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13-Jan, Final:
Pittock takes Capitol title
John Nielsen reports from Washington
 If
you want to get sense of how exceptionally skilled professional
squash players are these days, watch the finals of a pro event after
watching the best players at an excellent squash club play in a
final of their own. You’ll notice right away that at the
professional level victories are measured by the inch (not the
foot); winning drives appear to hit the court and skid instead of
bouncing. Winning drops fall dead like birds that have just crashed
into brick walls. Defensive shots so complicated that nobody knows
what to call them tend to show up out of nowhere...
…at least that’s how it looked on Sunday at the Results Gym when
Amelia Pittock and Karen Kronemeyer played the final of
the Capitol Hill Open. Pittock, from Australia, took the match in
three hard games that seemed designed to show the appreciative crowd
what the women’s game was all about.
This was not a match that started tentatively, to put it mildly.
From the moment the first ball was struck Kronemeyer started hitting
the daring shots that she’s come to be known for, ranging from
leaping volley drives to long-range drops that seemed to have been
hit from the far side of the park behind the building.
“She’s very good at that,” said Pittock. “I didn’t expect to see a
lot of shots coming at me from expected directions and I didn’t.
Let’s just say you have to be on your toes when you play Karen.”
Pittock did a good job staying on her toes, striking the ball with
all-around power and precision that made her the favourite in this
tournament and #34 in the women’s professional game. Those shots
seemed to keep her just a fraction of a step ahead of Kronemeyer.
The first game went to Pittock on a corner drop that slithered in
just above the tin
The second and the third games followed suit and Pittock won the
championship. The official match score was 9-5, 9-7, 9-3. But if you
think that means this was a walk-over you didn’t see the match; if a
disputed non-call on a let had gone the other way Kronemeyer could
easily have taken the second game. When it didn’t she started
driving herself so hard that it was easy to imagine her crashing
through one of the walls. In the process she turned out at least one
back-wall boast drop winner that appeared to defy the laws of
physics.
But in the end it wasn’t enough to take the match away from Pittock,
who won the third game on beautiful overhead drop into the corner.
“That was fun,” she said when it was over, stating the obvious. “It
was a great tournament and I hope it’s the first of many.”
As do we.
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 Capitol
Hill Open 2008
Results Gym, Washington, 10-13 Jan, $6k |
Round One
10 Jan |
Quarters
11 Jan |
Semis
12 Jan |
Final
13 Jan |
[1] Amelia Pittock
(Aus)
9/2, 9/4, 9/5
Michelle Quibell (Usa) |
[1] Amelia Pittock
9/1, 9/4, 9/1
[7]
Tina Rix |
[1] Amelia Pittock
9/2, 9/0, 9/2
[3] Deon Saffery |
[1] Amelia Pittock
9/5, 9/7, 9/3
[2] Karen Kronemeyer |
[7] Tina Rix (Eng)
9/5, 9/0, 9/0
Genevieve Lessard (Can) |
[3] Deon Saffery (Wal)
9/5, 9/1, 5/9, 9/5
Ketherine McLeoud (Nzl) |
[3] Deon Saffery
9/4, 9/1, 9/4
[8]
Fernanda Rocha |
[8] Fernanda Rocha (Arg)
9/7, 9/0, 9/2
Crosby Haynes (Usa) |
Rachael Rayfield (Usa)
9/1, 9/0, 9/1
[5] Lauren Selby (Eng) |
[5] Lauren Selby
3/9, 10/8, 9/5, 9/5
[4]
Kylie Lindsay |
[4]
Kylie Lindsay 9/0, 9/7, 9/2
[2] Karen Kronemeyer |
Thaisa Serafini (Bra)
9/3, 8/10, 9/7, 9/3
[4] Kylie Lindsay (Nzl) |
Amanda Sohby (Usa)
9/0, 9/4, 9/6
Larissa Stephenson (Nzl) |
Larissa Stephenson
9/1, 9/5, 3/9, 9/6
[2] Karen Kronemeyer |
Coline Aumard (Fra)
9/1, 9/1, 9/1
[2] Karen Kronemeyer (Ned) |
Top seeds in Capitol Final
John Nielsen reports from Washington
The semi-finals played out as expected according to the world
rankings of the players involved - #34 Amelia Pittock of
Australia made short work of # 73 Deon Saffery of wales in
the first match, and in the second # 61 Karen Kronemeyer of
the Netherlands beat #81 Kyle Lindsay of New Zealand.
But each match had it's moments of "what if" as well as previews of
why outcomes could be changing soon
 "Deon's
quite talented and I had to make sure I didn’t give her a chance to
get started," said Pittock after sweeping three straight games from
her younger and less experienced opponent. "I had to keep her out of
the front court and cut down the time she had to react."
"I think I wanted to win too badly," Saffery added. "I tried to do
everything at once and never really calmed down"
 Kronemeyer
swept the second match in an gymnastic fashion, hitting hitting lots
leaping backhand kills and unconventional boasts. She seemed
determined to take the offence at every opportunity. In a longer
match it might have exhausting but in this case it went as planned
"I wanted to go in attacking and stay in control of the T," she
said. "But it was a much better match than the score would
indicate."
The crowd jammed into every available inch of viewing space agreed
with that. So did Lindsay: "She is quick and she plays
unconventional shots, said the New Zealander of her opponent. "But I
had my chances. I just made too many errors."
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