Womens US Open 03

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Owens and Jackman Cruise
By Rob Dinerman © 2003 SquashTalk; all rights of reproduction reserved.
Oct 15, 2003

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

In a tournament heretofore replete with upsets, near-upsets and close, exciting matches throughout its first four days, the Weymuller U. S. Open took a decided turn to the mundane in tonight's semi-final action, as former world champions Carol Owens (2000) and Cassie Jackman (1999) put forth dominant performances over their over-matched opponents Natalie Grinham and Vanessa Atkinson respectively. The sparseness of the turn-out was doubtless attributable in major measure to the matches' simultaneity with major league baseball's league championship series, which makes it fortunate that tomorrow's 7 p.m. final should be over in time for spectators to see the match and still be able to watch most or all of Game Seven between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, which isn't scheduled to begin until 8:20.

The top-seeded defending U. S. Open champion Owens has played the last or next-to-last match of the day throughout the tournament, coming on court late and finishing off her opponents early with her flawless, no-frills execution, and tonight's 9-4, 2 and 1 victory over Grinham was no exception. Owens is always in balance, with her legs under her and her racquet fully prepared, and her anticipation and stroking technique give her game an effortless-appearing quality that to some degree deprive her of the credit she should be receiving for the discipline and focus it takes to create this impression. Grinham, by contrast, spent the entire match hurriedly scurrying to the court's four corners, trying to extricate the ball under distinctly unfavorable circumstances, usually stretched full out in pursuit of Owens's well thought out offerings, which forced her to constantly extemporize.

Inevitably and inexorably, Owens pulled steadily away in each game. Twice a finalist in her eight attempts at the Weymuller trophy prior to her breakthrough last year, she has now won seven consecutive Weymuller U. S. Open matches without losing a single game, having dropped a total of 17 points in her three pre-final matches this year against, sequentially, Jenny Tranfield, Rebecca Chiu and Grinham. In addition, the draw has broken in her favor for sure, given the pre-semis elimination of Nos. 2-4 seeds Natalie Grainger, Rachael Grinham and Linda Charman and the loss in the balancing semi-final this evening of No. 5 seed Atkinson.

Tomorrow night she faces No. 6 seed Jackman, whom she defeated in the 2002 Texas Open final and in their two 2003 meetings, both of which occurred this past June in the semis of WISPA tour stops in Egypt. But that recent history aside, Jackman has been settling old debts throughout this tournament. After a straight-set opening-round win over her British compatriot Rebecca Macree, she avenged her week-old British Open final-round loss to Rachael Grinham in a four-game quarter-final before tonight's encounter with Atkinson, who had defeated her last spring in both the Irish Open final and in the No. 1 match of the European Team Championships final between the Netherlands and England.

This match was pretty much controlled all the way through by Jackman, her only misstep coming late in the second game, when a brief lapse enabled Atkinson to rally from 4-8 to 8-all and force a potentially match-changing tiebreaker. Jackman had raced through the first game primarily due to the severity of her rails, the swiftness from the start of her movement to the front wall (a contrast to her sluggish court coverage in losing the first game of her Grinham quarter before correcting this deficiency as the match progressed), the superior width she was able to attain her rails and cross courts and the out-of-synch performance of Atkinson. The latter had weathered two tremulous tiebreakers in her pulsating four-game quarter-final win over Jenny Duncalf one night earlier, and the toll that match took may have played a role in Atkinson's struggles tonight.

As noted, she did have a real chance at making a serious match of it when she pulled even at 8-all in the second due to a series of sharply-angled backhand working boasts that so extended Jackman that she caught the tin several times with her responses. But Atkinson found the tin herself on her serve in the tiebreaker when she tried this tactic once too often, following which Jackman blasted a forehand rail directly into the nick to get to game-ball and wrong-footed Atkinson on a cross court she disguised just well enough to prevent a diving Atkinson from getting enough of her racquet on it to conjure up a desperation return.

The third game got away on a quick Jackman spurt in one hand from 5-4 to 8-4, match-ball. She was really driving her forehand rails, either for length or too often directly into the nick for it to be accidental (though it sometimes appeared to be). An increasingly beleaguered Atkinson was getting exasperated by the negative turn of events, berating herself and several times tossing her racquet in frustration. It ended on Jackman's third match-ball when she feathered a forehand drop shot that clung so close to the right wall that Atkinson whiffed (or possibly foul-tipped) her vain attempt to steer it back. Jackman can only hope for a like degree of precision tomorrow when she takes on Owens, who at times this week has seemed virtually invincible.

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