CANADA KEEPS ON TRACK
Sept 27, 2004, Martin Bronstein; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

MARTIN BRONSTEIN REPORTING FROM THE FRANS OTTEN STADION IN THE SUBURBS OF AMSTERDAM      [pools draw]    [pools detailed results]

Monday Report # 2    [first report]

The Canadians were very color coordinated and dynamite on court. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Seeded eighth, Canada kept on track with the second win in two matches, beating Germany (seeded 16) with room to spare. Germany came to the tournament without Sabine Tillmann, who wins the German national title - “Without even training,” says Fritz Borchert, Squashtalk’s German expert tells me. Tillmann, formerly Schoene, was a top five player before she retired from the circuit four years ago to concentrate on her army career. She is not too happy with the support she has received from the German squash authorities and so refused to play, even though she was much in evidence in the European Club Championships last week in Austria.

Her absence pushed the German team up one place and it was too much against an experience Canadian squad. Melanie Jans Burke, totally colour co-ordinated in red and white, including red and white shoes, and red bandanna with white maple leafs, started without nerves and played fine percentage squash, always feeling comfortable in the back left corner and always knew when to chop in the drop. Although Karin Beriere came back from 0-3 down to lead 6-3, Burke never seemed troubled as she cut out her loose shots and pulled back to win the game 9-6 in eight minutes.

The second game was all Burke at the beginning to lead 7-3, but once again she let up to allow Beriere to pull even at 7-7. And once again Burke playing solid, tight squash stopped the run to win the game 9-7.

I’d like to know what each coach said to the players in the interval but suddenly Beriere was hitting dreamy winners and Burke was left standing unable to stop the stream of winners. Beriere went six up in minutes and although Burke brought the run to a halt, it was just a temporary interruption and the German number two took the game 9-3.

Canadian coach Heather Wallace managed to put Burke backon track for the fourth game and her smoothness returned. It was level at 4-4 when Beriere made two errors in a row and then had s stroke awarded against her. Burke, now leading 7-4 was not going to let this one get away and kept her concentration to win 9-5.

The Canadians were very color coordinated and dynamite on court. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

I asked her what happened in the third and she said it was all about lost length.

“I just lost it and my ball was landing in the service box. Just that little bit short but it made a lot of difference,” she said.

The Canadian number one Runa Reta started slowly and gave the impression that she really didn’t want to run too much. Her length was wanting and there was a lot of loose stuff which Kathrin Rohrmueller made the most of. Reta prefers playing at the front of the court and she can be lightning fast to get to her opponent’s drops buy her counter-drops to the front right left her vulnerable and Rohrmueller was driving them for winners down the wall. The first game was close, but the errors were as important as the winners and Reta gave too much latitude to her opponent, paying the price as she lost it 8-10.

Reta was more precise in the second and her volley drops and disguised cross courts were starting to leave her opponent flat footed. When she is at the top of her game, Reta is a delight to watch, but there are gaps of concentration, which spoils her good stuff. She took the next two games 9-5, 9-7 and by the fourth, Rohrmueller had done too much work and was no longer able to summon up the determination and went down 9-1 to give Reta a 3-1 decision.

Canada had the victory but Germany had a consolation point when Katerina Witt beat Marnie Baizley at third string. Despite the result being a foregone conclusion the two plays gave nothing away with Witt taking the last two games 10-9, 10-8 ensuring that Baizley will spend the night gnawing her knuckles on what might have been. With Australia and Ireland to play, Canada will almost certainly take second place in Pool A and ensure at least eighth place but will be aiming to at least equal their sixth place finish two years ago in Denmark.

AUSTRALIA THE RUTHLESS
The top seeds and reigning champions rolled over Switzerland without a though for hurt feelings. Amelia Pittock, the number three string, scoring the first 27-0 victory of the tournament over Gabi Hegi. The Grinham sisters lost just four points between them at first and second string.

Vanessa Atkinson handled the spotlight. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

England were rash by contrast losing a total of 7 points in beating Japan with Fiona Geaves getting her first outinga t number two and losing just one point. Not bad for the present British Over 35 champion.

There was interest in the Pool B match between Scotland and Hong Kong (USA’s next two opponents) to see just how tough the Hong Kong team was. Frania Gillen-Buchert gave Scotland a good start with a 3/1 victory over Karen Lau, but Susan Dalrymple was no match for Rebecca Chiu and lost in three. This left the weight on the third strings and Louise Philip simply did not have skill or the experience to combat the agile Annie Au and although she pushed in the third the tiny Hong Kong player still won it 10-8 to give Hong Kong the victory. Scotland, seeded seventh on the strength of having Pamela Nimmo at number one, will now almost certainly be out of the top eight. (Nimmo withdrew with illness days before the tournament started).

Things have not really gotten interesting yet, but the action should start warming up tomorrow and get to the nitty gritty on Wednesday when the final pool matches decide the playoffs.

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