SCOTLAND GOES DOWN QUIETLY
Sept 28, 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]

Tuesday Report # 1   [second report]

Seattle USA's Latasha Khan may be buying dinner. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

USA GETS BIG THOUGH NOT UNEXPECTED WIN

I suppose Latasha Khan will be buying dinner tonight. She dropped 14 points to Scotland’s Wendy Maitland while Louisa Hall dropped just ten and Meredith Quick was the winner, ceding just five points – she won the second and third games to nil.

So, as expected the USA will now have to beat Hong Kong in order to get an unexpected place in the last eight. Having watched the Hong Kong team I don’t think they will be as tough as USA manager Demer Holleran thinks. More to the point, except for the odd lapse, the American team are playing with a lot of confidence and composure.

Latasha Khan started out badly against Maitland, made far too many errors and found herself 1-5 down, but once she had settled down, Maitland got just one more point as Khan took the first game 9-6 and continued to show too much sophistication for the Scottish number one, who could not match Khan on skill or precision. Although it wasn’t a walk-through for Khan, she showed the sort of control that meant the outcome was never in doubt and she took the next two games 9-3 and 9-5 to start the victory.

Meredith Quick didn’t start badly, but she played in patches and instead of controlling Susan Dalrymple – as she demonstrated later she could - she kept allowing the Scots player back in to make a game of it. Quick is very safe on the backhand and plays that left wall good and tight. She also put in some lovely long dropshots on that side to leave Dalrymple flat-footed. But she also hit some backhand boasts that cost her points. In fact Quick is a little too fond of the boast and most of the time that shot would be the start of problems.

USA's Meredeth Quick, shown in the Japan match. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Quick got that first game 9-5 and obviously Demer Holleran straightened her head out in the rest period, because when she came back for the second, Quick didn’t put a foot wrong and Dalrymple was left clutching at thin air as the American girl showed just how good she could be. She took the game 9-0 in about four minutes and although Dalyrmple had hand in about eight times in the third game, she failed to convert them into points and Quick took the final game in five and half minutes for the loss of no points.

“No, it wasn’t easy,” Quick replied to my first question. “I had to concentrate because this [center court] is a fast court. I think I did a good job of controlling my shots. Demer helped me by telling me to change my timing, so I held my shot a little more and that worked.”

Quick left Princeton four years ago and is now coaching at the Heights Casino club in New York. Although she played six WISPA tournaments this year, earning a world ranking of 58, she has no intentions of going on the tour.

“I can’t afford it,” she says simply. “I’d rather coach and earn some money”

When asked to comment on the standard of squash at the championships, her eyes widen.

Rachael Grinham helped Australia to blast Canada. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

“It’s very intimidating. After the Pan Am championships where you get the odd hard game, here every game is hard,” she says, genuinely impressed. Does she get nervous before games? “I try not to think about it – I just try to keep relaxed.”

The result now relegates Scotland to the lower 16 and their worst result for many years.For the USA the big game against Hong Kong looms; When they played in Denmark two years ago, Hong Kong won 2-1. Today Hong Kong took an easy 3/0 victory over Japan which is no indication of anything.

Michelle Quibel still hasn’t been used and the team is not announced until three hours before the match and the chances are that Holleran will stick with a winning combination.

CANADA GETS THUMPED BY OZ
As expected Australia beat Canada – in fact they thumped them and strangely fielded their top three players to do it. Maybe they feel that the Grinhams and Pittock have not been pushed enough to feel tired and they fielded in order to keep them sharp.
So Australia win Pool A with the second place to be decided between Canada and Ireland tomorrow. Canada seeded eighth, one ahead of Ireland are slight favourites.

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