Saturday 17th, Semi-Finals & more Masters ...

  BEACHILL OUT

[6] Jenny Duncalf bt [3] Madeline Perry
       9/6, 5/9, 2/9, 9/4, 9/3  (79m)     
  
[4] Alison Waters bt [5] Laura Lengthorn
        8/10, 9/2, 9/4, 9/7 (56m)

[1] James Willstrop bt  [3] Lee Beachill 

[2] John White bt [4] Adrian Grant
        11/3, 11/4, 11/8 (36m)
 

EN BREF
 
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NATIONALS REPORTS
from Howard Harding

Malcolm in Manchester
Willstrop at Sportcity

[2] John White bt [4] Adrian Grant
        11/3, 11/4, 11/8 (36m)

IT’S AN ART…
Framboise reports

As we were watching John White winning his nth rally on a nick roll perfect length crosscourt, the sentence “The more I practice, the luckier I get” sprung to my mind. It cannot be luck when every other shot you get a nick, a winner, or an irretrievable perfect length shot. Like Shabana and a few others, John is an Artist of Squash. Of course, the downside of it is that it makes them more fragile than others, but when they are on a roll, it’s absolutely magical.

John would have been terribly hard for anyone to beat tonight, and it’s not as if Adrian anything terribly wrong. Yes he played a few tins, but although they are falling under the denomination of unforced errors, when at last Adrian got some few and far between opportunities, he HAD to make the winner. And of course, of course, he found the tin…

John kept his unforced errors to a strict minimum, two per game, and only relaxed slightly in the third, as he often does, allowing Adrian to loosen the muzzle a bit. That gave way to some stunning rallies, with John attacking at will, and Adrian flying all over the court to try to retrieve out of this world shots. 2/2. 3/3. 6/6. 7/7. So close.

But John stepped up a notch, played even faster than he had, forced a no let and two tins out of the young man, and it took him only two match balls to win a rather comfortable yet always entertaining match and reach his second Nationals final.

Another youngster out of the way!

I took a good lead in each game, and to be able to do that against somebody against whom you have a good record gives you a lot of confidence. And if yesterday I was hitting the ball without too much direction against Peter, today, I was controlling where the ball was going very well, I was very consistent and kept him in the back corners. I’m happy to hit the ball quite hard as long as I can keep a good direction on it, and that’s the way I’ve been playing for the past six months…

Adrian and I often have a tough 5-setter, but when you’ve beaten somebody on a regular basis and when you get on top of him from the start, you can see him going down on himself, and you get that extra bit of confidence.

In the third, he got some good rallies and got ahead, and I thought to myself that I wasn’t going to give him any cheap points, that he would have to work hard to get them, and got back to length…

My game plan was to play length and then try to pull it away, and I succeeded to do that more or less all the way through. It worked from start to finish, and it’s great to get a 3/0 result before tomorrow’s match against James whose had what a whole week off, by the look of it…!

Life is fine in the US, it’s great for the family, and if the squash is a bit slow in America, if it’s a small community, it’s growing…

It’s good to be here, I’ve always done well here, we go all over the world, and there are a lot of events that could benefit and learn from the organisation, it’s perfect from start to finish…

Just one more day, one more match…

John played extraordinarily well tonight, he made three unforced errors, and when he plays like that, Whitey can beat anybody in the world…

He puts you under incredible pressure all the time, and even when I had an opening, I was under so much pressure that I would make the error…

From the start I could see he was in form, and I tried to soak it, and soak it, and wait for him to make the error, but there is only so much you can soak up until you are actually physically dead…

Against John you know exactly what to expect, you know exactly what’s coming, what needs to be done… I didn’t try to slow down the pace, because that would have given him even more opportunity to attack, I tried to contain him and match his game. But you can’t match somebody at his own game…

As the players says about John, he is easy to play, but hard to beat…

[4] Alison Waters bt [5] Laura Lengthorn
        8/10, 9/2, 9/4, 9/7 (56m)

Alison volleys into the final
Steve Cubbins reports

It was almost a re-run of the first women's semi-final, but with one more twist.

Just as Jenny Duncalf had earlier, Laura Lengthorn started strongly, found the going tough in the middle and then rallied towards the end. But whereas Jenny's recovery took her all the way, Laura's fell just short in the fourth as Alison Waters progressed into her second National final.

Alison had lost a first game in which she trailed in the early part but led 8/6, but dominated the second and third games, volleying everything in sight as Laura struggled to get the ball tight enough to stop the attacks. And they were good attacks, putting the ball away on either side, or at least making it difficult enough to earn a second chance which she rarely missed.

Come the fourth though, Laura kept the ball straighter, forcing Alison to the back more and more.

And it worked. 4-2 became 6-2 with a drive that died in the back corner. 6-4 became 7-4 as Alison tinned one of the volleys that had been doing all the damage, the first one she'd missed for almost three games.

But Laura couldn't keep Alison out of the middle for ever, and with a soft volley-drop, a deep crosscourt volley and two high volley kills on the forehand she reached match ball.

At full stretch down the forehand side Alison just got her racket to the ball, which squeezed its way back up the wall to die in the nick. It would have been fitting to finish on a volley, but they'd already done their damage ...

"I'm delighted, it was a hard 3/1 match and we both took turns to dominate.

"I watched her match yesterday and knew she was strong in the middle, so I was trying to hit it wide from the front to stop her from controlling the middle of the court.

"At 8/6 up in the first I gave away two strokes straight back to myself, which isn't very clever. So in the second I tried to just cut out the errors, and her crosscourts became a bit looser and I was able to get in front and volley more.

"She put me under pressure in the fourth, and I was a bit lucky to finish it off in the end.

"Last time it was 'wow, I'm in the final' and I was a bit nervous and overawed by the occasion, I'll try to enjoy it more this time.

"Jenny and I are good friends, but I don't know who'll coach me in the final - maybe we'll have a little chat with each other between games!"

"When I was playing Vicky in W'hampton, I was on my own, not by choice, but due to circumstances, and it seemed to work. I was less stressed than when I am when I’m talking with somebody. But today, after the third, I just wanted to quickly check with Danny if I was doing anything that I shouldn’t have. But actually, he confirmed what I thought…



"I think I’m quite good at figuring things out on my own, I feel like I know what I should or should not be doing out there, and it’s all a question of regrouping between games and making sure I’m doing what I’m supposed to. For example today, I wanted to play her straight and tight, to slow down the pace… It was all a case of doing it at the right time, and to put it short at the right time too…

"I thought that the whole match was a bit up and down. And it’s so easy to keep your spirit and energy up when you are up, but then when you are behind…

"In my view, we play very different games, I like to play straight and tight, to play my way and choose when I attack, she is totally the opposite, she volleys everything, plays at a very fast pace, and attacks all the time…

"Yesterday I played maybe better, but I played a different opponent too, Vicky was very nervous, she had a lot of pressure on her, and was not at her best… So you can’t compare the two matches.

"I’m not too disappointed with my performance, I played well I thought, it just came down to a few crucial points, like at 7/7 in the fourth. So it’s just a question of getting it right at the crucial times…"

For the record, in PAR scoring:
15/17, 12/5, 15/10, 12/10

[6] Jenny Duncalf  [3] Madeline Perry
       9/6, 5/9, 2/9, 9/4, 9/3  (79m)

Jenny outlasts Madeline
Steve Cubbins reports

After two unsuccessful semi-finals it was third time lucky for Jenny Duncalf as she came through a gruelling five game encounter with Madeline Perry to record a second consecutive upset victory this week.

The opening of the match was very even, with little to choose between the two players as they moved easily around the glass court, moving the ball well to all corners.

Jenny took the lead, finishing the first with two delicate dropshots, and the second started out in much the same pattern to 3-all. A trip sent Jenny sprawling into the back corner, racket raised in appeal of a let.

She got the let, but appeared to have left some of her game behind as she started hitting the tin more regularly, and conceded the centre of the court to Madeline with many loose shots.

Madeline didn't need to do anything special to take advantage, but she did so with aplomb, controlling the 'T' and volleying deep and short as Jenny struggled to contain her opponent's attacks.

Taking the lead, Madeline looked very much the likely winner, but whereas sometimes Jenny has been know to collapse like England's middle-order in such circumstances, this time she battled back.

It was a struggle, she was still struggling to find a decent length, but she ran everything she could down and slowly but surely started to get her game back. She struggled to 4-all, but by then she had started to play well again, and by the end of the game she was playing very well.

She raced to 6-0, then Madeline scored her first point with a lovely volley drop only to have the serve taken away by an identical shot by Jenny. It could have been over quickly, but at 7-3 there were nine tense hand-outs, with neither able to win two rallies to earn a vital point.

Madeline blinked first, tinning with a volley to bring up match ball, and although she saved it, on the second a loose return brought the ball back onto herself and Jenny was in the final.

"It wasn't until I saw the screens yesterday that I realised I had such a poor record against Madeline, so I thought I'd better do something to change that!

"I started off well, but for the middle part of the match I felt a bit flat and couldn't get back into it. I was totally out of it, clipping the side walls and letting her in front of me. You just can't hit it half-court against Madeline.

After the third DP told me to calm down and slowly in the fourth I managed to get my length back. Once I got through the fourth I felt good and was confident I could carry on in the fifth.

"We had lots of handouts at 7-3, I just kept telling myself to stay calm, stay calm, don't let her get any momentum.

"I'm over the moon. I've made the semis for the last two years, so to go one better this time is great."

"That was tough, my legs just went.

"I felt good at 2/1 up, but at 4-all in the fourth I started to feel tired, I couldn't keep the pace up and volley which I'd been doing well until then. When I went back on for the fifth there was nothing there.

"I thought there might be a possibility at 3-7 but I just didn't have the strength or pace to push through.

"I'm disappointed, I felt really good with my squash, I just couldn't do it physically which is strange as I haven't really had many tough matches to get here.

"I haven't played as many matches in the last few months, and I haven't played as well as that for a while, so maybe that's it."

For the record, in PAR scoring:
19/15, 12/17, 9/16, 14/8, 20/14

Beachill out

James Willstrop advanced to the final of the National Championships in circumstances no-one wanted as Lee Beachill was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Lee has been struggling with his neck since practicing on Friday, and despite ongoing treatment up until the last minute, at the 11.45 deadline this morning he was forced to accept the inevitable and withdrew from the tournament.

Lee will be coming to Manchester to talk to the fans, James will play an exhibition in place of the semi-final, and spectators are being offered free tickets to alternative sessions at the National Squash Centre (see letter opposite)

"I came over yesterday for half an hour's practice on the glass court with Nick Taylor, we were just knocking up and I felt a click in my neck. I though it was strange, as I don't have a 'clicky' neck like some players and I've never had any neck problems, but two minutes later I couldn't move it at all.

"I had some physio here, it was a struggle to drive home, and I saw my own physio at home. They say it's just a caught nerve that's causing a spasm that will take a few days to ease off and then it's gone.

"I couldn't move my head to the right at all, and although it's a bit better today there's no way I could play. I had some acupuncture at 11 this morning in a last-ditch attempt to relieve it.

"To be honest, if I could have gone on at less than 100% and hoped to work it off I would have done, it's the match everyone wanted to see and we were both looking forward to it.

"I might have been able to play if he'd kept it on my forehand, but he's never nice when he knows someone's got a problem! No seriously, I just couldn't play today.

"I've won this a couple of times coming into it not in good form or just back after injury, and this year I've come into it feeling fit, playing well, not having to work too hard to get to the semis and then something like this happens. It's so frustrating."

              also see Howard Harding, Nationals reports

The whole thing is a bit of a nightmare. I'm very pleased to get to the final but I wanted to get there myself. I'm gutted for Lee, we've played each other so many times, but even if I didn't know him it's any player's worst nightmare.

It's such a good event, a big tournament I've always wanted to win.

I've got high expectations of the final. It will be a tough game against either John or Adrian.

James Willstrop