Womens US Open 02

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Qualifier Round One
By Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Nov 12, 2002 

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The $ 37,000 Weymuller U. S. Open had an uneventful first round of qualifying this evening, as all top eight seeds swiftly handled their lower ranked opponents, which should leave them fresh and ready for tomorrow night's final qualifying round. Today's octet of matches required just 25 games, one above the minimum, to complete, and already by now the only American representative remaining of the five who originally entered is Latasha Khan, who received a wild card entry into the main draw by virtue of her status as current U. S. National champion, who is scheduled to face fourth-seed Netherlands torch-bearer Vanessa Atkinson when the main draw commences Thursday evening.

Tonight's action was especially harsh on the three Heights Casino alumnae, Dana Betts, Julia Beaver and Carlin Wing, all of whom (like the fourth American Meredeth Quick) have graduated from college in the last year and a half after stand-out intercollegiate careers, but none of whom in her return to her squash stomping ground was able to garner more than two points in any of their nine combined games, save the five Beaver notched in the opening stanza of her meeting with Madeline Perry before dropping the remainder by successive 9-1 scores.

Betts and Wing have followed in the footsteps of Ivy Pochoda, yet another graduate of the formidable Heights Casino junior program, is recently moving to Amsterdam and training at the famed Liz Irving Squash Academy there, and Beaver and Quick, teammates on the Princeton class of 2001, both earned spots on the U. S. National team that placed second in the Pan Am Federation Cup in South America this past summer and 15th at the World Team Championships in Denmark this autumn. Together they definitely represent the future of American women's squash, and they are a talented and dedicated group, but this qualifying round made glaringly clear that they all have a long way to go before they are ready to realistically do battle with the more experienced, fit and court-wise opposition who buried them this evening.

First seed in the qualifying Pamela Nimmo was the evening's only victor to surrender a game, that being the 9-7 third of an otherwise routine win over Penn undergraduate Runa Reta, which a chastened Nimmo finished off with a 9-2 tally in the final fourth. Nimmo will face the athletic and eager English teenager Jenny Duncalf tomorrow evening in what could be the most esthetically pleasing match-up of the night. Other qualifying matches will take place between Omneya Abdel Kawy, a surprise quarter-finalist in last year's Weymuller, and Melissa Martin, between Perry and Jenny Tranfield and between Vicky Botwright and Annelise Naude.

The latter played probably the most entertaining of today's matches, a 9-5 9-4 10-8 duel with Mexican star Samantha Teran, the recently crowned Pan Am Fed Cup individual champion whose power and athleticism evokes the exploits of her father and coach Javier, a member of Mexican teams that won the USSRA National Five-Man Team hardball titles several times in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Teran forged her way to small mid-game leads in each game, and actually earned a game-ball opportunity at 8-7 in the third, only in each case to yield the final relentless charge to her slender South African opponent, whose edge in experience really rose to the fore in the end-stage of all three games.

Recap
Pamela Nimmo d Runa Reta 9-4 9-5 7-9 9-2
Jenny Duncalf d Dana Betts 9, 1, 1 and 2
Omneya Abdel Kawy d Carlin Wing 9-0, 2 and 0
Melissa Martin d Milja Dorenbos 9-6, 0 and 4
Madeline Perry d Julia Beaver 9-5, 1 and 1
Jenny Tranfield d Meredeth Quick 9-0, 1 and 0
Annelise Naude d Samantha Teran 9-5 9-4 10-8
Vicky Botwright d Karen Kronemeyer 9-3, 3 and 0

Squashtalk will cover the entire Weymuller U. S. Open Championships. Anyone seeking information regarding ticket availability is urged to call Heights Casino directly at (718) 624-0810.

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