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Grinham Outlasts Atkinson To Reach Weymuller U. S. Open Semis
By Rob Dinerman © 2002 SquashTalk; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Nov 15, 2002

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Fifth seed Rachael Grinham, the pint-sized dynamo who teamed with her sister Natalie and Sarah Fitz-Gerald to win the World Team Championships for her native Australia, fully demonstrated the stamina and staying power that are staples of her formidable by breaking away from the fourth-seeded Dutch star Vanessa Atkinson in the closing stages of what had been a grippingly close quarter-final battle through the first three games. Grinham's victorious burst to the tape, keyed by a quick spurt from 2-1 to 8-1 in the deciding fifth game, earned her a berth in tomorrow's semi-final round, where she will face top seed and current world No. 1 Carol Owens, who had an easier time of it in the last match of the evening, in which she overpowered the eighth-seeded Englishwoman Fiona Geaves by a revealing tally of 9-6, 1 and 0.

Atkinson and Grinham are as noted separated by just one spot in the seeding and rankings, and their matches over the years have reflected this near-standoff by being equally divided as well, though Grinham had won their last two meetings, in Hong Kong last month and in a league match in Holland this past spring. She won the first game due largely to a spate of mid-game unforced errors off a clearly irritated Atkinson's racquet, including two consecutive serve-return tins. But the 26-year-old Dutchwoman, whose America-based father was in attendance to offer support and encouragement, is a superbly proportioned squash athlete, and a semi-finalist in the 2002 British Open to boot, and she asserted herself in winning the next pair of extremely hard-fought games 10-8 (after squandering an 8-3 advantage in four hands) and 9-6, after going from 3-0 and 5-3 up to 5-6 down to lead two games to one at the break.

Netherland's Vanessa Atkinson, World # 5
( photo ©2002 Debra Tessier)

Grinham has the ability to stay extremely low to the ground and to burrow down and excavate even shallow drop shots and drives, in addition to which she possesses an uncanny knack even when forced to leave her feet for high lobs to her forehand of intermingling wide, high crosscourts, guided straight drops, rails and working boasts, all off a similar-looking swing. As a result, she manages to work her opponent over as much with the shots she doesn't wind up hitting as with the ones she does. Grinham does not have as many options on the backhand flank, but on that side she generates surprising power from her smallish but wiry frame, especially with her widely angled crosscourt, which constantly stretched Atkinson way out and forced her to attempt difficult and off-balance volleys which frequently gave Grinham open balls to attack.

These various traits had Atkinson sucking wind by the middle of the third game, though she courageously rallied from her aforementioned mid-game slump to wrest that stanza away and thereby claim the 2-1 advantage she desperately needed. Grinham raced away from 1-1 to 8-2 in the fourth, by the last three points of which Atkinson seemed to have decided to let the game go and conserve herself for the fifth. Sensing her opponent's letdown, Grinham committed a bad tin on an easy drop shot that Atkinson had shown no
inclination to pursue, then made a few more errors in the next few points, all of which caused Atkinson to sufficiently regain her interest in what had suddenly become a winnable game to dent the deficit even further with a pair of angled winners. Out of the blue it had become 6-8, very much in reach for Atkinson, who however tinned a backhand drop shot from deep in the court to give Grinham another game-ball, which this time she salted away with a slammed volley into the nick.


*Natalie Pohrer and Tania Bailey* ( photo ©2002 Carlin Wing)	*Rachel Grinham and Vanessa Atkinson* ( photo ©2002 Carlin Wing)

The unsettling ending to that fourth game could have played a role in the subsequent course of the decisive fifth, but Atkinson by then was too exhausted to physically match the severe pace a determined Grinham established right from the first point. Her misdirection volleys were punishing Atkinson mercilessly, and her own relentless retrieving was frustrating every attempt to end a point. The match ended quietly and
convincingly almost more than an hour after it began, but both players are equally deserving of the applause they received in the wake of the heart and desire both had shown in what by a large margin has been the best match of the tournament thus far.

None of the three following acts could match this evening inaugural for intensity or drama, though the middle match did result in a rare reversal of seeding. Third seed Linda Charman was business-like and abrupt in dismissing her sixth-seeded British compatriot Stephanie Brind 9-5, 4 and 0 in less than 30 minutes, all of which contained a thoroughly pre-ordained feel to them, even when Brind moved out to a temporary 4-0 lead in the second game before being rolled from there. Charman's body language was assertive and confident, while Brind evinced a resigned and hang-dog mien from very early on. And
Owens concluded the evening's action by making decisive work of Geaves, who played much better one night earlier in ousting Rebecca Macree but couldn't duplicate or respond to Owens's length at any point tonight.

Hopefully, soon to be USA's Natalie Pohrer, World # 4
( photo ©2002 Debra Tessier)

In between these two perfunctory matches was a confrontation between 2002 British Open finalist Tania Bailey and second seed Natalie Pohrer, who won all three of her previous career matches with Bailey and was just coming off an advance to (and nearly through) the final of the World Open two weeks ago in Qatar, where she almost knocked off Fitz-Gerald before bowing in overtime in the fourth. Pohrer has had a terrific year since the prior Weymuller last winter, in which she in fact announced her return to the elite ranks after having to miss time with a knee injury by upsetting Charman, who was higher-ranked at the time, and reaching the semis. Now, though, she is having to deal with the pressure of being one of the favorites, a far different dynamic than being on the comeback trail, and in this match she was dealing with one of the most physically gifted athletes on the WISPA tour, as Bailey had notably demonstrated in a dominant dismantling of Natalie Grinham Thursday evening.

Their match was taut and sometimes tense, especially as the specter of the impending upset materialized, but too tinny to represent the quality of which these women are capable. A bad patch of them from Pohrer cost her the first game, which she dropped 9-5 from 5-all. She ran off to 8-1, 9-2 in the second, then saw Bailey do virtually the same (6-1, 9-3) in a similarly one-sided third. The fourth was less patchy than its predecessors but still disappointingly ragged, as Pohrer assumed a 3-1 lead, then fell behind 6-3, closed to 6-7, but dropped the clinching remainder in bang-bang fashion. Pohrer's elimination and Fitz-Gerald's absence would seem to put Owens in the driver's seat for now, but she will first have to deal with the plucky Grinham in tomorrow second semi-final, which will be preceded by the all-England Charman-Bailey match scheduled to begin at 5 o'clock. The final is set for 2 o'clock Sunday afternoon.

QUARTER-FINAL RECAP

Carol Owens d Fiona Geaves, 9-6, 1 and 0
Rachael Grinham d Vanessa Atkinson, 9-6 8-10 6-9 9-6 9-1
Linda Charman d Stephanie Brind, 9-5, 4 and 0
Tania Bailey d Natalie Pohrer, 9-4 2-9 9-3 9-6

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