Nicol tames Shabana, enters semifinals

By Raju Chainani

CAIRO, AUG. 23. Defending champion and world number one Peter Nicol tamed the youthful extravagance of Egypt's Amr Shabana to advance into the semifinals of the US$ 110,000 Al Ahram squash international. Nicol won 9-15, 15-5, 15-8, 15-7 in 46 minutes and his next opponent is England's Simon Parke who defeated David Palmer (Australia) 15-7, 15-11, 11-15, 15-9, the match lasting 57

minutes.

The ladies had their chance to play on the showcourt and two quarterfinals were decided on Tuesday night. British Open champion and number two seed, Leilani Joyce (New Zealand) continued her impressive run with a 27 minute 9-7, 9-4, 9-1 demolition of Australia``s Rachael Grinham. But there was controversy and many questionable calls in Tania Bailey's 0-9, 9- 5, 9-4, 5-9, 10-9 win over her England colleague Rebecca Macree, the clock stopping at 86 minutes.

Referee John Parker did not award a stroke to Macree till the third game, opting to give lets instead. Macree had looked very sharp in the opener and led 4-0 in the second before Bailey came onto the scoresheet. She allowed the repeated let- calls to upset her concentration and with it went the second and third games. Parker made over 200 decisions in the match and never appeared to be in control.

Leilani Joyce trailed 4-7 in the opener against Rachael Grinham but soon put that right as she marched to a straight games win. Grinham, winner of the recent Indian Open at Chennai, was made to look pedestrian. In her three matches so far, Joyce has been on court for a total of 86 minutes, the time it took for Bailey to win this night. She hasn't dropped a game and on this form, is the favourite for the women's title.

The marathon battle between Macree and Bailey meant that Peter Nicol and Amr Shabana could only start their match an hour later than scheduled. Shabana began in the same vein he had left off against Martin Heath on Monday night. He was finding the nick, almost at will, wrong-footing Nicol and had the gallery in raptures. There was a sense of purpose in his approach as he wasn't going for broke but opted for a more controlled game. Shabana had 11 winners in the opener. His backhand was working like a charm and there were five volleys which found the nick. He showed he was equally adept on the other flank as he closed the 11-minute first game with a forehand crosscourt which left Nicol standing. The champion had been outplayed by the young pretender.

Nicol tightened up on his line and length in the second. The impatient Shabana helped the champion and the score soon read 6- 0. There was a hush in the gallery. You could have heard a pin drop on the desert sands. When Shabana whipped a backhand crosscourt to open his account, the agony turned into ecstasy. But this was momentary. Nicol was keeping the ball deep and his forehand was causing problems for the Egyptian. It was 11-3 to the champion before Shabana fired again. He won a sophisticated point at 4-11, having seen Nicol retrieve twice from seemingly impossible positions before caressing a forehand drop which the Scot could only admire. But these moments were rare. Nicol wrapped up the second game, controlled the third where he led 6-1 and 11-6 and in the fourth, the champion took 11 points on the trot as he went from 1-2 to 12-2.

The manner in which world number four Simon Parke won the first game against David Palmer suggested this would be a short and sweet affair. Parke was cutting off the ball early and the lanky Australian was struggling to match strides. Palmer put together a couple of winners to lead 4-1 in the second. Parke levelled at 6- 6, powered his way to 13-9 and soon had a two game

cushion.

The man from New South Wales showed his mettle by winning the third and at 5-5 in the fourth, there were interesting possibilities. Parke soon put the doubting Thomases to rest with a surge which took him to 11-5 and though Palmer fought back to 9-12, it wasn't enough to deny the Englishman a place in Thursday's semifinals.

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