Richmond Semis Report by Kristen Lange April 18, 2014
- After the high intensity and excitement of yesterdays matches a full
house packed into the bleachers at the Country Club of Virginia ready
for the top 4 seeds to battle it out for the special chance to take one
of the two final positions in the first ever WSA Richmond Squash Open.
The first match on court featured the crowd favorite Siyoli Waters of
South Africa versus the speedy Rachel Grinham of Australia, this match
was followed by the only remaining American in the draw from Seattle
and truly a tour veteran Latasha Khan versus the lengthy Joshna
Chinappa of India. Both matches lived up to the hype, producing yet
again another spectacular evening of squash.
In the first match of
the evening, Waters came out strong, hitting her targets and finding
her depth. Grinham struggled to get the ball past the far reach of
Waters, allowing for Waters to sneak by and win the first game 11-8.
However Grinham came out strong in the second, misdirecting Waters
finding her nicks and forcing the ball wider and thus out of her reach.
At 7-8 Waters serving a small change in momentum came as Waters hit
some deft cross court drops from deep in the forehand corner to give
herself a 9-8 lead, however after some killer length and an unfortunate
but fair stroke Grinham took the second game 11-9. The third game was
all Grinham, as she moved Waters around the court this way and that,
leaving her flat footed through some amazing holding and hitting.
Unfortunately for Waters she found the bottom of the tin a few too many
times, aiding Grinham to an 11-4 win in the 3rd game. The fourth
started out a dog fight with both players pushing the ball to the front
and lifting it to the back to create good position. However at 3-3
Grinham took charge and surged to an 8-4 lead over Waters. Even though
Waters fought till the end there was nothing she could do to abate the
onslaught of incredible shots executed by Grinham as she went on the
win 11-7 in the 4th
Grinham df Waters 8-11 11-9 11-4 11-7 45min The first game was an
exhibition on how to use the boast, and at times overuse the boast as
both players hit their fair share. However it was due to the more
consistent depth and front court deception that Chinappa took the first
game over Khan 11-7. The second game saw a continuation of the accurate
depth followed by front court decision making out of Chinappa. Khan to
her credit never stopped moving and pushing for every shot, forcing
Chinappa to work for each point. A few sketchy stroke situations
brought Chinappa to a 10-5 lead over Khan, after a short comeback
Chinappa took the second game 11-8. The 3rd game was all Chinappa as
Khan was playing a risky game of taking the ball in early and fast,
unfortunately Chinappa was all over the shots which were not finding
their respective targets and falling short. Off of two unfortunate
shots into the tin by Khan, Chinappa took the third and final game of
the evening 11-5.
Chinappa df Khan 11-7 11-8 11-5 27min Tomorrow will be an
exciting matchup between the first and second seeds of the tournament
Rachel Grinham and Joshna Chinappa. Once again everyone in the crowd
was awed and exhilarated by the amazing squash exhibited by all the
athletes in the tournament thus far.
