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25-Jan, Final:
[1] Rebecca Chiu (Hkg) bt [2] Christina
Mak (Hkg) 9/4, 9/2, 9/1 (29m) |
Similarities and contrasts ...
Final report from WISPA in Hangzhou
Both finalists in the WISPA Hangzhou Open hail from Hong Kong. Both
are 29 years of age. But each had very different routes to the
final.
Rebecca Chiu had sailed there without dropping a game, while
Christina Mak had crawled home 3/2 against Malaysia's Delia
Arnold in 79 minutes, then took four games and
approaching an hour to see off Malaysian Lim Yoke Wah.
Chiu is ranked 14 in the world and has 14 Tour wins to her name, Mak
at position 31 has one Tour title.
Where would the smart money be?
At the players lunch, another example of the great Hangzhou
hospitality, there were no takers for an upset, but then there was
little interest in anything other the selection of Hangzhou Cai
(local dishes) placed in front of them. The number and variety
seemed endless, three courses of soup arrived at different points
during the course procession, though none at the traditional western
time of the start of the meal. The meat of snails was teased out of
the shell by a chopstick – or not depending upon ability; and just
when it seemed that enough had been eaten to cover supper and the
following day's breakfast, another delicious dish appeared!
As for the final evening, not only was there a large crowd filling
the Jianggan Sports Centre, but TV cameras too. They were met by a
team with badges whose translated title was Missionary. Missionary,
an interesting position so to speak, that apparently related to
stewarding.
The public and media attendance was really good news not only for
the Chinese Squash Association (CSA) who work assiduously to
develop the sport in China, but also for the Hangzhou Sports
Authority who superbly staged the event in their city.
The by now very full house were
introduced to the contestants. On the WISPA Tour the pair had met
four times, all won by Chiu; and similarly on countless local and
regional occasions too.
Mak showed no sign of tiredness from previous rounds, and indeed
competed strongly, but there was never a change of dynamics. From
start to finish while Mak plugged away from the back and middle,
Chui held sway at the front and dominated proceedings. In 29 minutes
Chiu had won her second title in less than a week.
While the winner praised the hosts and supporters, Mak was asked
about the match: "I was happy to reach the final as the second and
third matches were tough,’ she said by way of preamble. As for the
match itself, "Her service was very good today. I couldn't return
properly so I was always controlled by her."
Last words, "She's better than me!", which pretty neatly summed up
affairs in the final of the first WISPA Premiere Series events
linking new nations and regions.
From the comments of the Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou, the CSA officials
and the Hangzhou Sports Authority it is clear that this will not be
the last time that a WISPA World Tour event will be staged in the
rapidly expanding Chinese City. Until that happens the Chiu Dynasty
continues.
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Gallery & Slideshow
 "This
event has encouraged the Hangzhou Gymnasium courts to be improved,
for referees to train and to develop squash in the city of Hangzhou.
"Tournament information went to all the newspapers and television
and a press conference was held before the start and thirty media
came.
"The qualification period for this event and the promotions have
brought many more boys and girls to begin playing.
"It has been very
successful for squash.
"We also now hope that more people will come to China to play as we
would like to meet them here.
"Starting this year we will send players, mainly the four girls who
played here, to the Asian and World championships and we also hope
that they will improve their initial WISPA rankings."
CSA General Secretary |
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 WISPA Hangzhou
Open 2008
Hangzhou, China, 23-25 Jan, $11k |
Round One
23 Jan |
Quarters
23 Jan |
Semis
24 Jan |
Final
25 Jan |
[1] Rebecca Chiu (Hkg)
9/6, 9/3, 9/4 (23m)
Nabilla Ariffin (Mas) |
[1] Rebecca Chiu
9/2, 9/1, 9/3 (26m)
[8] Eun Ok Park |
[1] Rebecca Chiu
9/1, 10/8, 9/6 (27m)
[4] Joshna Chinappa |
[1] Rebecca Chiu
9/4, 9/2, 9/1 (29m)
[2]
Christina Mak |
[8] Eun Ok Park (Kor)
9/6, 9/0, 9/6 (27m)
Josefa Bertilsson (Swe) |
[4] Joshna Chinappa (Ind)
9/7, 9/4, 9/0 (28m)
Sitih Munirah Jusoh (Mas) |
[4] Joshna Chinappa
5/9, 9/2, 9/5, 9/0 (40m)
Chinatsu Matsui |
[7] Chinatsu Matsui (Jpn)
9/0, 9/0, 9/0 (14m)
Xu Li (Chn)) |
Jiang Li (Chn)
9/2, 9/3, 9/3 (23m)
[6] Lim Woke Yah (Mas) |
[6] Lim Woke Yah
9/3, 9/5, 9/2 (24m)
[3]
Elise Ng |
[6] Lim Woke Yah
9/7, 9/1, 9/10, 9/3 (50m)
[2]
Christina Mak |
Wu Zhenzhen (Chi)
9/5, 9/0, 9/1 (26m)
[3] Elise Ng (Hkg) |
Sun-Mi Song (Kor)
9/10, 9/3, 9/3, 9/3 (47m)
[5] Delia Arnold (Mas) |
[5] Delia Arnold
6/9, 9/0, 9/10, 9/5, 9/6 (79m)
[2] Christina Mak |
Xi Chen (Chn)
9/1, 9/3, 9/2 (16m)
[2] Christina Mak (Hkg) |
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24-Jan-08, Semis:
Top two through in Hangzhou
Semis report from WISPA in Hangzhou
The claim made here is that you have heaven above and a paradise on
earth at Hangzhou’s West Lake. This was something that the players
just had to check out for themselves before the semi finals of the
WISPA Hangzhou Open. Even on a freezing day when winter’s grey was
the prominent colour, the lake fringed by hills was exquisite. A
pagoda here, a tea plantation there. Little islands featuring
pavilions, whose serenity on a spring or summer’s day would surely
be memorable. It’s all true!
Having explored the lake on one of the small pleasure cruisers which
ply the shores and islands, the nearby Flower Gardens and
Temple of Yue Fei, an extremely important general in the rich
Chinese history were viewed too.
Chiu holds sway over Chinappa
Then it was back to business. Semi finals evening. First bout seeing
top seed Rebecca Chiu pitted against fourth rated Joshna Chinappa.
Chiu can only play one way. She bustles, she covers, she chases. She
is gritty. Chinappa however is an enigma. At times she can make
languid look too lively a description. At other times she can
bristle with focus. Yet it is clear that even in her ‘disinterested’
passages of play she is actually genuinely competing. It’s her way.
The Indian began poorly, making way too many errors. It was only
when she got herself in front of her opponent more regularly in the
second that the points flowed. At 7/2 up in that game it seemed
likely that she would level, but another bout of injudicious winner
attempts coupled with sturdy resistance from the long-time Hong Kong
number one brought her back to parity and then the game.
Again in the third, Chinappa at times looked capable of taking it,
but too often a few unnecessary errors crept in. She lost another
game that she had chances in.
When asked to sum up her performance, the loser explained it, ‘ I
had a slow start but the second game was much better. And even
though I didn’t capitalize on it properly she came back well.
Overall I was happy with the way I played as she is a good player’.
Mak makes it all-HK
The second match featured Lim Yoke Wah, the petite sixth seeded
Malaysian who had put out third rated Elise Hg the evening before.
She was now facing another product of the HK system, second seed
Christina Mak, who had herself already had a hard time against Delia
Arnold, another Malaysian, in the quarters.
Lim continued her all-action approach; short fast striding and
purposeful. If Nicol David is the Duracell Bunny, then the bunny has
a second energizer! Mak meanwhile is more controlled, steady and of
course experienced.
Lim’s forceful play took her into an early first game lead, but she
was reeled in from 7/4 up as Mak hugged the walls. The second saw
Lim being unable to string together winning rallies two at a time,
in part because her attacking boast was connecting with the tin.
However, the third saw fewer of these and more points. Again she led
7/4, again Mak pulled up to level. Indeed, she pulled ahead to
secure a match ball at nine all. But an acutely angled Lim boast
dealt with that and a missed volley took the Malaysian into the
fourth.
The regular pattern of Mak slotting in winners at the front, Lim
driving in drops from deeper, continued. But now that Mak had drawn
the sting she was more in control, and got home to face her friend
and adversary in the Hangzhou final.
Lim had gone further than she would have expected but was still not
entirely happy with her performance. ‘She hit some good shots at the
front that I couldn’t pick up and so I tried to keep the rallies
going and move her away from me’ she said. ‘I played not too bad,
but could be better. I didn’t expect to beat Elise so my coach is
happy with me. But he hoped I could be in the final too!’. The coach
in question? Ahmed Malik, the Malaysian based Pakistani.
The pairing from the Hong Kong Territory of China had seen off the
opposition and would now squabble amongst themselves for the WISPA
Hangzhou Open title staged by the Chinese Squash Association. Since
they have come through their careers training together and playing
for the same team since 1995 Asian Juniors their respective games
are not going to be unknown quantities to each other!
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23-Jan-08, Quarters:
Lim dents Hong Kong
dynasty in Hangzhou ...
Quarters report from WISPA in Hangzhou
After the first round at the facilities of the Hangzhou Gymnasium
the WISPA Hangzhou action shifted to the Jianggan Sports and
Cultural centre for the quarter finals.
Built in 2005 and surrounded by a sea of construction as the
district springs up round it, the building houses tennis, swimming
and a multiplicity of other sports, many combative, on several
floors.
The excellent arrangements made by the Chinese Squash Association
and Hangzhou Sports Authority had led to a Perspex court rigged in
the badminton hall that was encircled with around 400 seats – and a
significant proportion of them were filled as local enthusiasts came
to view their first international squash tournament.
Chiu safely through
The first match set Hong Kong against Korea, Rebecca Chiu
versus Eun Ok Park, the first time the two had met on the
WISPA Tour.
Twenty nine year old Chiu bemoaned the fact that speaking Cantonese,
the dialect of the south, meant that understanding much of the
Mandarin spoken here was a challenge – as was competing against
competitive Park. But she, like the rest of the players had no
trouble comprehending the referee calls as the Chinese brigade of
officials all operated in English.
Park has a strong all round game and can go short effectively, but
Chiu can do all this just a little better. And she did. The top seed
had safely made the semis.
Chinappa has a plan ...
Joshna Chinappa and Chinatsu Matsui, the number ones
of India and Japan respectively, had played each other only days ago
in the Buler Challenge. There the Indian had prevailed in four tight
games. Here Matsui battled hard again but couldn't alter the result.
When she had Chinappa stretching the Indian was prone to drive into
the tin, but give the former would junior finalist control at the
front and trouble would follow. Chinappa slowly began to dictate,
and as she did Chinatsu slowly lost shape.
Chinappa was magnanimous in victory. 'She played well in the first
game but then I got switched on much more. I expected a tough fight
which is what I got, but playing her last week helped me know what I
was going to be in for'
She now plays Chiu in the last four. When asked about the match by a
journalist she responded 'I have a game plan but that's my secret!'.
So we shall have to wait and see what it is and whether it works.
What definitely does work is the local habit of ‘eating’ tea.
Whether that is part of Chinappa’s plan has not been revealed, but
it involves pouring water onto the leaves which stay in the glass.
They are then chewed and swallowed along with the fluid. ‘Eating’ a
drink could be just the thing for an Indian since they along with
the hosts have the best crops.
Lim ousts Ng
The third match, coming from the third quarter of the draw featured
the third seed. It went to three games! But against the seedings,
lost by Elise Ng who was playing sixth seed Lim Woke Yah
from Malaysia.
Against the 22 year old Malaysian Ng never seemed comfortable. She
found Lim’s attack disconcerting, and she was out after a poor day
at the office. Slightly lost for words at the comprehensive nature
of her loss, Ng could only point to the quality of her opponent's
attacking boasts from the back, but will probably also reflect that
she had not got herself fully in gear either.
Makes makes it even ...
Finally, the same national pairings brought the opposite result when
Christina Mak saw off Delia Arnold, but only after a
shaky start and prolonged and serious resistance. With her right
thigh strapped Mak struggled with the Malaysian's willingness to go
forward, and good retrieving when she was backpedalling.
The second saw her further up the court, volleying and deciding the
terms of engagement. But when the third was prolonged with Arnold
reaching 8/4 before being pegged back. Then Mak squandered two game
balls before Arnold finished the job.
After tight fourth and fifth games where perhaps the only difference
was that little more experience of squeezes that Mak has, a very
relieved second seed was able to set up a semi against Lim and say
xie xie (thank you) and goodnight.
For Hong Kong to lose their third seed was careless but for two to
go out to Malaysians ranked lower would have been careless indeed.
Now the two remaining players from the Territory will need to fight
off an Indian and Malaysian challenge tomorrow to sew up the final
on Friday.
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Tony Choi advises Ng ...
but Lim is jubilant ... |
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23-Jan-08, Round One:
Seeds safely through
to quarters ...
Round One report from WISPA in Hangzhou
The players had flown into the Chinese city for the WISPA Hangzhou
Open. Fortunately, they had ignored the meaning of the word Hangzhou,
which translates as only accessible by sea. That was way back when,
now it is a very large city which is exploding outwards judging by
the construction going on round every corner.
On the fourth floor of the Hangzhou Gymnasium, a multi sport centre
particularly featuring boxing and martial arts; four glassback
walled courts had been built in 2005. In front of a band of
enthusiastic local players and TV cameramen the action started.
The first round saw the demise of the four Chinese players, but only
after gaining experience and the opportunity to drink in the
technique, preparation and rhythm of the international girls. They
have already started training in Penang, Malaysia under the tutelage
of newly appointed part time Chinese National coach, Penangite Allan
Soyza, so are taking the first steps to international play
seriously. Nervous in their first WISPA event, but showing undoubted
potential.
National number one Wu Zhenzhen started squash when introduced to it
by her father in her home city of Wuhan, and already the 24 year old
has dedicated herself to training full time and opening a squash
centre herself.
The other three home girls were badminton players – indeed Jiang Li,
the national number two was a national team member – but when they
met at the Shanghai Sports Institute the three classmates were
weaned off that sport and into squash.
There were also four Malaysians competing, but only two remain for
the quarter finals after non-seeded Siti Munirah Josoh and Nabilla
Ariffin failed to upset the order. However, fifth seed Delia Arnold
was extended by Song Sun-Mi, the seventeen year old who is already
showing that she will develop into a force in Asian squash with her
strength and athleticism.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong trio are on course to contest the final
stages. But before that they will need to win quarter finals when
the event moves to the transparent court at Jianggan Sports and
Cultural Centre. But at least they know the court well as it was the
original Hong Kong owned court before being donated to China when a
new ASB glass one was bought a year ago.
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Mr Wang Li Wei, Deputy Director
General at the
Chinese General Administration of Sport makes a welcoming speech
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Big ideas in a big country
Preview from WISPA in Hangzhou
China is a large country. A very large country. 3.7 million square
miles large. So there is more to it than just the powerhouse cities
of Beijing and Shanghai, the names that trip off the tongue when the
country is mentioned. Along with the rather well known brick wall.
Hangzhou, in Zheijiang province, southwest of Shanghai, is
not so well known beyond the nation itself, yet during the Song
Dynasty was actually the nation's imperial capital. When
Marco Polo wandered by during the thirteen hundreds he was moved
to call Hangzhou the most beautiful and prosperous city in the
world. Big claim.
Painters flocked here because of its beauty. Poets came too. And now
the WISPA young women have arrived to add international squash to
its long and varied CV.
The event marks the first WISPA Premiere Series event of
2008, an initiative linking together tournaments being played in new
or 'young' squash counties.
First round matches will take place on the four glassbacks of the
Hangzhou Gymnasium, completed in 2005, before the final three
rounds move to a transparent court at Jianggan Sports Centre.
China is a large country, and the small Chinese Squash Association
are thinking big. This event will mark another step forward as they
raise the profile of the sport.
Players helping them do so come from seven nations, led by Hong
Kong's Rebecca Chiu, hotfoot from winning the
Buler Challenge at home in Hong Kong
at the weekend. Others have come a good deal further, but for all of
them it will not only be a WISPA ranking points earning opportunity,
but a chance to experience another culture, see the sights (possibly
braving forecast snow) and all the while showing off their talents.
The matches kick off on Wednesday - come Friday will there be a new
period of power in place to replace the Chui Dynasty, which
currently rules the whole 3.7 million square miles from her tiny tip
of territory? |
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