Ethan Oetter reports from The St. Louis Open

A packed house was treated to another exciting night of squash as Darwish and Kneipp advanced to the final.

Recap:

Karim Darwish (Egypt) Def. Jonathon Power (Canada) 3 games to 2

11-6, 9-11, 10-11 (0-2), 11-6, 11-6

68 Minutes

The first match of the evening was an epic battle, reminiscent of the Jonathon Power and Simon Parke first round encounter a couple of nights earlier. Darwish started beautifully, fully utilizing his lethal arsenal of blistering drives and punishing drops. Darwish was aided by some uncharacteristically bad shots off of Power’s racket to take game one. Incredibly, Darwish won 7 of his 11 points on dead nicks.

Power settled down in game two and showed that he was able to handle Darwish’s deftly placed shots. There were multiple rallies where Darwish had to hit about three of four winning caliber shots in order to work Power enough out of position to win the rally. Both players traded points till 9 all. Power went on to win the game, but not without some controversy on the point that tipped the momentum in his favor. Court one at the Missouri Athletic Club uses tins that loudly beep and flash when struck. However, the electronic sensors cannot be relied upon to detect a delicate touch on the top edge. Darwish hit a nice backhand drop, and Power rushed in to play the counter drop. Power’s ball did not trigger the tin’s flashing lights, but may have touched the tin. The ball was ruled good, to the dismay of Darwish.

With the games tied at one apiece, both players believed that the match was theirs to win. Consequently, both shot maestros tried to dictate the pace. This resulted in a complete lack of rhythm and short rallies punctuated by frequent drop shots. Darwish began to shoot off of serves, and Power would drop him right back. At 6-5, Power pushed Darwish out of his path and threw his horizontally stretched body to the ball, just to show the referee that he could return the shot. At 8-8, Darwish and Power dueled over who could hit the better drop; the rally was eventually won by Darwish 14 drop shots later! It was clear that the match would be determined by shot making finesse rather than fitness. Darwish brilliantly disguised a forehand crosscourt to wrong foot Power at 9-9. Power relinquished the next point on an errant drop that landed 4 inches below the tin. However, Power managed to take the game by extending the points and waiting for Darwish to make the mistakes.

The momentum shifted as soon as the players stepped on the court in game four. Darwish was in the zone and cruised by Power with error-free squash.

Game five was characterized by extremely tight rails and out-of-this-world retrieving. Darwish shot out to a quick lead with early winners. However, as long as Power has a racket, he is in the match. Power struggled valiantly to level the score, but Darwish’s early lead in the fifth was too much for Power to overcome. The last point was a classic, 55 shot stunner, producing various looks of awe among the capacity crowd. It was fitting that the last shot was a Darwish kill shot about a millimeter above the tin.

Karim Darwish will face Joseph Kneipp of Australia on Sunday in the Final at the Missouri Athletic Club.

Joseph Kneipp (Australia) Def. Amr Shabana (Egypt) 3 games to 1

8-11, 11-2, 11-2, 11-4

38 minutes

The second semi-final of the evening could not have been more different from the first. Both players started nervously. Loose shots flew equally off of both players’ rackets, resulting in numerous strokes. The very tricky Shabana found his rhythm first but played fairly uninspired squash, in stark contrast to his brilliant and energetic performance in his semifinal victory over fellow countryman Mohammed Abbas. Although Shabana was not playing his best, he dictated play in winning the first game and seemed assured to win the match unless Kneipp could raise his game.

And raise his game was exactly what Kneipp did in the second game. The first rally was the best point of the tournament, and it looked like another five gamer was under way. Kneipp dug all of Shabana’s shots out of the front corners and began to hit some brilliant winners of his own. Kneipp built his lead to 7-2 with consistent play, at which point Shabana surrendered. Shabana lost the next four points in about 30 seconds.

Games three and four were all Kneipp. Kneipp opened both games by building early leads to discourage Shabana’s thoughts of a comeback. Shabana’s concentration escaped him, and he began heaving his racket at the various corners of the court. Referee Jonathon Power said it all when he remarked to Shabana: “next time you throw your racquet, try to throw it away from the camera” (which was positioned in the front left corner of the court). Enough said.

Joseph Kneipp will face Karim Darwish (Egypt) in the Final on Sunday at the Missouri Athletic Club.

Final Match Up

Karim Darwish (Egypt) vs. Joseph Kneipp (Australia)

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