England & Australia Hopes Alive In All Three Doubles Events In Glasgow by Howard Harding July 31, 2014
- Only England and Australia have medal hopes in all three Doubles
events after Thursday's action-packed Commonwealth Games Squash
schedule at the Scotstoun Sports Campus in Glasgow.
Men's singles gold
medallist Nick Matthew leads the England attack, while key to the
Australian campaign are former world number ones David Palmer and
Rachael Grinham, both of whom are poised to extend their record haul of
six medals apiece since the sport's Games debut in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
Matthew and Adrian
Grant, winners of the Men's Doubles gold medal in 2010 in Delhi, beat
Jamaicans Christopher Binnie & Bruce Burrowes 11-6, 11-5 to set up
a quarter-final clash with Welshmen Peter Creed & David Evans.
Together, Palmer and
Grinham eased into the Mixed Doubles last eight after beating Tesni
Evans and Creed 11-5, 11-4, while Grinham partnered Kasey Brown into
the Women's Doubles semi-finals and Palmer and Cameron Pilley made it
through to the men's quarters.
The day began well for
the hosts in the men's doubles where Scotland's second pairing Stuart
Crawford & Greg Lobban thrilled the partisan crowd by upsetting
India's No7 seeds Saurav Ghosal & Harinder Pal Sandhu 11-5, 8-11,
11-9.
Inspired by this
success shortly afterwards, the country's top duo Alan Clyne &
Harry Leitch, the fourth seeds, despatched Zambians Mwinga Lengwe &
Kelvin Ndhlovu 11-4, 11-4.
Commenting on the
earlier upset, Crawford said: "We knew it was going to be a tough
match, but we've been playing well so we were quietly confident. We've
done a lot of doubles training in the last year and a half so we
definitely felt we had a good chance of beating them."
Lobban, 21, delivered
the match-winning shot - a backhand slam into the front right nick.
"Greg's a very naturally-talented and gifted player which I think the
last shot of the match proved," continued Crawford, Scotland's
33-year-old assistant national coach.
"I think we've got a
really good balance of youth and experience and his explosiveness and
my steady calming influence works really well. He can sometimes get a
bit fiery.
"He's an awesome
talent and I can't wait to watch him progress over the rest of this
tournament and over the singles tour over the next ten years."
Ghosal, the world No16
who reached the singles semi-finals, said: " It's very hard - we lost
and we are out now. They came out better in the first game and in the
second we were better than them - and in the third it was neck and
neck."
When asked to comment
on squad member Mahesh Mangaonkar's statement on Twitter the previous
day that 'if India doesn't win a medal in the squash doubles then I
will do 10 court sprints with just my underwear on the show court',
Ghosal said: "That was one of the funniest tweets I've ever seen.
"Hopefully we'll spare him the embarrassment!"
Clyne admitted that
his fellow countrymen's win gave him and Leitch a lift: "They really
got pumped up and got a good win - that spurred us on."
The seasoned pair
reached the 2010 semi-finals in Delhi, since when part-timer Leitch has
graduated in medicine and now also has a PhD - and starts work as a
junior doctor two days after the Games finish.
"He's really good at
cross court nicks and straight nicks," said world No35 Clyne of his
partner. "He's really good attacking-wise but he's also really strong
in the head - I know he's never going to let us down. We work really
well together as a team. I probably use my pace more and he's got the
power."
A later men's doubles
upset saw the balance of power in New Zealand men's squash disturbed
when underdogs Lance Beddoes & Paul Coll beat fellow Kiwis Campbell
Grayson & Martin Knight, the fifth seeds, 11-7, 12-10.
"You have to put aside
that they're your mates and get on with the match. It was a pretty
clean match today," said a delighted Beddoes afterwards. "It's
definitely a different game - if you look at the rankings, they are 42
and 46, whereas I think we are 136 and 72! It's definitely a leveller."
Knight went on to
partner Joelle King to victory in the last 16 round of the Mixed
Doubles, the second-seeded pairing beating Malaysia's Rachel Arnold
& Valentino Bon Jovi Bong 11-1, 11-6 to secure a place in the
quarter-finals.
"It was probably the
toughest draw we could have had - they were grossly under-seeded," said
Knight of his earlier domestic battle. "We were under no illusions
about the task we had - we only just beat them in a recent Tri-Nations
final, in a tough 2/1."
On the new-format
doubles, the world No44 from Wellington added: "I like the lower tin -
it encourages attacking squash. It's pretty unforgiving. I would
actually like to see it go back to best-of-five. You can get some
exceptionally quick matches.
"The stadium here is
awesome. The crowds have been really good all week for both the singles
and doubles - it's a great atmosphere."
King's mixed victory
with Knight immediately followed her shock defeat with Amanda
Landers-Murphy in the Women's Doubles. Defending her Delhi gold medal,
King went down 11-9, 11-5 to fifth-seeded Indians Joshana Chinappa
& Dipika Pallikal.
"When you're in these
events, you have matches back-to-back and you have to deal with it,"
said the world No4, the bronze medallist in the singles. "I think we're
both quite good at putting what's happened behind us and just moving
on."
But it is only England
who already have a certain doubles medal to their credit after Jenny
Duncalf & Laura Massaro and Emma Beddoes & Alison Waters set up
an all-English women's doubles semi-final.
Top seeds Duncalf
& Massaro beat Australian pair Lisa Camilleri & Donna Urquhart
11-7, 11-4, while third seeds Beddoes & Waters defeated Malaysians
Nicol David & Low Wee Wern 11-10, 11-8 - thus bringing two-time
women's singles gold medallist David's Glasgow 2014 run to an end.
"That's probably the
best we've played since Delhi," said Massaro afterwards. "We've always
said when the medals get on it, we'd bring our best game out and that
was good."
Commenting on the
all-English semi, Games debutante Beddoes said: "We obviously know
their game well and they know our game well. Hopefully it will be a
great game and we hope to come out on the right side of it."
Men's quarter-final line-up: [1] Adrian Grant & Nick Matthew (ENG) v [10] Peter Creed & David Evans (WAL) [4] Alan Clyne & Harry Leitch (SCO) v [6] Ryan Cuskelly & Matthew Karwalski (AUS) [3] Daryl Selby & James Willstrop (ENG) v [11] Lance Beddoes & Paul Coll (NZL) [2] David Palmer & Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [8] Stuart Crawford & Greg Lobban (SCO)
Women's semi-final line-up: [1] Jenny Duncalf & Laura Massaro (ENG) v [3] Emma Beddoes & Alison Waters (ENG) [2] Kasey Brown & Rachael Grinham (AUS) v [5] Joshana Chinappa & Dipika Pallikal (IND)
Mixed quarter-final line-up: [1] Kasey Brown & Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [7] Amanda Landers-Murphy & Paul Coll (NZL) [3] Rachael Grinham & David Palmer (AUS) v [5] Dipika Pallikal & Saurav Ghosal (IND) [4] Alison Waters & Peter Barker (ENG) v [6] Sarah Kippax & Daryl Selby (ENG) [2] Joelle King & Martin Knight (NZL) v [10] Joshana Chinappa & Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) RESULTS: Commonwealth Games Squash, Glasgow, Scotland
Men's Doubles, last 16 round: [1] Adrian Grant & Nick Matthew (ENG) bt [15] Christopher Binnie & Bruce Burrowes (JAM) 11-6, 11-5 (19m) [10] Peter Creed & David Evans (WAL) bt [9] Valentino Bon Jovi Bong & Ivan Yuen (MAS) 11-3, 11-2 (23m) [4] Alan Clyne & Harry Leitch (SCO) bt [14] Mwinga Lengwe & Kelvin Ndhlovu (ZAM) 11-4, 11-4 (15m) [6] Ryan Cuskelly & Matthew Karwalski (AUS) bt [12] Micah Franklin & Nicholas Kyme (BER) 11-4, 11-4 (22m) [11] Lance Beddoes & Paul Coll (NZL) bt [5] Campbell Grayson & Martin Knight (NZL) 11-7, 12-10 (42m) [3] Daryl Selby & James Willstrop (ENG) bt [13] Scott Fitzgerald & David Haley (WAL) 11-1, 11-9 (26m) [8] Stuart Crawford & Greg Lobban (SCO) bt [7] Saurav Ghosal & Harinder Pal Sandhu (IND) 11-5, 8-11, 11-9 (51m) [2] David Palmer & Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt Bradley Hindle & Daniel Zammit-Lewis (MLT) 11-4, 11-3 (23m)
