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 Monte
Carlo Classic 2007
Monaco, 10-15 Dec, $31k |
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15-Dec,
Final:
[1] Natalie Grinham (Aus) bt [2] Rachael Grinham
(Aus) 9/7, 9/6, 9/7 (49m)
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Two-stop strategy
works for Natalie ...
WISPA reports from Monaco
The racing cars wind round the streets of Monte Carlo in May but
do not pass the Stade Louis II. Perhaps they should as it is an
imposing building. This evening it will stage an eleven-a-side
professional soccer match, but downstairs this afternoon the
one-a-side action of the 12th Monte Carlo Classic final
unfolded.
The top two seeds
had woven their way past the other fourteen players on the
starting grid and would run their own race now. Each would have
planned a two stop winning strategy (between three games!) could
have been taken to five.
Past result shows
that the head to heads are 12 – 4 in Rachael’s favour, and all
of the last three this year have gone in favour of the older
sibling. Rachael, at 30 a year older than Natalie, has had a
period at world number ending in November 2005, but Natalie has
never done so. Yet Natalie has the current edge on current
rankings, having gone ahead of her sister at two from early this
year. But had it not been for earlier exits after Rachael’s
purple patch in winning the British Open, Vassar and the World
Open on the reel in recent months she may have reversed the
positions.
But that is the
background, each day is an unpredictable new experience.
Natalie didn’t
looked focussed at the outset. She started tentatively and went
7/2 down before she started to get into her stride. Then she
started buzzing round the court like a hyperactive wasp. Rachael
was having to deal with some effective lobbing as well as the
short balls that had caught out Lengthorn-Massaro in the semi
finals.
Natalie took the
first on her first game ball at 8/7.
Little was being
said, little in the way of sisterly smiles; it was all serious
and superlative business. Perhaps because they know each other’s
games so well a feature was the spectator gasp-inducing cut
offs.
The players tops
were black (Rachael) and white (Natalie) to give the match
officials half a chance of differentiating them. Not that
identification was much required except to see who to add points
for. A let-free zone had been created in the court.
Natalie was making
progress towards the second game albeit slowly, but to describe
incidents would be a time consuming affair. So many rallies
swirled round and round the court in the manner of an exhibition
but with a totally serious edge.
The younger Grinham
took the second much as she had done in the first, and seemed on
course to win the whole event without dropping a game until
Rachael seemed to acknowledge her predicament with fewer errors.
This took her to a 7/3 lead in the third, a gap that was closed
with some supercharged hustling from the world number two. Seven
all was reached and it did seem that the wind had changed and
Rachael realised that her fate was not to be on top of the
podium. The match was sealed with a breathtaking anticipation on
a Rachael drive from the front and Natalie had retained her
Monte Carlo Classic crown.
Grinham N had
started the year with a win and ended it on a similar high.
Grinham R had her
high points at the British Open then the biggest title of all,
the World Open, but today she was bested. “I was trying hard but
not making smart shot decisions. I was pleased enough to make
the final but maybe Natalie was more up for it”.
Natalie was
delighted to be presented with her Fred of Monaco ring, Rachael
similarly enchanted with hers, both praised local hospitality
and the organisation of the Monaco Squash Federation, and will
leave the Principality having offered up a splendid finale to
the 12th Monte Carlo Classic.
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"After winning in
Seoul [April] I hurt my foot, and then later on my wrist. I am
still having treatment for that and getting a little pain. But
though I am not quite 100% I am well on the way.
"Rachael had been beating me and I was unsure how to play her at
the start, and I was too defensive and not confident enough.
Then I relaxed and changed my game."
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14-Dec,
Semi-Finals:
[1] Natalie Grinham (Aus) bt [5] Laura Lengthorn-Massaro (Eng)
9/0, 9/0, 9/6 (37m)
[2] Rachael Grinham (Aus) bt
[3] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy)
4/9, 9/2, 9/4, 9/6 (47m) |
An all-Grinham final
...
WISPA reports from Monaco
Would the Grinham
sisters win through to a repeat of their World Open final
encounter in Madrid seven weeks ago? The odds on that happening
in the semi finals of the Monte Carlo Classic were good, but
that would be discounting the claims of their opponents.
Laura
Lengthorn-Massaro had beaten former world champion Vanessa
Atkinson in the quarter finals, and is finishing the year in
style. Omneya Abdel Kawy would have no fear of the
unknown against Rachael Grinham as they both are based in
Cairo. They have had several 3/2s, and while Grinham has almost
always come out on top, Abdel Kawy could look back to a stirring
Hurghada International final win against the Australian.
As her self-belief
slowly picked up as the year progressed, Grinham began to win
trophies that even she thought she would not contend for again.
She became British Open champion for the third time in September
and World Open winner for the first time in October. And
although her flicky, floaty, feigny style includes clusters of
points dropped as the attention to winning detail wavers, she
started her semi in positive mode.
Rachael recovers ...
But Abdel Kawy has some of the same elements in her armoury too,
so a conservative, defensive game was never on the cards. The
Egyptian, in black as ever, started brightly, punishing loose
shots on both flanks, but with an especially compelling punched
backhand straight volley drop. This took her to the first game
in front of an enthusiastic gallery, but from then on the battle
became an uphill one as the Australian tightened things up.
This pressure was
maintained for the next three games despite spirited resistance
and quality rallying; ending when an Abdel Kawy tinned overhead
took Grinham to match ball; and a mid court shot was driven away
to clinch the match.
Abdel Kawy was
disappointed with the result, but will have every opportunity to
get to know her opponent’s game even better soon. “We hardly
ever practiced together before, but we did almost every day last
week. I want to train with Rachael more as I think that she will
improve my squash”, reported Abdel Kawy.
As for the match
itself, “Rachael started slowly, hitting the tin, as she
sometimes does, and I saw my opportunity. But later she changed
it and put me under pressure” the Egyptian added.
Natalie gets her jewels ...
The second match
brought together two players who have not collided in a draw
since the British Open over two years ago. Then, Natalie Grinham
beat Lengthorn-Massaro in straight games.
Here, for a while
it looked like she might do so again, but without
Lengthorn-Massaro troubling the scorer at all. She seemed
sluggish and unprepared going forward and it wasn’t until the
third game that she scored her first point, a straight drop at
0/2 down. Having struggled before the normal scenario of the
first point presaging others held true as she exchanged lengthy
rallies and climbed up alongside the Classic title holder.
However, she couldn’t get in front. An injudicious long drop and
a ball left in mid court sealed her fate and set up a sisterly
repeat of the World Open final.
When asked by the
media about the match the English player explained her early
issues. “I was trying to keep the pace up and to keep her up and
down the walls. My movement was based on the long game and my
reactions were not attuned to drops and I got caught when she
went short”. The answer to the question that the whole gallery
wanted to as came next. “I tried not to think about not having a
point as I am good enough to get some from the very best”.
As for the winner,
Natalie Grinham was clearly not only focussed on reaching the
final for the financial return. “Half the reason I play this
event is to win some Fred jewellery and I am really happy that I
will now!” Both the winner and runner up receive fine items from
the Fred of Paris range.
She had been
focussed on the match, the spoils and doubtless will be on
ending the year beating her big sister. The Monte Carlo Classic
may have a Monte Carlo classic final match tomorrow!
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Monte
Carlo Classic 2007
Monaco, 10-15 Dec, $31k |
Round One
12
Dec |
Quarters
13 Dec |
Semis
14 Dec |
Final
15 Dec |
[1] Natalie Grinham (Aus)
9/3, 9/1, 9/2 (32m)
Latasha Khan (Usa) |
Natalie Grinham
9/4, 9/3, 9/1 (38m)
Jaclyn Hawkes |
Natalie Grinham
9/0, 9/0, 9/6 (37m)
Laura Lengthorn-Massaro |
Natalie Grinham 9/7,
9/6, 9/7 (49m)
Rachael Grinham |
[7] Jaclyn Hawkes (Nzl)
9/4, 9/1, 9/1 (32m)
Manuela Manetta (Ita) |
[4] Vanessa Atkinson
(Ned)
9/3, 7/9, 10/9, 9/2 (45m
Annelize Naude (Ned) |
Vanessa Atkinson
1/9, 9/7, 9/1, 9/5 (57m)
Laura Lengthorn-Massaro |
[5] Laura
Lengthorn-Massaro (Eng)
9/3, 9/2, 9/5 (32m
[Q] Lauren Siddall (Eng) |
[Q] Lauren Briggs
(Eng)
9/6, 9/4, 9/5 (64m
[8] Samantha Teran (Mex) |
Samantha Teran
9/7, 9/3, 9/6 (32m)
Omneya Abdel Kawy |
Omneya Abdel Kawy
4/9, 9/2, 9/4, 9/6 (47m)
Rachael Grinham |
Line Hansen (Den)
9/4, 9/3, 9/4 (42m
[3] Omneya Abdel Kawy (Egy) |
[Q] Sarah Kippax (Eng)
8/10, 9/7, 9/2, 4/9, 9/4 (66m)
[6] Isabelle Stoehr (Fra) |
Isabelle Stoehr
9/2, 9/4, 9/6 (39m)
Rachael Grinham |
[Q] Laura Hill (Eng)
9/7, 9/2, 9/0 (39m)
[2] Rachael Grinham (Aus) |
Qualifying:
11-Dec, Qualifying Finals:
Lauren Briggs (Eng) bt Celia Allamargot
(Fra)
9/2, 9/3, 9/1 (33m)
Laura Hill (Eng) bt Camille Serme (Fra)
9/2, 9/3, 9/1 (29m
Lauren Siddall (Eng) bt Carolyn Russell (Can)
9/5, 9/4, 5/9, 9/7 (56m)
Sarah Kippax (Eng) bt Emma Beddoes (Eng)
9/3, 9/7, 6/0 rtd (34m)
10-Dec, Round One:
Lauren Briggs (Eng) bye
Celia Allamargot (Fra) bt Soraya Renai (Fra)
9/7, 10/8, 9/1
Laura Hill (Eng)
bt Carla Khan (Pak)
5/9, 9/6, 9/1, 9/1
Camille Serme bt Kylie Lindsay (Nzl)
9/0, 9/2, 9/3
Lauren Siddall (Eng) bt Kerri Shields (Irl)
9/1, 9/0, 9/5
Carolyn Russell (Can) bt Luz Etchechoury (Arg)
9/2, 9/0, 9/1
Emma Beddoes (Eng) bt Coline Aumard (Fra)
9/1, 9/0, 9/0
Sarah Kippax (Eng) bt Belen Etchechoury (Arg)
1/0 injury
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Quarters almost to order ...
WISPA reports from Monaco
The sign on the changing room doors has a sign in French &
English. Dry yourself correctly after showering, it
reads. But there are no instructions about the correct method!
While amateurs may spend their matches worrying about how to
deal with the issue, the pros contesting the quarter finals of
the 12th Monte Carlo Classic were not phased. Indeed, they were
very focussed as they contested their last WISPA Tour event of
the year.
Lengthorn's turn this time
Last year Vanessa Atkinson had reached the final, the
year before had taken the title. This year the last four was
beyond her. Starting brightly, the Dutch number one was fluent
and effective. But then she had been in recent matches against
Jenny Duncalf (twice), Tania Bailey and Rachael Grinham (twice).
On each occasion she had won the first only to lose the match.
Here she did it again. From 4/0 up in the second the gremlins
started to assert themselves and in one hand she found herself
4/8 down. Errors crept in, the hard push was absent.
This was perhaps surprising as only a fortnight ago she had
beaten opponent Laura Lengthorn-Massaro in straight games
in New York, but tonight the match ended tamely with two tinned
drives from Atkinson. With that it was time to change her return
flight and start thinking of a new year break.
As far as Lengthorn-Massaro had been concerned her loss at the
Carol Weymuller was not a consideration as she had not been
feeling well that week; but here she explained that she had felt
that if she had played well she could win.
Top three through ...
Third seed Omneya Abdel Kawy looked at ease dealing with
the pace of Mexican number one Samantha Teran. The world
22 had worn unfamiliar socks in the first round and contrived to
produce a splendid bloody blister. Covered and bound she was
more restricted by the control of her opponent than the wound as
she was sent scurrying to deal with the Egyptian’s superlative
wristwork. While from 7/0 down in the third the Mexican mounted
a spirited comeback, culminating in reaching 6/7, Abdel Kawy
held her nerve to set up a semi final with her fellow Cairo
based Rachael Grinham.
The World champion reached the last four by virtue of
extinguishing the home challenge. Isabelle Stoehr got her
act together after a slow start. If her coach had explained the
benefits of giving yourself a margin on drop shots she either
did not listen or chose to ignore it. Result: too many tins.
As the talented and amiable Stoehr explained afterwards, “At the
start Rachael was holding me and moving me around. I did manage
to play early and with more pace in the third and I got to 6/3
up, but I didn’t believe in myself enough”.
The final act of the quarters was an exhibition of the guile,
accuracy and retrieving of top seed Natalie Grinham. Her
opponent Jaclyn Hawkes succinctly described the
experience, “It was no fun doing that. It was like doing court
sprints!” It could be a similar treat for Laura
Lengthorn-Massaro tomorrow in the semi finals but she will be
hoping for a somewhat different outcome on the Cote D’Azur.
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"She seemed more up for it, battling it out and making less
mistakes towards the end.
"I started quite well but my resilience is not so good at the
moment. I seem to be crumbling a little rather than fighting. I
guess I am a little jaded."
"In the first game I gave her too many short rallies and her
confidence was up a bit. But in the second I kept thinking stay
in this, extend the rallies and play deeper. She began to give
me openings and I felt I finished the match strongly."
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12-Dec, Round
One:
Twelfth edition under
way in Monaco
WISPA reports from Monte
Carlo
The year may be ending but reserves of sun had not run out in
Monaco. The Principality, merely a little over seven hundred
years old, was looking clean and pristine. The courts at Stade
Louis II were swept, the glass polished.
The main draw of the 12th Monte Carlo Classic was ready to
unfold. Top seeding slots were monopolised by the Grinham
family, but ranged behind them a fully international cast list.
Indeed early pairings pitted Australia v USA and New Zealand v
Italy.
Top seed and Classic holder Natalie Grinham, the Aussie,
was tested by the in-form American Latasha Khan, but only
to the extent that it was a good warm up before the next match
as she was never likely to fail this initial test.
Next for her will be the Kiwi, as Jaclyn Hawkes
despatched the Italian, Manuela Manetta, with ease.
While the Dutch number one Vanessa Atkinson beat her
number two Annelize Naude, the match proved to be a
sterner examination that she would have wished. Playing a friend
is not easy, and first round matches are the ones where the
machine’s lubricants need to begin spreading.
It was a little of each, combined with Naude playing
convincingly that allowed her to level a game apiece. Then from
7/1 down in the third she started climbing as Atkinson sprayed
the ball too much and found herself serving at 9/8.
She couldn’t convert though and once the former world champion
had secured the lead she got herself home in the next.
In a draw littered with Laura’s and Lauren’s, Atkinson now plays
England’s Laura Lengthorn-Massaro, the fifth seed who
beat qualifier Lauren Siddall in straight games.
After two uncompleted affairs in the qualification, Sarah
Kippax finally completed a match, though it meant she was
out of the Classic having succumbed to Isabelle Stoehr,
the last remaining French player. The sixth seed, who is
competing in her ninth Monte Carlo Classic, was error prone but
had just too much control once she got into her stride.
Much the same could be said about Mexican Samantha Teran
who coped with the athletic challenge of Londoner Lauren
Briggs. But it took her 64 minutes to complete the three
game victory. Teran bristled with intensity, took the ball early
and hit it hard. Briggs employed a little more variety, but was
buzzing too. Just a little undisciplined play at the end of the
third cost her a chance of edging back in and maybe forging a
full comeback.
Teran next plays Omneya Abdel Kawy who slowly dismantled
Denmark's Line Hansen, who started fast and febrile
before subsiding.
Meanwhile Stoehr will have the tough task of unsettling reigning
World Champion Rachael Grinham after the Australian
turned the challenge of firefighter opponent Laura Hill
to ashes. The English girl burst into flaming life but the level
of effort to live with the Grinham placement and deception
eventually became too much. She flickered and then was put out.
However, the new year sees her phased into a jobshare scheme
that will free her up still further to enable her to really tilt
at the WISPA top thirty.
All seeds safely into the quarter finals, and when the Monaco
sun goes down tomorrow the girls will come out to play.
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"The first round
is often a little shaky, and having dropped a game it is a
question of getting it back together for the next. I did, but
only just!"
"I don’t seem to do very well against Vanessa in a real match
but I was quite relaxed and I played well to finish the year on
a high."
 "I
did play the right game, but only in patches … which is when I
scored points.
"The right game was to vary the pace, step in and take it short
when I had created the opening. But it is not easy to stay
disciplined and I fell short."
Vanessa's strings too tight! |
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11-Dec, Qualifying Finals:
Lauren Briggs (Eng) bt Celia Allamargot (Fra)
9/2, 9/3, 9/1 (33m)
Laura Hill (Eng) bt Camille Serme (Fra)
9/2, 9/3, 9/1 (29m
Lauren Siddall (Eng) bt Carolyn Russell
(Can)
9/5, 9/4, 5/9, 9/7 (56m)
Sarah Kippax (Eng) bt Emma Beddoes (Eng)
9/3, 9/7, 6/0 rtd (34m) |
English
dominate
Monaco Qualification
WISPA reports from Monte Carlo
Eight players
fighting for the four main draw slots at the Monte Carlo
Classic. The target a share of the $31,500 prize fund and the
main draw ranking points. And matches that on paper looked very
competitive.
Perhaps unseeded
French girl Celia Allamargot may not have enough in her
armoury to trouble top seed Lauren Briggs, but no homes
would be bet on the other outcomes.
As it turned out
Briggs had too much experience and was simply too controlled for
the improving 21 year old; while at the same time on the
adjacent court Laura Hill was extinguishing the other
half of the French qualification challenge.
However, though the
31 year old won the first game comfortably enough, Camille
Serme, the European junior champion already has a reputation
as a fighter. So into the second and the rallies were more
lengthy, more even. But the nagging play of Hill induced enough
difficulty in Serme for her to come off 9/2 9/3 up… moments
after Briggs exited also 9/2 9/3 ahead!
Both pairs
returned, and while Briggs was delayed by three saved match
balls, amazingly both French players were comfortably beaten by
Britons by exactly the same scoreline!
Serme was
devastated, not so much by the defeat but because she really
couldn’t get started in the match. "She was too good in the back
of the court. She was a lot better than me. I couldn’t do
anything," bemoaned the French loser.
 For
Hill the main draw was a real prize. "It was a tough draw but I
didn’t know what to expect with either of them [Carla Khan &
Camille Serme]. I just kept playing my game, working hard and
keeping going."
The following two
matches saw a full house of English winners completed.
First Lauren
Siddall saw off a robust challenge from Canadian Carolyn
Russell. Having lost the first two games the Vancouver based
engineer took the third and got as far as 7/6 up in the fourth
before 23 year old Siddall edged home.
The final act was
an all English clash between second seed Sarah Kippax and
seventh rated but fast rising Emma Beddoes.
Kippax had gone through to the second round having only played
one point before sustaining a blow to the face deemed an
excessive swing which meant that she was through when she was
unable to continue. Now she had expressed a concern about the
tough assignment facing Beddoes without having had a warm up
match.
As for the medical
bulletin, "Last night I felt dazed and confused, mainly from the
shock of it, but I felt pretty much back to normal this morning,
just a slightly swollen face," Kippax confirmed.
Her game plan was
clearly to play at a fast pace and to move Beddoes around, which
she succeeding in doing. Having gone two up, the effort expended
caused Colombo Open champion Beddoes to implode and she was
forced to retire at 6/0 down. A perfunctory handshake and a
rushed exit, hand over mouth.
"She played very
well and I had to do lots of running. Suddenly in the third I
felt really sick and just couldn’t continue," Beddoes explained
after emerging from the changing room looking somewhat ashen.
So, after two
English winners beating French opponents concurrently with
identical scorelines, a player through after two matches,
neither of which reached a conclusion.
Will the main draw
of the 12th Monte Carlo Classic throw up more strange stories
amidst some more competitive matches?
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10-Dec-07:
Qualifying commences in Monaco
The 12th edition of the ever-popular Monte Carlo Classic
got under way today at the Stade Louis II in the principality of
Monaco ...
Unseeded Celia Allamargot upset fellow French player
Soraya Renai when she secured the second game in extra
points after squandering a game ball at 8/6 in the second
against the eighth seed. Her superior fitness then took her
through.
 In
a match that had the makings of an upset third seed Laura
Hill was able to weather the powerful opening of Carla
Khan, strongly hitting a very effective length, before her
greater conditioning took her through.
Other seeds were untroubled except second seed Sarah Kippax
who was felled by the follow through of opponent Belen
Etchechoury only one point into their match. The
Argentinean's racket caught her just above the bridge of her
nose, and as the referee had deemed the swing to be excessive
when she was unable to continue after a lengthy spell with an
icepack - she was too unsteady to do so - she was awarded the
match.
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2006 Event |
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Tournament Programme |
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