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Five glass court places booked ...
 Qualifying
complete, it was on to the main draw first round today at the
South Sound Squash Club and the prize for all today's winners -
apart from the money and the glory of course - was a place in
the quarter-finals on the Glass Court in Camana Bay.
In the morning session two young Malaysians who came through
qualifying over the last two days, Low Wee Wern and Delia
Arnold, were back in action and while neither could upset their
seeded opponents they certainly made Kasey Brown and
Madeline Perry work for their wins.
In the evening session the packed SSSC crowd were treated to two
really entertaining matches, both taking five games and 44
minutes to complete. Second seed Jenny Duncalf survived a
torrid test against Donna Urquhart, the match finishing in great
humour, while Isabelle Stoehr beat last year's finalist
Natalie Grainger, this one finishing in great respect.
During the day there were clinics where some of the pros go on
court with Cayman juniors as part of the "Junior Squash for
Life" programme with some of the $18,000 of squash equipment
donated by Dunlop finding a good home ...
[6] Kasey Brown (Aus) bt [Q]
Low Wee Wern (Mas)
11/6, 11/8, 10/12, 11/2 (60m)
[4] Madeline Perry (Irl) bt [Q] Delia Arnold (Mas)
11/4, 11/6, 7/11, 15/13 (55m)
[2] Jenny Duncalf (Eng) bt Donna Urquhart (Aus)
11/7, 6/11, 11/7, 7/11, 11/7 (44m)
Isabelle Stoehr (Fra) bt [5] Natalie Grainger (Usa)
11/8, 6/11, 11/8, 9/11, 12/10 (44m)
Colin Ramasra (T&T) bt Jake Kelly (Cay)
9/11, 11/4, 11/6, 11/4 (37m) |
Xtras #1: Alana Abandoned
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Kasey powers through ...
Madeline's walk takes a bad turn ...
 The
first player into the quarter-finals was Kasey Brown,
after the US-based Australian turned in a strong performance to
beat qualifier Low Wee Wern in exactly an hour.
The courts are hot at lunchtime and the rallies were accordingly
long, but it was the Aussie who was getting the better of them
in the opening exchanges. Kasey's powerful hitting held sway as
she took the first game, but Wee Wern's nimbleness around court
kept her in the second, which she led 4/1 and 7/5 before Kasey
closed it out from 8-all.
It looked close to the end as Kasey took a 5/2 lead in the
third, most of the points being scored off errors at the end of
long rallies, and at 10/7 it look all over for the Malaysia.
Helped by a couple of errors from Kasey though, she levelled,
hit a tight boast and accepted another Australian tin to pull a
game back.
It wasn't the start of another comeback like compatriot Delia
Arnold's last night though - Kasey came out attacking from the
start of the fourth, piling on the pressure and hitting eight
crisp winners out of the eleven points she needed to reach the
quarters.
 "I
felt good at the start, I knew I needed to keep in front of
her," said the victor.
"It got a bit exciting in the third, I made some bad decisions
at the end of it, but I felt confident I could come back to take
the next game as long as I came out hard and made sure I didn't
make those mistakes again.
"I've been based in New York for a year now and managed to crack
the top ten in January, now it's just a matter of being able to
beat some of the top players consistently."
It looked like being an easy passage to Camana Bay for
Madeline Perry as she took advantage of Delia Arnold's
lack of zip after last night's marathon comeback.
The Malaysian was poor in the first, going 8/2 down before
losing it 11/4, got a little more competitive in the second but
only after she was down 6/1, losing it 11/6, then improved
significantly in the third as the rallies lengthened and became
much harder fought.
"I still felt in control at 7-all in the third," Madeline
admitted afterwards, "but then she seemed to move up another
level, took me by surprise and it was a real tough fight after
that."
Delia reeled off four points in a row to pull a game back, and
as Madeline says, the fourth was a real dogfight. Tremendous
retrieving by both players, interspersed with a smattering of
errors and some lovely winners, but the watchword was hard work.
 Madeline
earned matchball at 10/9, saw the ball hit her foot as she tried
to sidestep it, then dug in to save three game balls. At 14/13
she put a loose return into the nick and breathed a big sigh of
relief.
"That was a hard match after yesterday's five setter," said
Delia, "I was just trying to do my best today so in a way I'm
pleased to get so close."
"The first two games were great," added Madeline, "but Delia got
a lot better. I was just hanging in there in the end and I was
quite lucky to win it 3/1 really." |
Jenny in a hurry ... Colin jettisons Jake
...
Isa spoils Grainger comeback ...
The packed SSSC crowd absolutely loved the first match of the
evening, as second seed Jenny Duncalf survived an
attacking onslaught from Donna Urquhart by the skin of
her teeth.
 Forty-four
minutes for five games tells you a lot about the match, it was
fast, furios, often frantic, full of accurate attacking and
desperate defending. It's probably not the game Jenny would have
chosen to play, but she had little choice but to join in as both
rarely missed an opportunity to try to put the ball away.
They made remarkably few mistakes too, considering the way they
were playing - only at the start of the fifth, after the first
four had been shared with one then the other taking an early
lead and holding on to it - did the error count begin to
overtake the winners.
 It
was Jenny who profited from Donna's early tins in the decider,
and at 5/1 the die appeared to be set in the Englishwoman's
favour. Donna steadied up though, worked her way back to as
close as 9/7, but on match ball a fluke from Jenny at the back
decided it to end a thoroughly entertaining match.
"It was pretty up and down, a bit patchy," admitted the winner,
"but she was attacking more than I was and I always find her
difficult to read, especially on the forehand, so it was pretty
tough!
"I felt a bit rusty, I haven't played a lot since the doubles,
but I'm glad to get that one out of the way against a very
dangerous opponent who's only going to get better ..."
The same is true for Jenny's junior opponent, seven year old
Jamie Kay Smith. The world number two's only condition
before agreeing to the challenge was "she's not left handed, is
she!"
Cayman's Jake Kelly was out of the blocks like a hare
against top seed Colin Ramasra in the third quarter-final
of the Men's Caribbean Challenge, racing to an 8-0 lead in no
time flat.
The Trinidadian's experience showed though as he worked his way
into the match, just falling short of taking the first but
winning the next three comfortably enough to book himself a
place at Camana Bay against another Cayman favourite, Dean
Watson.
 Having
already witnessed one enthralling 44-minute five-game women's
match, the crowd were spoiled with another one, equally
entertaining, between last year's runner-up Natalie Grainger
and France's Isabelle Stoehr.
With Grainger making her comeback after an extended injury
layoff, Stoehr must have fancied her chances of an upset, but
this was her first WISPA event of the year, having suffered some
problems herself.
The pattern was set early on, Stoehr trying to tame the
American's attacks, using the lob very effectively to keep
Natalie behind her as much as possible to deny her the chance of
putting in those trademark crashing drives.
 She
couldn't prevent them all of course, and it was a pleasure to
see those spectacular driven winners back on the court, but
Natalie was having to work hard to get the opportunities to play
them, and Isabelle would often be able to pick off a forced weak
return for a simple winner.
Isabelle pulled away from 7-all to take the lead, Natalie got on
top early in the second and stayed there, Isabelle kept her nose
just in front throughout the third, and was looking good at 6/3
and 9/6 in the fourth.
"I should have won it in four," she said afterwards, "I kept
telling myself '2 points, 2 points', but she came back well."
So we had a decider, and again it was the Frenchwoman a point or
two ahead, but Natalie levelled it at 9-all. A rare error from
Isabelle set up match ball, but she forced a weak return, picked
it off to level, and did the same on the next two points to
produce the day's first upset.
 "I
know Natalie's just come back, and she can play better, but I've
got so much respect for her, we all have, it makes it hard to
play her, and she certainly made me work hard to beat her
today!"
Grainger wasn't too downbeat: "When I saw the girls playing in
qualifying, and today, I was amazed at their shots, fitness and
speed, I just hoped I could produce something like that myself,
and although I lost I don't think I did too bad!"
An exciting day at SSSC then, with one more session there before
the glass court comes into action tomorrow night ... can't wait
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As the final touches are put to the main court, work on the
backup solution starts ! |
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