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21-Jun: Round one
[1] Natalie Grainger (Usa) bt [Q] Tara
Mullins (Can)
9/1, 9/0, 9/2 (19m)
[8] Runa Reta (Can) bt [Q] Neha Kumar (Can)
9/2, 9/3, 9/0 (25m)
[4] Lauren Briggs (Eng) bt Kirsty McPhee (Eng)
5/9, 9/1, 9/6, 9/2 (37m)
[5] Latasha Khan (Usa) bt Carolyn Russell (Can)
9/4, 9/1, 9/7 (39m)
Joshna Chinappa (Ind) bt [7] Aisling Blake (Irl)
9/4, 6/9, 0/9, 9/7, 9/7 (68m)
[3] Raneem El Weleily (Egy) bt Jenna Gates (Eng)
9/1, 9/1, 9/1 (19m)
[6] Manuela Manetta (Ita) bt [Q] Dipika Pallikal (Ind)
9/2, 9/3, 9/7 (28m)
[2] Samantha Teran (Mex) bt [Q] Karen Kronemeyer (Ned)
9/2, 9/2, 9/6 (42m) |
Joshna upsets the seedings
Steve Cubbins in LA
The first round proper saw
seven of the eight seeds progress to the quarter-finals, with
Joshna Chinappa the only unseeded player to make the last eight.
In the first pair of matches Runa Reta's experience gave her
the edge in her all-Canadian clash with Neha Kumar, playing
patiently when needed and striking winners when she could.
Chinappa took on seventh seed Aisling Blake. The Irish girl worked
harder in the first as Joshna caught her on the hop several times,
but rallied to take the lead after a surprisingly easy third game.
The last two were both tough, and both won by Joshna, recovering
from 4/7 in the fourth and /4 in the fifth to take a notable scalp.
The next set of matches took a similar path as Manuela Manetta
and Latasha Khan took two-game leads quite comfortably before
squeezing out wins in competitive third games.
Third up, Raneem El Weleily's guile proved too much for Jenna
Gates as the Egyptian set up a first clash with Chinappa since their
world junior final in Herentals, and Lauren Briggs recovered
from a slow start to make a successful return to WISPA in her
all-English clash with Kirsty McPhee.
The top two seeds were on last, and while Natalie Grainger's
straight-games win over Tara Mullins was the bookies' choice, it was
more competitive than the scoreline suggests. The same was true for
Samantha Teran's win over Karen Kronemeyer.
Three games of fast-paced, hard-hitting squash, all won by the
Mexican champion but Kronemeyer, who led 5-0 in the third, was never
out of the rallies, just couldn't seem to win many. 42 minutes for
that scoreline says a lot.
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 “It’s
so hot on there, impossible to finish a rally unless you hit a nick.
Anything else and it just comes back, especially with Lauren.”
 “I
made a slow start but all credit to her, she played very well in the
first and took her opportunities. I wasn’t too worried when I lost
the first, I knew there were at least another three to go.
“We had some good rallies but it’s hard to impose your game in these
conditions, but I enjoyed it and it’s good to get through
considering that was my first WISPA match for five months – you can
play as many training games as you want, it’s just not the same as a
match situation.”
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 “She’s
tough to play, she shoots from everywhere so there’s never much of a
rhythm.
“I’m just playing for fun now, my studies come first, but I’ll play
a few tournaments. There’s no pressure, and I’m enjoying it, I’m
just trying to find the right balance.
“I think it was good for me to do something else [studying Political
Science in Montreal], I think I’d got into a bit of a rut, but now
I’m having fun playing and playing quite well too.”
 “She
played the same smart game throughout, didn’t let anything get to
her and never lost her focus. I wanted to slow it down, it’s always
the pace that gets you when you play people at this level, but my
lobs weren’t working and she managed to get the pace back up.
“It will be good for me though to get a few games like this down
here. I was pleased to be able to keep up with her in most of the
rallies, and more matches like this can only help me.”
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 “There
were lots of long rallies, but I didn’t have to move too much, she
was putting a lot of shots into the middle. I just had to stay
focused, it’s always a bit physical when you play Carolyn, you just
have no not let it get to you.
“It was hard mentally more than physically, and while I’m glad to
win in three I was prepared to be out there for a long time ...”
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 “I
just lost rhythm in the third, I was trying to win a few cheap
points and you just can’t afford to do that, especially against
Aisling who is fit and will take advantage of anything loose. I
controlled that well for four games, which were close, I played a
lot of thinking shots, trying to make her turn as much as I could,
and I didn’t for one, which I lost badly.”
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“I
was pleased to win in three games. I started well, playing attacking
squash, but at the start of the third I hit a few tins and she got
the lead. I had to go back to a basic game to get back, then I could
start attacking again.”
“It’s
only the second time I’ve played a real top player. I handled the
pace ok, but it was the ball accuracy that was the difference. It’s
so hard to get her out of position, I did it a few times but not
enough to win a game. I gave her too many loose balls and she just
put them away.”
“I’m
happy to win and hope to carry on playing as well as that for the
rest of the tournament. That shot on match ball was meant to be a
dropshot, not a nick, but I’ll take it!
“That
felt pretty good. I was trying to get into some rallies ready for
what should be a hard match tomorrow. I’ve been training well and
felt ok, so I’m looking forward to the next round.”
