WILLSTROP
AVENGES SWEDISH DEFEAT
TO REACH NATIONALS QUARTER-FINALS
Howard Harding reports
Yorkshire's World Junior Champion James Willstrop
staged the biggest upset of the day when he defeated fourth-seeded
Scot Martin Heath 15-12 9-15 15-7 15-5 in the second round of the
British National Squash Championships at the National Squash Centre in
Manchester to reach the quarter-finals for the first time. It was only
six days earlier that Heath, the world No10 now based in Toronto in
Canada, beat the 19-year-old from Pontefract - ranked 41 in the world
- in the first round of the Swedish Open.
"I feel I learned a lot from that match in
Sweden," said Willstrop, the 15th seed. "I made a slow start
then and by the time I truly got into the game, it was too late. This
time, it was like starting half way through the last game, knowing
much more what to expect from the beginning - and I felt I was in
control for most of the match."
Willstrop, England's most successful junior of all
time who won the World title in India in December, goes on to face
local hero Nick Taylor, the world No19 from Manchester who has been at
least a Nationals semi-finalist for the past three years.
Eighth-seeded Taylor claimed his second straight games win in the
event with a 15-7 15-5 15-12 victory over Berkshire's Stephen Meads in
52 minutes. Willstrop and Taylor play alongside each other for
Manchester-Pontefract in the National League - but have never met
before in a competition.
"We know each other well and he always plays
well in this tournament," said Willstrop. "I can't wait -
it'll be a big battle and it's on the all-glass showcourt so it should
be a great match." Defending champion Lee Beachill - also a
member of the Manchester-Pontefract team - maintained his bid to
become the first person to win the men's title three consecutive times
when he overcame Suffolk's Bradley Ball 15-11 15-10 14-15 15-10 in 69
minutes.
The third seed from Yorkshire now faces Welshman
David Evans, the ninth seed from Pontypool who ended unseeded
Yorkshireman Marcus Berrett's run with a 15-10 15-13 15-6 victory in
44 minutes. It was another great day for Yorkshire players - four of
whom will compete in the men's quarter-finals and two in the
women's.
Top seed Peter Nicol, who adopted allegiance to the
white rose after defecting from Scotland, will meet seventh seed Simon
Parke in an all-Yorkshire clash featuring two former champions. Nicol,
champion in 1996, took 55 minutes to quash Peter Genever, the 14th
seed from Sussex, 15-10 15-6 15-12, while 1998 trophy winner Parke,
originally from Harrogate, beat county colleague Nick Matthew 15-9
11-15 15-1 15-11 in 65 minutes.
Attention on the opening day of the women's event
was focussed on the clash between defending champion Cassie Jackman,
the No3 seed who is making her comeback after a second
career-threatening back operation last September, and unseeded local
star Vicky Botwright, the in-form world No17 from Manchester who
reached two finals on the international circuit last month. Jackman
dropped just four points as she raced to a 2-0 lead. With the crowd
behind her, Vicky rallied back to level the match.
"I think Cassie went to sleep in the
third," said Botwright later. Four-times champion Jackman, who
has not failed to reach the final in her last five appearances,
regrouped in the fifth, fighting back from 3-4 down to take the match
9-1 9-3 1-9 7-9 9-4 in 61 minutes. "I was pleased with the way I
played in the first two games and Vicky made a lot of errors, but she
came back strongly in the third," said the world No8 from
Norfolk.
"These courts are really tough, so I was
pleased to get back into it by the fifth, and get the win. After what
I've been through, every match I win is a bonus - and now I can look
forward to a day off before my quarter-final match on
Friday."
Jackman takes on England team-mate Stephanie Brind
in the last eight, after the 6th seed from Bexleyheath in Kent clawed
her way back from 2-1 down to beat Warwickshire's Vicky Lankester, a
qualifier originally from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, 9-6 8-10 8-10
9-5 9-5 in 65 minutes, the longest women's match of the day.
There was a notable women's upset - and a further
Yorkshire 'gain' - when unseeded Jenny Tranfield beat Gloucester's
fifth seed Fiona Geaves 9-2 9-2 9-4 in 31 minutes. Originally from
Sheffield, Dr Tranfield - a PhD in Sports Psychology - is now based in
Milton Keynes and goes on to meet Sussex's top seed Linda Charman, a
3-0 victor over Yorkshire's former European Junior Champion Jenny
Duncalf.
The most remarkable quarter-final clash of all will
take place at the bottom of the women's draw between second seed Tania
Bailey, the 23-year-old world No7 from Stamford in Lincolnshire and
seventh seed Suzanne Horner, the world No15 from Wakefield in
Yorkshire who will celebrate her 40th birthday in little more than a
week.
Bailey, the England No1, beat Harrow-based qualifier
Dominique Lloyd-Walter 9-4 9-5 9-6 in 31 minutes to claim her first
ever victory in five Nationals' appearances. Horner, however, defeated
Irish champion Madeline Perry 9-5 10-9 9-0 in 37 minutes to reach her
13th successive quarter-final in her 23rd appearance in the event
since making her debut in 1978 - the year before Bailey was born!
