Prince Newsletter August 2005

The August News Review from Prince

This news digest is drawn from the News Pages of SquashNow, the leading internet squash information website, sponsored by Prince. The full versions of each story can be found by linking direct to:

www.squashnow.com

Landmark World Games Win With New Racket

Peter Nicol of Great Britain, the leading Prince player on the men’s circuit,  and Nicol David of Malaysia triumphed  at the World Games in Mülheim an der Ruhr in Germany; the Briton crushing World No1 Thierry Lincou of France 9-3 9-0 9-4 in 59 minutes and the Malaysian despatching Australia's World No1 Rachael Grinham 9-4 10-8 9-1 in 36 minutes.

     Both of the new world title-holders were second seeds and both toppled favourites to take the titles without dropping a game throughout the event.  For former world champion Peter Nicol, the victory marked the 50th major international title of his career.
    Prince star Peter Nicol then revealed that he achieved his historic feat using a prototype new Prince racquet for the first time.

    "Winning my 50th title is a big landmark for me, and I'm really happy," said the rejuvenated Englishman. "The new racquet represents, without doubt, a significant new development by Prince. The sweetspot is huge and the added power off the wall paid huge dividends in my victory. I will definitely be using the racquet all the time from now on.”

    The new Prince O3 squash racquet - which will not be available in retail outlets until November - is the latest development in the brand's pioneering O3 technology breakthrough, which was launched to worldwide acclaim in tennis earlier this year.

    Currently more than thirty ATP and WTA professionals have already switched to O3 this year – led by world top ten players Guillermo Coria and Nikolay Davydenko, whose recent fortunes have been transformed by the patented new racquet-engineering concept.

     “Prince revolutionised squash in the 1980s with the launch of the Extender racquet,” explained Dario Bramerini, Brand Manager Racquet Sports for Prince Sports Europe.  “Following the overwhelming success of the launch in tennis earlier this year, we are confident that O3 will now represent the next major racquet innovation in squash.”

    Further details on the launch of the Prince O3 squash racquet will be revealed later  on:  www.princesports.com

    A beaming Nicol David admitted that winning the World Games title was a huge thing:  "I wanted to enjoy myself here - but to become the champion is an honour," said the world number three.
     "Playing Rachael is always a big game.  But I felt good and played well - I had to make sure she didn't get into her game, and had to really step it up to do that.
    "I don't think she was at her best as it's the first tournament of the season, but it was a good build up event for me to prepare for what's to come," added the new champion.
    Grinham told the audience afterwards: "Nicol's been playing really well lately. She was always strong as a junior and always gets everything back.  And now her attacking game is getting stronger too. 
    "It's always disappointing to lose in a final. I thought I had a pretty good chance in the second game, but in the third she seemed to pick up the pace - she was getting better while I wasn't prepared enough to deal with it.

No Olympic Cigar For Squash

After being voted onto the programme of the 2012 Olympic Games by achieving more than 50% of the IOC members’ votes, Squash suffered a cruel blow in Singapore when the IOC decided against replacing the two sports dropped earlier in the day from the London Games programme, the World Squash Federation states in a press release today.

    But WSF Chief Executive Christian Leighton believes that the positive responses received by Squash in Singapore will ultimately lead to realisation of the sport’s Olympic dream.

    Earlier in the day, IOC members voted softball and baseball off the 2012 programme, leaving room for two successors to be chosen from squash, rugby sevens, rollers sports, karate and golf – sports which had been short-listed for consideration in an IOC announcement last September.

    With more than 50% of the votes in the first poll amongst IOC members, Squash was immediately added to the 2012 programme – later joined by karate.  However, when the vote came for each sport to be “recognised as an Olympic sport” – for which two thirds of the vote were needed – neither achieved the required proportion.  Squash gained only 39 votes, 31 short of the 70 required!

Boswell Makes It Seven In A Row In Salt Lake City

The 2005 Squashworks Salt Lake City Open Squash Championships was the fifth straight occasion on which Salt Lake City had hosted professional squash. In  past years, the club hosted a women’s WISPA tournament in May and men’s PSA tournament in July. This year, for the first time, the two tournaments were played during the same week.

    Out of action for more than a year following a back injury, Australia's Stewart Boswell confirmed his complete return to form after winning the men's title at the Squashworks Club, where he not only claimed his seventh successive PSA Tour title in four months, but extended his unbeaten run to 35 matches. He moved on to the next level with a wild card qualifier entry to the English Open.

    After the injury Boswell sought advice from all areas of the medical professions and visited specialists all across Australia, but no-one seemed to be able to help. However, a little over under 12 months ago, he began working with a physiotherapist Steve Saunders in Adelaide. They focused on changing some muscle imbalances Saunders had seen in Boswell’s back, and so began the long road to recovery.
    In March of this year, Boswell began his competitive comeback winning a small challenger event in New Zealand. Since then he has incredibly managed to go unbeaten in all seven of his tournaments, having just won the final in Salt Lake City. However, the Mamut English Open represents a step-up in class, something that Boswell is well aware of.
    "I could not have dreamed it would go so well, but I am still a little way off the pace of the game at the top level," commented Boswell from the USA. "But I am just delighted to be back on court and it will be fantastic to back at an event with the top players in the World"
    After taking 50 minutes to conquer Salt Lake City-based compatriot Mike Corren in the semi-finals, the 27-year-old from Canberra, seeded two, brushed aside the challenge of England's top seed Phillip Barker to beat the 23-year-old from Upminster in Essex 11-7 11-4 11-6 in 27 minutes.

    The women's final also saw the defeat of an English player, although Suzie Pierrepont had already progressed two rounds beyond her seeding position after earlier defeats of third seed Melanie Jans Burke and second seed Runa Reta, both Canadians. 
    However, top seed Engy Kheirallah was in no mood to be the 20-year-old from Sussex's third unexpected victim.  The 23-year-old from Alexandria, ranked 27 in the world, beat Pierrepont 9-2 10-8 9-2 in 35 minutes to claim her second WISPA World Tour title, but the first outside her home country.

British Open In Doubt ?

Sudden reports in August that the Royal Horticultural Halls in London had cancelled the booking for the British Open Championships in October caused uproar as websites suggested the sport was in crisis.

    But SquashNow established that both England Squash, the title owners, and Open Squash Limited, the event promoters, remained committed to the event going forward despite  unspecified problems with finances.

     Nick Rider, the chief executive of England Squash, told SquashNow today that he was very happy with the agreement in place with Open Squash Limited, the operating title for John Nimick of Event Engine and John Beddington Sports Management in a three year licence  deal that includes an option for three more years after this year, and had full confidence in their ability to put the 2005 British Open in place.

     The Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster had removed the event from their October schedule. SquashNow was told that this was because of problems over booking payments.

    Nimick told SquashNow that the 2005 British Open Championships had not been cancelled.  “While the British Open Squash Championships currently lack lead sponsorship and its financial situation will unfortunately warrant a change in venue from the Royal Horticultural Halls, the tournament has not been cancelled,” he inisted.  “We are at this time working with England Squash to determine an appropriate course.”
    The BBC has confirmed that the British Open was still scheduled to be televised on the 16th of October the day after the final.

Heath Goes Back To School

Martin Heath, former Scottish Champion and World No4, has been named the head squash coach at the University of Rochester.

    George VanderZwaag, the Director of Athletics at Rochester, told reporters : "As a world-class player, Martin brings an exceptional squash background to the position of head squash coach at Rochester. We are very excited about the future of our squash program under Martin's leadership."

     Heath has been player, coach, writer, and commentator. He joined the Professional Squash Association world circuit in 1993. He spent six consecutive years in the World's top 10 ranking. He was a six-time Scottish champion, Beck explains.

    "I am really looking forward to the challenge of coaching college squash in the USA." Heath said. "I have had a great PSA career, and this affords me a new challenge that will keep me fully involved with the world of squash that I love."

    Heath explained that Rochester would encourage his continued involvement with squash. "They are fully supportive of my continued involvement in doubles events as time permits," he said. "It will provide some welcome publicity for the U Rochester program, and hopefully help with the process of recruiting a strong team to build for the future."

    Heath graduated from the University of Glasgow with a BSc in Physiology and Sports Science. In 2003, he earned a private pilot's license from the Virginia Flight School in Durban, South Africa.

    Heath, who has coached privately for some years, takes over for David Kay who resigned late in the spring.

Raneem El Weleily Is World Champion

Egypt's Raneem El Weleily is the new World Junior Champion. She defeated the top seed, Joshna  Chinappa of India, 9-3, 9-4, 10-8 in a 30 minute final in Herentals, Belgium.

    Furthermore the second seeded El Weleily told reporters after the match that her ambition is two win the title again in two years time – she will be eligible -  and match the accomplishment of Malaysia's Nicol David, who won the title in 1999 and 2001.  

Final Result:

Raneem El Weleily (EGY) bt Joshna  Chinappa (IND) 9-3, 9-4, 10-8. (30 mins)

Hong Kong Win Their First World Title

Second seeded Hong Kong stunned defending champions Egypt in the final in Herentals with a 2-1 victory to give them their first Women's World Junior Team title.
    In the first match on court Joey Chan took a close first game against individual semi-finalist Sara Badr 10/9, then took the next two 9/6, 9/0 to give Hong Kong an unexpected lead.
    Individual champion Raneem El Weleily levelled the match with a 9/3, 9/3, 9/0 victory over over Annie Au to set up the decider.
    Chiu Ka Kei, a 9/16 seed in the individual event, faced Egypt's Lina El Tannir, the 5/8 seed who had suffered a shock defeat in the second round. The Hong Kong girl took the first game 10/8, but fell behind as El Tannir rallied to take the next two 9/5, 9/6. But the final act saw Ka Kei claim the final two games 9/4, 9/3 to give Hong Kong a historic victory.
    England beat the USA 2-1 in the play-off for  third place.

 

Nicol David Brings Malaysian Open Home

It has taken 30 years, but finally the Malaysian Womens's Open Squash Championship has fallen into home hands. Nicol David defeated Vanessa Atkinson of The Netherlands 3-9 9-3 1-9 9-1 9-4 in a 52 minute CIMB sponsored final in Kuala Lumpur.

    Nicol, the third seed, came back twice to halt Vanessa’s title defence in the 26th edition of the championship. The win was Nicol’s fourth title of the year on the professional circuit.
    Nicol had earlier won the KL, Kuwait and Dutch Opens and came into the tournament with a realistic chance of winning the Malaysian Open, having also clinched gold in the World Games in Duisburg, Germany two previously.
       "This is my first Malaysian Open title and it feels amazing to win it in front of such a fantastic crowd,she told reporters.
    "I was very tired but I hung on. Vanessa had two five-setters in the tournament and I knew that she would start making mistakes at some stage of the match.
    "The win is a confidence booster but I need to keep working hard as the top players will now start finding ways to beat me."

   The winner's  list since 1975 reads :

So Farewell Then Aub Amos

AUB AMOS, one of the most famous and durable figures on the Australian squash scene has died in Brisbane after an 18 month illness.
    A product of the Great Depression, Andrew Aubrey Amos was born on a sugar cane farm near Proserpine, Queensland, and ventured to Brisbane as a young man to gain work at a foundry in James St, Fortitude Valley.
    The work was incredibly taxing, more than 100 hours a week for 12 shillings ($1.20) and a small bottle of milk for overtime.
    “They were so generous,” Amos often joked. “It was hard, but I loved it. We were filthy dirty all the time, the fumes and dust would make you sick but there was something exciting about the roaring furnaces and the molten metal.”
    He progressed from the back-breaking work of stoking furnaces to become manager, and eventually major shareholder of the successful foundry business. But the arduous work, difficult conditions and stress took its toll and  Amos “retired” at 34.
    During his youth, he embraced sport. He was a black belt in judo, sailed many Brisbane to Gladstone and Sydney to Hobart yacht races on the Laurabada and played top grade soccer and hockey. For recreation he played golf, tennis, roller skated and enjoyed ballroom dancing.
    After leaving the foundry, Mr Amos decided to “go bush” and worked around Queensland as a dingo trapper, gold miner and professional fisherman, later claiming those years as  some of the best of his life.

    “Fishing off the Capricorn coast, I lived on uninhabited islands, surviving on fish, turtles and crabs I caught,” he told Bernie Pramberg of The Courier Mail newspaper in an interview some years back. “It was a great life.”

    On a trip to Brisbane to visit friends, Amos stumbled upon a sport that was to change his life. “A mate suggested we have a game of squash and I knew so little about the game that I turned up to play barefoot,” he said. “That’s how it all started.”
    Within a year, he had given up all else for what he believed to be a “brilliant game”. At the age of 42, squash had become an obsession. He travelled around Australia seeking knowledge from famous coaches, and became a disciple of the great Egyptian professional Mohammed Dar Din.
    Dar Din told him that to gain respect as a coach, he first had to achieve something significant as a player. “People said I was too damn old to make it as a player, but I was fit, tough and could hit hard,” he said.
    At his first attempt, Amos won the Australian over-45 title, was runner-up at the British Championships and won in Ireland. He was a great opponent for Vic Hunt, father of the legendary Geoff Hunt, and was influential in th early coaching of successive generations of great Australian players. But he always regarded Dar Din as the best player he ever met.
    “And Heather McKay was the best woman – the best all-round athlete Australia has produced.”
     Amos travelled the world as a coach, always preaching the mantra of “strive to give your best and dig deep when things are not going well”. A stickler for discipline on and off the court, the wiry coach insisted his charges present themselves well at all time.
    “When I was Queensland state coach I’d travel around Queensland, living out of a suitcase for 30 days straight," he told Pramberg. "Every day, I’d play and coach for 12 hours – I’d go through six or eight pairs of shoes and lose a stone-and-a-half (9kg) in weight on those trips. It was all about discipline.”
    Aub Amos was honoured for his services to the sport with a tribute dinner at Brisbane City Hall in 1994 and received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.
   A teetotaller and non-smoker, he is survived by his wife of 53 years, Dr Irene Amos.

Fitz-Gerald Gives Up Commonwealth Games Ambition

Five-time world squash champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald  says her “lack of motivation” has been a major factor behind her deciding to pull out of the Australian 2006 Commonwealth Games squad.

     Fitz-Gerald, who won Australia’s only squash gold medal at the 2002 Manchester Games, admitted it was a difficult decision given that the Games were in her home city of Melbourne.

     “I retired from the World Tour in 2003 having reached my goals, and knowing the Commonwealth Games were in Melbourne was the biggest drawcard and major factor in making myself available for the team and training camps,” the 36-year-old former World No.1 said.

     “In recent months I have discovered my passion for the training required to be in the best physical condition I expect of myself has waned.

     “I am moving into a new era of my life with coaching, media and administration. The sport has given me so much and I am looking forward to giving something back to the sport I love.”

    Fitz-Gerald, recognised as one of the world’s greatest  female squash players of all time, was confident the Australian squad would perform well at the Games next March.

    She retired from the World Tour in February 2003 after winning 61 titles and also won the Australian Female Athlete of the Year award in 2001 and 2002.

  Squash Australia has targeted three gold, three silver and two bronze medals as a realistic target at the Melbourne Games.

    Queensland’s current World No1 Rachael Grinham will head the Australian women’s charge for squash gold at the Games

De Rycke Clinches Junior GP Title

Belgium’s Charlie de Rycke despatched Camille Serme of France in straight games in the women’s final of the Pioneer Junior Open Squash Championships in Cologne, Germany, to secure the European Junior Circuit Grand Prix title for the third successive year.

   Top seed de Rycke, the twice European Junior champion, beat second-seeded Serme 9-5 9-3 9-6.The men’s Pioneer title was won in convincing style by Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet.  The 18-year-old top seed from Le Mans beat Anson  Kwong  of Hong Kong 9-6 9-6 9-4 to claim his second junior European Squash Federation title this year.

Lincou Strengthens No1 Position

Thierry Lincou of France has widened the gap ahead of England’s second-placed Lee Beachill at the top of the new August PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, produced by the Professional Squash Association.

     Lincou, the 29-year-old world champion from Marseille, claimed his first PSA Tour title of the year with a powerful performance in the Bank Alfalah Pakistan Open in Karachi.  The most successful French squash player of all time, Lincou beat Australia’s David Palmer, the World No3, in the final to rack up the 14^th PSA title of his career.

    While Canada's Jonathon Power and England's Peter Nicol retained fourth and fifth place, respectively, Australian Anthony Ricketts continued his ranking rise by moving up to sixth place – boosted by a semi-final berth in the Pakistan Open.

    Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, an unexpected semi-finalist in Karachi, returned to the top ten at ten – while lower down the list, England’s Simon Parke made a return to the top twenty for the first time since the end of 2003.

     But perhaps the most significant development in the latest PSA list was the rise to a career-high No16 of Malaysia's Mohd Azlan Iskandar, who overtook for the first time in his career his compatriot and long-time Malaysian No1 Ong Beng Hee, who slips to 18.

World Top Twenty Men

From PSA

            1          [1]        Thierry Lincou  FRA

            2          [2]        Lee Beachill      ENG

            3          [3]        David Palmer    AUS

            4          [4]        Jonathon Power            CAN

            5          [5]        Peter Nicol       ENG

            6          [7]        Anthony Ricketts          AUS

            7          [6]        Amr Shabana   EGY

            8          [8]        James Willstrop            ENG

            9          [9]        Nick Matthew  ENG

            10        [12]      Gregory Gaultier           FRA

            11        [10]      John White       SCO

            12        [11]      Karim Darwish EGY

            13        [13]      Graham Ryding CAN

            14        [14]      Shahid Zaman   PAK

            15        [15]      Joseph Kneipp AUS

            16        [17]      Mohd Azlan Iskandar   MAS

            17        [19]      Olli Tuominen   FIN

            18        [16]      Ong Beng Hee  MAS

            19        [18]      Adrian Grant    ENG

            20        [21]      Simon Parke     ENG

Nicol Settles In At No3

While Australia's Rachael Grinham moved into her 13th consecutive month as world number one in the new August Women’s World Squash Rankings, produced by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA), Malaysia’s Nicol David strengthened her status as world number three behind second-placed Vanessa Atkinson.
    David, 21, from Penang, beat both Grinham and Atkinson last month en-route to becoming the first local player in the event’s 31-year history to win the Women's Malaysian Open.  The victory marked the former world junior champion’s sixth international title of the year – including the gold medal at the World Games in Germany in July.
    In a largely-unchanged top twenty, Isabelle Stoehr of France was one of only two players to rise.  After moving to Manchester in England last year, the 26-year-old has recently returned to her home country to live in Chambery – and moved up to 15, just three places away from her career-high world No12.  
    Home success in July’s Crocodile Challenge Cup in Hong Kong took Rebecca Chiu back to a career-high-equalling No16 in the new list.
    Another player celebrating a best-ever world ranking was Mexico’s Samantha Teran.  The 24-year-old from Mexico City has made a rapid recovery since undergoing surgery for a knee injury sustained in October 2003.  After falling out of the top 100 last year, Teran scored two successive WISPA World Tour victories in the middle of this year – at the Vancouver International and La Hacienda Open in Colombia – and rises to a career-high world No31.
    New Zealand’s Jaclyn Hawkes was also celebrating a world ranking breakthrough after winning her maiden WISPA title last month.  Seeded five, the 22-year-old from Dunedin despatched the first, third and fourth seeds to lift the Mortgage Choice South Australian Open trophy – and made her top 50 debut at 44.

World Top Twenty Women

From WISPA

     1      [1]        Rachael Grinham                AUS
     2     [2]        Vanessa Atkinson              NED
     3     [3]        Nicol David                       MAS
     4     [4]        Natalie Grinham                AUS
     5     [5]        Natalie Grainger               USA
     6     [6]        Linda Elriani                     ENG
     7     [7]        Vicky Botwright                ENG
     8     [8]        Omneya Abdel Kawy            EGY
     9     [9]        Jenny Duncalf                   ENG
     10    [10]      Tania Bailey                      ENG
     11    [11]       Jenny Tranfield                 ENG
     12    [12]      Madeline Perry                   IRL
     13    [13]      Shelley Kitchen                  NZL
     14    [14]      Annelize Naude                  NED
     15    [16]      Isabelle Stoehr                 FRA
     16    [18]      Rebecca Chiu                     HKG
     17    [15]      Fiona Geaves                     ENG
     18    [17]      Alison Waters                   ENG
     19    [19]      Pamela Nimmo              

     20   [20]      Laura-Jane Lengthorn       ENG

Ends