
SquashWorks Open was a good tournament that ensured his rankings moved
upwards. Peter Nicol’s current average per tournament is 1181. His recent
win in Hong Kong will give him another 2187.5 points which will increase his
average nicely. The winner in Boston this week will take 875 points home.
The loser of Nicol and Beachill’s first round encounter will get 125 points.
Over 1000 points less than Nicol’s average, and 170 less than Beachill’s. So
as I said this tournament won’t be good for one of them.

But the first round is a mine field and should provide some amazing matches.

Nicol vs Beachill
Beachill is one of the few players that have beaten Nicol in a PSA event
over the past few years. The two have met five times in tournaments
recently. Nicol won in the 1999 World Open first round (3-0), the 2001 Irish
Open quarters (3-1), the second round of the 2001 Qatar Classic (3-1) and
the very recent quarter finals of Hong Kong (3-0). Beachill’s sole PSA
victory was in last year’s British Open quarter finals (3-1). But he showed
earlier in the year that it wasn’t a fluke by beating him in the British
National titles (3-1). Nicol has only lost to Power so far this year in a
PSA tournament, so Beachill has his work cut out for him. Over their last
six meetings Nicol has won four of them. A similar ration of SquashTalk
readers believe Nicol will win.

John White versus Anthony Ricketts
Let the fireworks begin. Two of the most explosive and volatile players in
the sport so expect sparks to fly from their racquets and mouths. Both of
these players can be very erratic so this will either be one of the best
match-ups of the whole tournament, or a scrappy match where the player who
makes the least mistakes will win. There’s not usually a middle ground with
these guys. As far as I can work out they actually haven’t played each other
in a main draw over the past three years.

Ricketts has finally made a move into the top ten and has been playing at a
top ten standard all year. He could challenge for the title of fittest
player in the game. Watching him you sometimes begin to wonder if he’s aware
that his body should be hurting. He seems robotic and frenzied in his
pursuit of that little black ball and you always know that he’s giving
everything. His on court outbursts disappear as fast as they arrive but are
usually entertaining and sometimes just consist of very loud grunts and
screams as he tries to stay focussed and not get too upset.

John White has become well known for his ability and eagerness to hit
winners from anywhere on the court. It’s generally agreed that no one hits
the ball as hard as he does, and this coupled with a tendency to go for low
percentage winners makes for very entertaining viewing. I’ve known Whitey
longer than any player other on the circuit and I think his racquet skills
and hitting strength do him a slight disservice as an athlete. They are such
an overwhelming part of his game that people seem to overlook that he has
spectacular movement, reach and athleticism. You don’t see many players
going into full lunges into the BACK corner, but Whitey does it
semi-frequently also with a willingness to throw himself around the court
diving after balls. You don’t get into the top five by just having great
shots that are hit really hard. I am constantly grateful that Whitey didn’t
decide to be a male model for a living (Johnny Zoolander) as he is an
invaluable asset to squash.

Only a few people have predicted a Ricketts upset, most going with White.

Thierry Lincou versus Alex Gough

These two haven’t played much in PSA tournaments, the last time being Qatar
last year with Lincou winning their second round encounter in five sets.
They also played recently at the Dutch League semi finals with the score
again going to Lincou in five sets. So they’re obviously closely matched. If
you look at Gough’s ranking and tournament wins it’s obvious that if he has
a good day he can beat anyone, but if he has a bad day he can lose to
anyone. His ranking for the past few years has been bouncing between 22 and
9, with 13 his typical ranking. For 2001 and 2002 he has had victories over
Lee Beachill, Graham Ryding, Anthony Ricketts, Simon Parke, Karim Darwish,
Olli Touminen and David Palmer. But he has also lost to players with much
lower rankings. He lost to Gregory Gaultier in January’s Swedish Open (Gough
then ranked 13, Gaultier then 54), and recently lost to storming Adrian
Grant in Hong Kong (#13 compared to #47). Lincou lately is fairly consistent
and plays a similar standard for most of his matches. The outcome of this
match will depend on Gough matching Lincou’s pace and who makes the most
errors between the two. Virtually all predictions are for Lincou.

Power versus Walker

Obscure fact #1: Since January 2001 Power has only lost to three people. In
that time he has played in twelve tournaments, winning four of them. He has
lost to Nicol five times, John White twice and Del Harris once.

Power and Walker have played twice recently with Power winning both of them.
In the 2nd round of the 2001 Qatar Classic Power won in straight games. They
most recent meeting was at the 2002 Tournament of Champions’ semi finals.
Power again won in three, but the rampaging Walker had already got past Nick
Taylor, David Palmer and Paul Price. Writing off or underestimating Chris
Walker is not a smart thing to do. He has wonderful deception skills and
when his nicks are working they just flow off his racquet. Which also
describes how Power plays so there should be some short rallies and a lot of
wrong-footing going on. No one has predicted an upset for this match.

These are the matches that we knew were scheduled, with the remaining four
seeds facing qualifiers. Those matches are:

David Palmer versus Simon Parke
These two titans of world squash have met three times of the past few years
in PSA events. Parke won their British Open second round encounter in 1999.
He also won at the 2000 Al Ahram international. They met again at the same
tournament in 2001, but this time Palmer won on his way to the final.
Parke’s current ranking is 33. August last year he was #7 and at the start
of 2001 he was #3. He is slowly coming back from an injury and along with
Dan Jenson is showing that it’s not so easy to just slot back into a top
five position.

Stewart Boswell versus Mohammed Abbas
There only meeting was in 2000 at the Heliopolis Open with Boswell winning
in four.

Mark Chaloner versus Nick Taylor
They met three times recently, all of them last year. Taylor won their
January encounter at the Greenwich Open 17-15 in the fifth set. In July at
the Scottish Open and September at Al Ahram Chaloner won both matches in
straight sets.

Martin Heath versus Olli Touminen
They’ve only played once recently in a PSA tournament and it was this year
at the Tournament of Champions. Heath won in straight sets, not allowing
Touminen to reach double figures in any of the games. Heath can be quite
erratic depending on what’s happening between his ears. Olli’s current
ranking is 20 but he can play much higher than that. Martin Bronstein has
gone out on a limb and predicted Olli making the top ten by the end of the
year. Three months is very little time to make up ten ranking points at the
pinnacle of the sport, so for Bronstein’s sake it’ll help if Olli wins this
tournament. And Qatar next month. And the World Open in December. That would
definitely get him a single figure ranking.

If you live in the Boston area and you’re still undecided on whether to watch
the first round matches, hopefully this article has helped emphasise that
some of these clashes should be more exciting than a predictable semi or
one-sided final. You can usually see more raw aggression and hunger in the
first round.