Final
Too
much Power for Heath
Jonathon Power took the first major tournament of the year, and his
third consecutive Tournament of Champions, in a final that provided a
fitting climax to the event. In the early stages Power refrained from
his usual attacking style, preferring to play good length to take the
'legs' out of Heath. Power took the first 15/12 and the second 15/11.
Power's errors helped Heath to hold on in the third, taking it 15/14 as
Power called for 'one', but in the fourth Heath was looking tired and
Power always seemed the likely winner, eventually taking it 15/12.
Semi-Finals
Martin Heath finally emerged from the shadow of Peter Nicol when
he upset the seedings to make the Tournament of Champions final. Nicol
took the first game 15/10 and it appeared that he would once again wear
down Heath, but from the middle of the second Heath upped the pace and
started going for, and making, more winners than Nicol was used to or
could deal with. Heath stayed on top for the rest of the match to secure
his place in the final with a 3-1 win that delighted the Scottish #2.
Jonathon Power had a comfortable
3-0 victory over Derek Ryan, who couldn't cope with the Canadian's
deception and attacking play. The final should be a real thriller. Power
and Heath contested a physical British Open quarter-final, and both will
want to make amends for that match ... Draw & Results
Quarter-Finals
An all-Scottish semi-final was set up when Martin Heath played
some of his best squash of the year to remove Canada's Graham Ryding
3-0. Ryding must wait to emerge from the shadow of his countryman
Jonathon Power, but Heath now has a chance of taking on Scottish #1 Peter
Nicol. The World Champion, on the day he returned to World #1, faced
a stiff challenge from a determined Peter Marshall. After losing the
first 15/3 it looked as if Marshall's run of long matches had finally
caught up with him, but Marshall will never lie down, and came back to
take the second and lead 14/11 in the third. Now it was Nicol's turn to
hang in, and at 14-all Marshall called 'one' and went for one winner too
many. In the fourth Marshall was clearly tired as Nicol kept him on the
move, closing the match out after 80 minutes.
The other semi-final will be between Jonathon
Power, who won a predictably fiery match against Anthony Hill 3-1,
and Derek Ryan, the Irish #1 whose run continued as John White
was stretchered off court injured at the end of the third game, forcing
him to retire. Ryan took the first, White levelled, and at 14-13 to Ryan
in the third White chased a ball into the corner and collapsed in agony
with a leg injury. Draw & Results
2nd
Round
Canada's Graham Ryding provided a shock 'home' win over
Egypt's Ahmed Barada. After winning the first Barada's game went to
pieces, and he virtually stopped trying in the fourth once defeat seemed
inevitable. Top seeds Power and Nicol both had comfortable 3-0 wins.
Nicol's opponent in the quarters will be Peter Marshall, who continues
to progress the hard way. Finding himself 2-0 down against fellow
Englishman Paul Johnson, Marshall simply wore his opponent down, and
after taking the third 17/15 he took the next two easily.
Derek Ryan caused the first major upset of the
tournament, coming from 2 games down to beat US Open champion Simon
Parke. Joining him in the quarters are Anthony Hill, 3-1 winner over
Mark Chaloner, John White, who came from behind to defeat Paul Price,
and Martin Heath who overcame Alex Gough. Reports to follow ... Draw & Results
1st
Round
World Class squash hit New York's Grand Central Station with a bang,
as the first three matches in the first round all went the distance,
throwing the schedule into turmoil from the start. Derek Ryan, Paul
Price and Simon Parke all won through long matches as crowds waited
patiently to take their seats for the second session which
started an hour and a half late.
4th seed Simon Parke, sporting a bandage
on the knee which kept him out of last week's National
League match, was made to work
hard to overcome a 2-1 deficit against Amjad Khan, and 8th seed Price
also found himself 2-1 down against Joe Kneipp before coming through.
The other seeds in the top half joined them more comfortably, with top
seed Jonathon Power and 7th seed Anthony Hill both scoring comfortable
3-0 wins. Power beat Australian Byron Davis, who took the place of the
injured Dan Jensen dropping just 20 points, while Hill was made to work
a little harder for his victory over Omar Elborolossy. Draw & Results
The first round matches were completed on Sunday, with all the main
seeds winning through to the last 16. Main casualty was Wales' David
Evans, who lost 3-1 to qualifier Billy Haddrell.
Haddrell now meets 2nd seed Peter Nicol, who beat Rodney Durbach 3-1,
dropping the third game 16/17. The other Welshman in
the draw, Alex Gough, was taken the distance by another Australian.
Suffering from cramp, Gough finally saw off Stewart Boswell 15/14 in the
fifth - on a stroke. 3rd seed Ahmed Barada and Chris Walker treated the
crowd to an entertaining display of shot-making, with Barada winning
3-0. Draw & Results
NEW YORK TOURNAMENT OF
CHAMPIONS HOSTS WORLD'S TOP SQUASH STARS
One of New York City's unique sporting events steams back into action in
early 2000 as the DLJdirect Tournament of Champions squash tournament
returns to the spectacular and unusual setting of Grand Central
Terminal.
The seven day celebration of one of the world's most
challenging sports, presented by New York Sports Clubs, takes place on a
portable, see/through squash court from January 29 to February 3, and
stars all of the world's top male professional players. The Vanderbilt
Hall set-up features a 17,000 lbs Perspex squash court, gallery seating
for 550, and free viewing for the public.
The focus of the $500,000 production will be the
DLJdirect Tournament of Champions, a world ranking Professional Squash
Association (PSA)/sanctioned "Super Series" event. The
56/man tournament features the best players in the world, including
world No1 Jonathon Power (Canada), world champion Peter Nicol
(Scotland), world No3 Ahmed Barada (Egypt), world No4 Simon Parke
(England) and 1997 World Open champion and star of the '90's Rodney
Eyles (Australia). Tournament Draw &
Results
Other activity during the tournament week includes:
competition among the best professionals in North America in the Dunlop
Pro Championships; free squash clinics for the public and juniors;
extensive recreational competition in the Grand Open, a companion city/wide amateur tournament; and recognition of StreetSquash, an inner
city program for children which blends squash, academics, community
service, and mentoring.
The 2000 DLJdirect Tournament of Champions presented
by New York Sports Clubs offers $75,000 in total prize money, making it
the largest professional squash tournament in North America and fourth
biggest in the world. The event is one of 60 PSA/sanctioned World
Tour tournaments.
Squash was first played in England more than 100 years
ago and is now a popular sport in more than 120 countries. There are 15
million squash players worldwide and 400,000 in the United States.
Squash is on the short list of sports applying for inclusion in the
Olympics and is being seriously considered for the 2004 Games in Athens.
DLJdirect, America's premier online brokerage firm, is
the title sponsor of the tournament for the second consecutive year.
DLJdirect is consistently ranked as one of the best online brokerages in
the industry - awarded "#1 internet broker" from Barron's,
"Top Web-Based Discount Broker" from Time Digital, as well as,
Forbes "Favorite Online Broker" and "Best of the
Web." DLJdirect has over 700,000 customer accounts
representing more than $14.2 billion in assets.
Also returning as the event's presenting sponsor is
New York Sports Clubs, the largest health and fitness company in the
Northeast operating 100 clubs in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C. and
Philadelphia. Cadillac and Foster's are major co-sponsors.
Associate sponsors include STERIS Corporation, Talisker, the Grand Hyatt
New York, Dunlop Sports Group and The Campbell Apartment.
For event and media questions, call John Nimick (0)
617-731 6874.
The event website is www.TournamentofChampions.org
|
Power v Heath in final
© Debra Tessier 2000
More at SquashPhotos.com
Relive the 1999 Event
Tournament
of Champions
New York 23~28 Jan 1999 |