8th Feb, Final:
It's Perry in Delaware!
Ramon Chan-a-Sue reports

[1] Sarah Jane Perry (ENG) 3-0 [2] Samantha Cornett (CAN)
                         11-6, 11-8, 12-10 

The 2013 CSC Delaware State Open concluded tonight at the Vicmead Hunt Club with a matchup of the top two seeds of the tournament.

Sarah Jane Perry, coming off a shaky start to the tournament but getting stronger as the week went on, and Samantha Cornett, who had less than twenty four hours to recover from her seventy minute marathon against Emma Beddoes in the semi-finals.

From the very first point, Perry immediately took the game to Cornett using a combination of length and boasts, to try and test the legs of Cornett. It seem to work as you could visibly tell that Cornett was just a little late getting to getting to the ball and was not turning as well. Cornett tried slowing the pace down using a combination of lobs and clinging length only to watch Perry ruthlessly volley drop or use a working boast to drag her back to the front. Perry went on to win the first game in convincing fashion.

More of the same followed in the second game, with Perry again using her deft touch and long reach to make Cornett work, and add in some unforced errors on Cornett’s part and Perry raced home to win the second.

The third game looked like it was going to be just a formality, but given the pervious nights matches, you were never sure what would happen. Cornett came out more determined and looked to hit with more pace and tried to be a more patient , and it seemed to be working only to have Perry use her holds and flicks to get her to match ball at 10-8.

However, Cornett went on one last determined run and got to 10 all only for Perry to use close it out on a flick cross court.

This brings to the end another exciting week of squash at Vicmead, the girls final challenge will be to catch a flight out so that they can make it back in time for Nationals.

They have treated the Delaware squash community to something truly special this week.

10-12, 11-0, 11-4, 11-9

[3] Heba El Torky

11-6,11-8,
12-10

[2] Sam Cornett

11-7, 12-10, 9-11, 5-11, 13-11

[2] Sam Cornett

Qualifying:

Diana Garcia (Mex) bt Cecelia Cortes (Usa)                         11/8, 11/7, 13/11
Hollie Naughton (Can) bt Karen Kronemeyer (Ned)               11/4, 11/4, 11/5
Ivonne Diaz (Mex) bt Jen Davis (Usa)                           11/7, 5/11, 11/9, 11/4
Nayally Hernandez (Mex) bt Julia Ward (Usa)                       11/4, 11/4, 11/7

There are no words that would do any kind of justice that the squash that was on display at the Vicmead Hunt Club tonight.

The first match of the night between Heba El Torky and Sarah Jane Perry precluded one of the gutsiest matches I have seen played. (More on that later).

The El Torky and Perry match up, were bound to be a test of shot making and fast pace game against the power and reach of Perry. As a tall woman, Perry provides an imposing force, but she also has delicate touch and a few bag of tricks that weren’t quite on show in the previous rounds. However, tonight in her match against EL Torky, she slowed the pace down and then nullified any of her opponent’s attacks with a combination of flicks and counter drops.

Perry rebounded after dropping the first game to take the next game 11-0, as the play got a bit chippy with both players taking on the referee. However, after one all, Perry seemed in total control and kept El Torky behind her, as well as guessing. Even though she attempted to make a few runs, Perry managed to close it out in a fairly comfortable manner.

The next match up, between crowd favorite Sam Cornett, who has been coming to this event since its inception, and Englishwoman Emma Beddoes, seemed like a total toss up before but by the third game was realizing that it was going to be something special.

When Cornett won the first two games, including the long second game which saw long rallies and unbelievable retrieving from both players, including two game balls for Beddoes, only to be thwarted by three consecutive volley drop winners by Cornett to take the game 12-10.

At 2-0 down, you had the feeling that it was all over, as both players had worked very hard for two games, surely Beddoes couldn’t claw her way back. However, with typical English grit Beddoes played her unrelenting game of tight length and patience, making Cornett pay for any tactical mistakes.

As a result she went on to win the next two games, just by being patient and cutting anything off that was loose, and retrieving any assaults to the front court by Cornett.

At the beginning of the fifth game, the crowd was on edge, as the quality was quite simply above anything that has been witnessed at Vicmead. Beddoes quickly raced out to a 3-0 lead only for Cornett to claw her way back, and once that happened the battle of attrition began as no player could get no further than one point ahead until Cornett used on of her many counter drops to get to match ball at 10-9.

However, Miss Consistency (Beddoes) had other ideas as she took the match ball serve and slotted a cross court nick to get to 10-10 all. That’s where the rallies got longer and at 11-10 Beddoes had match ball and looked to be in position to hit a winning cross court only to hit the top of the tin on a ball Cornett had just barely gotten back to the front wall.

Two long rallies later and both players showing the effects of a seventy minute match, Cornett pulls it out on a cross court volley drop which wrong footed Beddoes. Truly a fantastic effort by both players, one for which the crowd gave a standing ovation.

For Cornett, the challenge is whether she can recover in less than 24 hours to complete the title she just missed out on in 2011.
 

The first two matches of night followed the same patterns, tight first games and then the player winning the first game going on to take the match in convincing fashion. While the pattern might have been the same, there were two different methods in achieving this goal.

Emma Beddoes of England played a patient game, one of tight length and then pounced on anything Misakai Kobayashi left out in the middle, either by volleying short or hitting an unplayable length. This forced her opponent into even more unforced errors and in short order, moving on to the semi-finals.

Heba El Torky, the former British Junior Open Champion and finally fully healthy showed the appreciative audience another way to pick apart your, mainly by dispatching anything loose or not tight along a wall, into the nick. While the first game went to extra points, she always seem to be in control and found another gear that seem to catch Kiwi Amanda Landers Murphy off guard.

Even when Landers-Murphy worked her way back into the second game at 5-6, El Torky upped the tempo once more to run away with the second game. The final game saw a similar pattern and El Torky through to the semi finals where she will meet number one seed Sarah Jane Perry.

Perry once again for a few lapses controlled the “T” and had her opponent Olga Ertlova do all of the work.

The most entertaining match of the night was Sam Cornett  taking on young American Sabrina Sobhy, who showed that her sister is not the only one in the family with some squash talent. She matched the more experience Cornett shot for shot. Both players retrieved and attacked in spurts but every time it seemed one player was destined to run away with the match the other would always have an answer.

In the end it was the Canadian who showed just enough patience to outlast her opponent in four tough games. She will meet Beddoes in the second semifinal tomorrow night.

The semifinals should provide some interesting squash with some contrasting styles in the first match between EL Torky and Perry and the shot making ability of Cornett and consistency of Beddoes in the second match.
 

5th Feb, Round One:

The first round of the CSC Delaware Open began today at Vicmead Hunt Club in Wilmington, DE with most of the top seeds advancing.

The lone upset was caused by US Junior Champion and sure to be raising in the rankings after this tournament Sabrina Sobhy. She played some mature squash well beyond her years to handle the hard hitting Siyoli Waters of South Africia. She now moves on to play Canadian and local favorite Samantha Cornett.

The other matches were relatively straight forward but for a few hiccups from the top seeds. Quarter final night is sure to be a doozy, as other than Sobhy all the players are within ten world ranking places of each other.

Watch out for more upsets and some long battles

Frogs' Talk

Un pti mot de Wilmington dans le Delaware pour mon deuxième WSA de l'année.

J'etais tête de série 1 des qualif mais la semaine dernière une des fille du main draw a fait forfait. Je me retrouve donc à jouer Olga au premier tour. Ça doit bien faire un an que je ne l'ai pas joué, mais on a eu tellement de batailles auparavant qu'on se connaît par coeur.

Les courts sont assez froid, ce qui rend difficile d'avoir de bonnes longueurs. Je pense que ça sera un des éléments clés pour le match de demain.

Je te tiendrai au courant de la suite des évènements.

                              

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