26 April - 2 May 2001
Issue No.531
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 April - 2 May 2001 Issue No.531 |
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A walk in the park
The squash finals in Hurghada were absolute routs, reports Nashwa Abdel-Tawab
Either the losers were extremely bad or the winners terribly good. Whichever it was, it did not make for exciting squash. Both the men's and women's finals in Hurghada ended in easy 3-0 victories. Canadian Jonathan Power blanked Australia's David Palmer while Sarah Fitz-Gerald of Australia hardly broke a sweat in taking all three sets from New Zealand's Leilani Joyce.
Chairman of Al-Ahram Organisation Ibrahim Nafie presenting Mrs Suzanne Mubarak with the organisation'shonourary shield (top), Power on the attack in the respective final(down)
photos: Hossam Diab
It took Power, the world's number one according to April's Professional Squash Association (PSA) rankings but seeded number two in Hurghada, only 56 minutes to dispatch Palmer 15-9, 15-13, 15-9 in the finals of the men's $60,000 PSA Masters. Palmer was aiming to repeat his shock defeat of Power in last October's British Open but the Canadian's fitness seems to have improved and he pulled away at the end of each set. It was his 40th PSA Tour final.
Power was pushed harder by Malaysia's 21-year-old Ong Beng Hee, a former world junior champion, 15-12, 15-10, 15-7 in the semi-finals. Power mesmerised the Egyptian crowd with his skills as he held Hee at bay. The 13th seed from Penang, who looks certain to break into the world's top 10, kept the favourite on court for longer than any other Masters competitor.
In the semi-final, Palmer justified his new world No 4 ranking with a 15-12, 15-7, 15-12 win over Briton Simon Parke, who slipped to seventh in the world. The 48-minute victory took Palmer, a Belgian-based Australian from New South Wales, to his 13th PSA Tour final. But it was Palmer's defeat of former world champion Peter Nicol in the quarter-finals that created the biggest upset at the championship. Nicol's first event as an Englishman -- he renounced his Scottish nationality last month for training purposes -- ended in disappointment. The 28-year-old had beaten Palmer in straight games in their last meeting in the Irish Open in March. But the defending Hurghada champion went down this time, 12-15, 15-10, 12-15, 15-8, 15-13 in 107 minutes.
"I was not in form and I was not focused in this tournament at all," said Nicol. Very true, to say the least. He barely got by unseeded Stefan Casteleyn in the first round of the event, 3-2. "It was not my event this time," Nicol added.
A Power-Nicol final was expected. The pair, who are tied 12-12 in head-to-head clashes, last met in February when Nicol won. Nicol lost his world No 1 ranking to the Canadian this month following an ankle injury which ruled him out of last year's British and US Opens.
In the $41,000 Women's International Squash Professional Association (WISPA) Grand Prix, the event set the stage for the first meeting this year of the world's top three players: world number one Leilani Joyce of New Zealand, world number two Carol Owens, the defending Hurghada champion from Australia and world number three Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the Australian three-time former world champion.
Fitz-Gerald continued her impressive form, breezing past Joyce 9-6, 9-5, 9-1 in the final in just 35 minutes. Fitz-Gerald had beaten Joyce in straight sets in March's Munich Open final.
Fitz-Gerald was a runner-up in the first Grand Prix finals and skipped the second and third due to injury. "I'm excited to have won," said Fitz-Gerald after receiving her trophy from Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, a leading spectator at the Red Sea resort championship. "It's one of the two major crowns in squash that had eluded me until now." She said her next goal was to continue to improve on the US leg of the WISPA tour in May, leading into the British Open in June.
The British Open is the one title that has eluded Fitz-Gerald but on current form few will bet against her completing the puzzle.
Fitz-Gerald's quick-fire victory in the final has become a trademark. She dropped just five points against England's world number four Linda Charman-Smith in a semi-final victory lasting under 25 minutes. In recent weeks, Fitz-Gerald has beaten every top player in similar fashion to look simply unstoppable.
Joyce looked more like herself against Owens in the semi-final, beating the Australian 3-2 and taking some revenge for a loss to Owens in November's World Open final.
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