I will grab the low-hanging fruit and venture a Top Ten “2013 year ender” or “2014 year beginner.”
Novak Djokovic in the
fifth set of a major against anyone. Miami Heat guard Ray Allen
drilling a three-pointer to turn the NBA Finals. Auburn's Chris Davis
running back a missed field goal to beat Alabama in the last second.
David Ortiz going long for the Red Sox to sink the Detroit Tigers in
the baseball Playoffs. Great moments of 2013, but squash had one for
the ages too. And while I only saw the others on television, I was
sitting 15 feet away when James Willstrop pulled out the triple fake to
win a point – one crummy point! – against Ramy Ashour in Richmond. My
friend Dan Cullen had the foresight to book plane tickets from Memphis
to Richmond and buy all-session tickets as well. So we're in the frame,
on the front row, behind the glass, front court forehand wall when
Willstrop did the deed. Loved Alan Thatcher's call (“Oh my! The double
whammy!”) even though to my eyes it took three fakes to fool Ramy, who
looks pissed at himself for buying it.
Sure sign of getting
old. “Eye on ball” may be excellent advice, but if I follow the ball I
get passed, and if I don't follow the ball I get dropped. Always.
A squash personal
trainer is a better, fitter player who keeps the ball in play deep in
the corners, lets you get nine or ten points a game, and leaves short
balls just within your reach before running you to death in 50 minutes.
I don't understand why
senior team tennis is so popular but senior team squash, as far as I
know, doesn't even exist. Just as mystifying, in the 15 years our local
college has had squash courts, there have been exactly three students
who were even decent club players and only one who was rated 5.0 or
higher. And not one female player.
Who knew there were so many writing squashers or squashing writers, as Ted Gross and Alan Thatcher have shown on their websites?
Why can't someone make
a ball to rival the Dunlop double yellow? In my town it is impossible
to get anyone good to play with anything else. Open a sleeve of Wilsons
and you might as well break out a soccer ball.
The Olympic bid left
me cold. Eight years away. Yawn. Badminton is an Olympic sport, and so
what? In 2020 who knows how and on what devices we'll watch sports? To
outsiders, all sports involving balls and enclosed courts seem strange
and uninteresting. And there is not much crossover between racquetball,
squash, and tennis. The former world-number-one racquetball player,
Andy Roberts (whose points lasted on average about four seconds), once
told me he went to get a sandwich while watching a squash match and
when he came back they were playing the same point. He wasn't joking.
If a pulled hamstring
is a pulled hamstring no matter who you are then I fear for Ramy
Ashour's return to squash in 2014 because he may have come back too
soon, just like the rest of us.
There's going to be a
professional tennis tournament in Memphis next month, as there has been
for nearly 40 years. But this will be the first one without a top ten
player, due to a downgrade from 500 level to 300 level. Feliciano
Lopez, ranked 28th in the world, will highlight the field. Can he draw?
Well, the 28th-ranked player in squash is Olli Tuominem. Same question.
The next racquet sport innovation: wearing all white.
John Branston is a retired senior editor and columnist for The Memphis Flyer and the author of Rowdy Memphis: The South Unscripted.
