Harris British Open 2004
01-06 November, Nottingham

THE NEW PALMER “I felt I let myself down at the end of the tournaments recently, in semi-finals, in finals, I was getting frustrated, and taking out my frustration on the other player, on the referees, and I wasn’t happy at all about it ...” GRINHAM: THE MINI CHAMPION… If you have as a stereotype in your brain that physical power and body building makes a lady squash player, think again ...  Framboise on the finals ...

Another G'day for the Aussies !!!
  
A full house at the Albert Hall witnessed a second consecutive Australian British Open clean sweep as Rachael Grinham and David Palmer retained the titles they won at the same venue last year.

Grinham gets a second
Grinham dropped the first game against first-time finalist Natalie Grainger, but reeled the American in to take the next three games, imposing her own game to nullify Grainger's power, denying her the pace she needs to feed off.

"I knew she would start off strong - she always does," said Grinham after the final. "Natalie wins a lot of her matches by overwhelming her opponents from the off - and she began to do that against me today.

"But I stuck with her and eventually took control. But I feel so tired right now - it's been a really long week."

Grinham admitted to feeling 'ring-rusty' all week, having played little since the world team championships, and needed a tremendous comeback from 0-2 and 1-7 in the semi-final to even make today's final.

"But if somebody was going to get past me, they were going to have to beat me - I wasn't going to sit down and just lose," said the Australian after her second successive title success.

Palmer's British Hat-trick
Palmer lost a marathon 35-minute first game against the Egyptian world champion to win a tense, physical match in 89 minutes.

"That first game was crucial," said Palmer. "I didn't win, it but I extended Shabana and it paid dividends. I knew if I got 2/1 up, I'd be hard to beat - but he came back strong in the fourth."

Shabana thrilled the crowd with his skills and antics, but Palmer would not relinquish his title and became more dominant as the match went on.

Both players received warnings from the referee about physical play, and the mop was called for on many occasions as the players dived and fell in spectacular fashion.

"It was a bit physical, yes," commented the champion afterwards. "But you have to realise it's the British Open final, he's the world champion, I'm the defending champion. It's bound to be tough."

Double your money!
After the finals the two champions played a game of poker on court, with the winner getting to double their prize money courtesy of PartyPoker.com! For the record, Rachael won 3-1, taking her prize to £6,500 compared to Palmer's £3,825.

Steve Cubbins