GRAINGER HAT-TRICK: WORLD No.4 RETAINS TITLE IN CLEVELAND

By Nathan Dugan

After six exciting days of competition at the 2009 National City Burning River Squash Classic, two questions were left unanswered: who can beat Natalie Grainger in Cleveland and how do we get more seats behind the court? Two Hundred and Fifty spectators gathered with some observers using whatever they could stand on to get a vantage point in order to witness the World number four and two-time defending champion, Natalie Grainger, produce another impressive display to lift her third straight title. With six of the world’s top ten players in the draw, this was by far the sternest challenge that Grainger had faced at The Cleveland Racquet Club and she proved she was more than up for the task.

This year the event was raised in stature to a Silver 30 Event ($30,000 total prize purse) on the world tour. This meant that the quality of depth in the field increased dramatically and the seeds no longer had life so easy until the later stages. World number nine, Madeline Perry, was the first seed to crash out in the first round but the loss to former world number 4, Tania Bailey, was never going to be an easy encounter. The first round also produce without question the longest match ever played in the three years of the event and possibly Cleveland’s tournament history. An epic 1 hour and 41 minute match between the world’s number 16 and 17 ranked players, Samantha Teran and Jaclyn Hawkes, showed that the new point-a-rally to 11 scoring system being used for 2009 was by no means going to take fitness out of the equation. The physical toll it took on eventual winner Hawkes was evident in the next round though much to the delight and benefit of eventual finalist Alison Waters.   

The semi-final line up consisted of four of the top five seeds all of which were in the world’s top eight and all had beaten Grainger in prior meetings. The only top 4 seed that failed to progress to the semi’s was Omneya Abdel Kawy who had been struggling with a cold all week. Her quarter final match up with fifth seed, Laura Massaro, was always going to be challenging and despite displaying some incredible racket skills, the physical reserves she needed and lacked on the day meant she never really threatened her opponent. Massaro had no such luck the following day against Grainger though as the in -form defending champion put on a convincing display that clearly showed her title intent. In the second semi-final of the day, British National Champion Alison Waters provided the crowd with a huge upset as she dismantled the top seed, world number three Rachael Grinham from Australia, in three straight games. Grinham, a former world champion, never seemed to settle into the match and despite reaching the semi-finals she looked to be trying to find her form all week.

World number six Waters, was unable to cause another upset though in the final despite starting well and taking the first game against her higher ranked opponent. This was to be the only game that Grainger was to lose though over the entire week. The loss of it seemed to annoy her somewhat as she came out in the second like a women possessed. Waters didn’t really do anything wrong and had only made two errors but was suddenly facing a 0-10 score line and a game ball. The pattern continued with Grainger playing the best squash we have seen her produce over the three years of her dominance and her strangle hold over the trophy was well deserved. Natalie Grainger is now three for three in Cleveland and with the form she showed this week, it would be interesting to see if even the world number one could stop her here. Only World number one Nicol David has enjoyed victories against Grainger in the past 12 months, but it may not have surprised many who saw her play in Cleveland that she went on to beat Nicol in Malaysia two weeks later moving to number 2 in the world rankings in the process. Maybe next year we will have to entice the Malaysian to the Racquet Club if we are to see a new name challenge for the crown. As for the seating problem…any ideas?