Eye Group Women's World Open

Know Your Limitations
By Colin McQuillan - The Canadians came to The Hallamshire Club in Sheffield, England, determined to parlay their ninth ranking into a return to top five status at the Eye Group Women's World Team Squash Championship, and they are just two steps away from success.

Canada Aims for Five
Not since the 1987 championship in Auckland, New Zealand, have they finished among the first five. They were tenth last time in Stuttgart, Germany. To be frank, they hardly engaged with the top seeded English in the quarter-finals. They rested Marnie Baizley, arguably their strongest weapon in the last two rounds, and the best attempt they made at a win was an 8-10 thrust by Lauren Wagner in the first game of the third string dead rubber after letting the match decision go for just five points in the 45 minutes it took to settle the first two strings.

Jans gave up the first string match to Tania Bailey 9-0 9-4 9-0 in 23 minutes and Carolyn Russell lasted a minute less against Stephanie Brind losing 9-0 9-0 9-1. Rebecca Macree tidied up the dead third string rubber 10-8 9-1 against Wagner.

USA in Bid for 17 - Far cry from 9
The USA, with little hope of defending the ninth position of Stuttgart without the Khan sisters, Shabana and Latasha, are making more positive bid in the pool play-offs for 17th place.

They defeated Italy 3-0 on Wednesday and Japan 3-0 today. Wales to play on Friday and Spain on Saturday. They lead then pool on points difference from Spain at the halfway stage, with Italy, Japan and Wales trailing in that order.

Semi Finals a Tossup on both halves
At the other end of the scale it is becoming harder to pick the champions of 2000. England rested their first string, Linda Charman, against the Canadians. She has to face world number one Leilani Joyce in the semi-final against New Zealand.

Tania Bailey should be secure at second string against either of the imposing Maori players, Shelley Kitchen or Lara Petara, but neither Stephanie Brind nor Rebecca Macree are tried and tested at third string for England, and Sarah Cook, the big former world number 22 who has been out for a year having her first child, looked big, fast and just a bit tricky against the young South Africa, Sjeanne Cawdry in the quarter-finals.

New Zealand Tentative
In fact New Zealand looked less than completely confident as second seeds when they defeated the virtually part-time South African side 2-1 with Leilani Marsh, the world number one, seeming disgruntled and somewhat out of sorts beating Claire Nitch 9-3 9-1 9-2 at first string.

Nitch is the only ranked player in the South African squad and she has dropped out of the top ten this year. It fell to Angelique Clifton-Parks, a 34-year-old squash club owner from Durban who travels only to represent her country, to make the quarter-final a fight for New Zealand by unexpectedly defeating Shelley Kitchen 10-9 9-7 9-3 at second string.

A powerful striker of the ball with a surprisingly delicate short game, Clifton-Parks is the likely opponent for Beazley in the fifth place semi-finals. She gave the nervous young Maori a lesson in rallying that illustrated all too clearly the adage that playing squash shots is not the same as playing squash. The South African understood much more about the where and the when of ball placement.

The decider was managed far better by Sarah Cook, a 25-year-old one-time world number 22 who after a year in Christchurch with her first baby has obviously learnt some of the benefits of chastisement. She drove Sjeanne Cawdry off the court for just half-a-dozen points.

Fitz-Gerald teaches Stoehr a lesson
In the bottom half of the draw the second seeded defending champions, Australia, had plainly read the same child-management manuals. Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the former world champion, allowed the promising young French first string, Isabelle Stoehr, a couple of impressive winners in the opening game, then raised the pace and began to strike the ball with a severity that was positively parental.

Stoehr, who had enjoyed one or two notable victories during the qualifying rounds, lasted just 17 minutes and harvested three points. The rest of the France team took only 15 points away from Natalie Grinham and Robyn Cooper.

Australia, six times winners of this title, find their semi-final occupied by a young Egyptian team that has never penetrated so far before. Salma Shabana, Maha Zein, Omneya Abdel Kawy and Engy Kheirallah have an average age of 20 years.

Kawy, who may be their greatest weapon in their first semi-final, is just 15 years old. Egypt finished 14th in their first world team championship in Guernsey back in 1994. In 1996 they finished 11th in Kuala Lumpur. In 1998 they finished eighth in Stuttgart. The second seeds, lacking world champion Carol Owens and former world junior champion Rachael Grinham, are vulnerable in the lower order.

Shabana has little chance against Sarah Fitz-Gerald, who showed no mercy to Isabelle Stoehr today and is unlikely to be any more generous to the 24-year-old Egyptian But Maha Zein is the powerhouse of the the Egyptian side, as she showed crunching Karin Beriere 9-1 9-5 9-6 in less than half-an-hour today, and Kawy is like Ahmed Barada in skirts. She wrenched away the third string decider from Germany today beating the experienced and normally strong Daniella Grzenia 9-2 9-4 9-2 in just 22 minutes.

For the latest results go to www.squashtalk.com/womensworld

Eye Group Women's World Team Squash Championship At The Hallamshire Club in Sheffield

First Round Results:
England 3 Malaysia 0
Canada 2 Netherlands 1
New Zealand 3 Hong Kong 0
South Africa 3 Brazil 0
German 2 Switzerland 1
Egypt 2 Denmark 1
France 2 Scotland
Australia 3 Ireland 0
USA 3 Italy 0
Japan 3 Wales 0

Quarter-final Results :
England 3 Canada 0 (Tania Bailey bt Melanie Jans 9-0 9-4 9-0, Stephanie Brind bt Carlyn Russell 9-0 9-0 9-1, Rebecca Macree bt Lauren Wagner 10-8 9-1)
New Zealand 2 South Africa 1 (Leilani Joyce bt Claiire Nitch 9-3 9-1 9-2, Shelley Kitchen lost to Angelique Clifton-Parks 9-10 7-9 3-9, Sarah Cook bt Sjeanne Cawdry 9-5 9-1 9-0.
Egypt 2 Germany 1 (Salma Shabana lost to Sabine Schone 1-9 6-9 1-9, Maha Zein bt Karin Beriere 9-1 9-5 9-6, Omneya Abdel Kawy bt Danielle Grzenia 9-2 9-4 9-2)
Australia 3 France 0(Sarah Fitz-Gerald bt Isabelle Stoehr 9-2 9-1 9-0, Natalie Grinham bt Corinne Castets 9-4 9-5 9-5, Robyn Cooper bt Mylene de Muylder 9-0 9-1)

Ninth Place Play-offs :
Scotland 3 Ireland 0
Denmark 3 Switzerland 0
Malaysia 2 Netherlands 1
Hong Kong 3 Brazil 0

17th Place Play-offs:
USA 3 Japan 0
Spain 2 Italy 1
Spain 3 Wales 0
Italy 2 Japan 1

Semi-final programme :
England v New Zealand
Australia V Egypt

Fifth Place Play-offs :
Canada v South Africa
France v Germany

Ninth Place Play-offs:
Scotland v Denmark
Malaysia v Hong Kong

17th Place Play-offs
Wales v USA
Spain v Japan
Italy v Wales
Spain v USA

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