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Brind on the Sidelines
By Rob Dinerman © 2003 SquashTalk; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Oct 11, 2003

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[Qualifying Draw - concludes Sunday] [Main Draw - starts Monday]

Two Seeds Ousted In First Round of Weymuller U. S. Open Qualifier
Steph Brind of England, a semi-finalist two Weymuller events ago, has seen both her ranking and her confidence decline to the point where she found herself relegated to the qualifying rounds (albeit as the No. 1 seed) at the beginning of this event and now relegated to the sidelines after today's play.

She saw a 5-2 first-game lead over Australian Amelia Pittock dissolve into a defeat from which she never recovered---9-6, 7 and 3 and out. Brind's shoulders were slumping after that first-game reversal and by match's end her visage and body language were those of someone who didn't want to be out there. She still has the game and the time to re-enter the top echelon of the WISPA tour, but she definitely needs a few good wins to get her going in the right direction.

USA CONTINGENT BLANKED
For now an ebullient Pittock moves into tomorrow's final qualifying round, where she will face Madeline Perry. Perry stayed in solid statistical command throughout her match this afternoon against 2001 U. S. National champion Shebana Khan. The play was actually closer than the 9-3, 0 and 1 score, as there were many points that the 35-year-old Khan mostly controlled only to be unable to finish off. Perry's superior reach and foot speed enabled her to frustrate her opponent and to collect a number of points when Khan tried to cut her shots too fine.

Khan's pair of American counterparts, Meredeth Quick and Carlin Wing, fared no better, as Quick was subdued 9-5, 0 and 5 by Isabelle Stoehr of France and Wing, an alumna of the host Heights Casino junior program and former Harvard stand-out, lost 9-1, 2 and 2 to the talented New Zealander Shelley Kitchen.

It has been quite a few years since the American women have been able to take even a single game in the Weymuller, though four-time and current U. S. National champion Latasha Khan, Shebana's younger sister, represents a last chance to do so this year when she brings her main-draw wild card into Monday's play against fourth seed Linda Charman of England.

NICOL DAVID, WITH TOUCH

Probably the most noteworthy of today's remaining qualifying matches saw another seed, No. 5 Pamela Nimmo of Scotland, replicate Brind's doleful experience by relinquishing a substantial opening-lead and never challenging thereafter. In Nimmo's case, she actually was serving at 8-2, game-ball against Nicol David, who then eliminated the tins that had heretofore plagued her output and asserting her extraordinary sibilant grace and touch en route to a tiebreaker rescue of that game and, eventually, an increasingly dominant 10-8 9-5 9-2 ticket to tomorrow's match with Vicky Botwright, a 9-1, 3 and 6 winner this evening over Heidi Mather of Australia.

Tomorrow's match-ups will be Perry vs. Pittock, Botwright vs David, Kitchen vs Jenny Duncalf (who straight-gamed Lara Petera) and Stoehr vs Rebecca Chiu. The latter was the only one of today's eight winners to have to play a fourth game today, as she dropped a 9-3 opening game to Tegwan Malik before evening the match by winning the second. The third game tiebreaker was pivotal, and when Chiu captured that extra session she was home free in the fourth game, which she took 9-3 to close out the evening's matches.

After Sunday's matches are complete there will be a draw of the four survivors, who will be slotted against second seed Natalie Grainger, third seed and just-crowned British Open champion Rachael Grinham, eighth seed Natalie Grinham and seventh seed Tania Bailey respectively. The latter, a finalist in last year's Weymuller U. S. Open, will be making her first WISPA tournament appearance since undergoing sinus surgery to help her recover from an illness that has bedeviled her for the past eight months.

The defending champion Carol Owens, who won her first Weymuller in 2002 without losing a game, will take on Jenny Tranfield Monday evening at 6 p.m.

RECAP OF QUALIFYING FIRST ROUND

Amelia Pittock d Steph Brind, 9-6, 9-7 9-3;
Madeline Perry d Shebana Khan, 9-3, 9-0 9-1;
Isabelle Stoehr d Meredeth Quick, 9-5, 9-0 and 9-5;
Rebecca Chiu d Tegwan Malik, 3-9 9-7 10-9 9-3;
Jenny Duncalf d Lara Petera, 9-7 10-8 9-1;
Shelley Kitchen d Carlin Wing, 9-1, 9-2 and 9-2;
Nicol David d Pamela Nimmo, 10-8 9-5 9-2;
Vicky Botwright d Heidi Mather, 9-1, 9-3 9-6

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