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Atkinson ends Duncalf run
By Rob Dinerman © 2003 SquashTalk; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Oct 14, 2003

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[Qualifying Draw - results] [Main Draw - complete results]

Fifth seed Vanessa Atkinson had to have been experiencing a sickening sense of déjà vu last night as she watched the substantial early-match lead she had established metamorphose into a looming quarter-final Weymuller U. S. Open defeat on the main exhibition court at Heights Casino. Last year in the same round on the same court she had led Rachael Grinham two games to one only to be caught and decisively passed in the closing pair of 9-6, 9-1 games in what was for sheer entertainment value clearly the match of the 2002 tournament.

Now after grabbing a convincing 9-2 9-3 3-0 margin over qualifier Jenny Duncalf, Atkinson had seen a third-game match-ball slip away and was facing an imposing 6-2 deficit in the fourth. Even worse, the fatigue factor that had done her in against Grinham was clearly starting to kick in this time as well, and her starry-eyed much-younger opponent had shaken off her sub-par start to the match and was honing in on what would have been her third consecutive noteworthy upset and a further enhancement to what already was by far her career-best major-tournament performance.

Duncalf hadn't even made it through the qualifying in last year's Weymuller event, and she wasn't expected to do so this time either, especially given her draw placement near the higher-ranked Shelley Kitchen, who had defeated her soundly in their last meeting earlier this month. But, after dropping the first game Sunday evening and barely eking out the second, Duncalf had posted a pair of 9-4 wins to close out a tiring Kitchen and make it into the main draw. Then in Monday's signature round-of-16 match, she had rallied from two games to one down to shock second seed Natalie Grainger, ranked 20 positions ahead of the WISPA No. 22 Duncalf, 9-6 in the fifth.

Duncalf's effort against Atkinson had been plagued through the first two-plus games by some ragged play and poor shot selection, and several veteran WISPA players had remarked that the 20-year-old Yorkshire resident, coming off the best-ever win of her young career, seemed to be understandably having to
come to terms with the difficulty of bringing forth the same intensity night after night that is required to succeed at the top WISPA level. It would have been easy at 0-2, 0-3 against an opponent of Atkinson's standing for Duncalf to have yielded, at least sub-consciously, to have settled for the excellent pair of wins that had already made her a quarter-finalist in a major tournament for the first time.

Instead she battled her way back into the match, suddenly found the
creativity and accuracy that had been missing early on, and forged her way to 8-6
and the first of what would turn out to be SEVEN game-balls. All of the first six were thwarted by Atkinson, who eventually earned a match-ball opportunity at 9-9 on a wall-clinging backhand drop shot. There followed an excruciatingly long point featuring several desperation retrievals by both players that finally landed in Duncalf's column. When she finally won that game on an extemporaneous backhand half-volley drop shot, the look of exasperation on the face of the red-clad redhead Atkinson as she left the court made it clear that what had seemed 15 minutes earlier to be a secure victory was now very much in doubt.

This seemed even more the case when the now rejuvenated Duncalf jumped
out to leads of 3-0 and 6-2 in the fourth game. Atkinson had stopped bending on
her drop shots and was starting to hit the tin. She almost appeared to be
deciding whether she should let that game go and save her energy for the fifth or
to instead make a serious effort to salvage that game and risk repeating a
fateful error; in the Grinham match one year earlier, she had spent herself
rallying from 2-8 to 6-8 in the fourth game and had nothing left for the fifth.
But when a few unforced Duncalf errors at 6-2 brought Atkinson back
within range, she decided to go for the win right then. Suddenly it was 6-6, then
8-8 after Duncalf was unable to make good on a game-ball she held at 8-6. That
was to be her last serve of the night, as Atkinson played brilliantly in
winning the match's last five points, out-positioning her opponent to get the tee
and wrong-footing her several times on forehand cross-court re-drops. A Duncalf
tin gave Atkinson a match-ball, and a cat-and-mouse front-court exchange
ended when Atkinson was awarded a stroke when Duncalf was trapped up front---9-2 9-3 9-10 10-8 and redemption for an exhausted but excited Atkinson, not to
mention a slot in the first of tonight's semis, where she will face sixth seed
Cassie Jackman at 7 o'clock.

The latter gained some redemption of her own last night when she avenged
her one-week-old British Open final loss to Grinham, who handily won the first
game of this rematch 9-3 and jumped out to an early advantage in the second.
Grinham had never defeated Jackman (or even taken a game from her) prior to
doing so earlier this month at the ultimate stage of the sport's premier
tournament, but her nimbleness afoot and ability to wrong-foot Jackman, especially with her deceptive wrist-flicking working boast, seemed to put her in good position to consolidate her recent breakthrough.

The match turned in the middle of the second game when Grinham, leading
5-4, made errors on two consecutive serve-returns, the first on a backhand drop volley attempt that hit the top of the tin and the second on a forehand cross court lob that drifted well out of court. Jackman took charge of that game and ran through a 9-1 third, moving much better than she had in the first portion of the match and hitting kill volleys into the nick that even Grinham, the master of the difficult get, was unable to dig out. The fourth was closer, with Grinham trying as hard as she could to boot-strap herself back into the match, but by this time the momentum that Jackman had established was too much to overcome, and she moved confidently through the last game 9-6, running it out in one hand from 6-all.

The evening was not a total loss for the Grinham family, however, as
younger sister Natalie out-played fourth seed Linda Charman 9-5, 7 and 0 to record her first-ever win over the Englishwoman after falling short in their handful of previous encounters. Charman actually played quite well, but couldn't cope with the court coverage of her opponent, who quickly pounced upon Charman's drop shots and successfully countered them, often with re-drops of her own. By the end of the second game, Charman had pretty much run out of options, and the third-game shut-out reflects the dominance the younger Grinham had by that time assumed over the action.

She will now face top seed and defending Weymuller U. S. Open champion Carol Owens, the only remaining player among the top four seeds, whose stellar execution was much too much for qualifier Rebecca Chiu to handle. The semi final is set for tomorrow night at 7 o'clock..

Carol Weymuller US Open 2003

Quarter final results:

Carol Owens(NZL) bt Rebecca Chiu (HKG) 9-0,9-3,9-0
Natalie Grinham (AUS) bt Linda Charman (ENG) 9-5,9-7,9-0
Cassie Jackman (ENG) bt Rachael Grinham (AUS) 3-9,9-6,9-1,9-6
Vanessa Atkinson (NED) bt Jenny Duncalf (ENG) 9-2,9-3,9-10,10-8

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