WORLD SQUASH NEWS
RESULTS: Catella Swedish Open Squash Championship, Linköping, Sweden
Semi-finals:
[1] John White (SCO) bt [6] Joseph Kneipp (AUS) 15-13, 15-6, 11-15, 15-13 [2] Stewart Boswell (AUS) bt [4] Martin Heath (SCO) 15-13, 15-10, 7-15, 15-9
White & Boswell To Contest Swedish Final
Scotland's No1 seed John White and Australia's second-seeded Stewart Boswell,
ranked four and five in the world respectively, will meet in the anticipated
final of the $30,000 Catella Swedish Open Squash Championship after surviving
tough four-game semi-finals in Linköping.
Boswell, 24, from Canberra, took on the experienced and highly talented
Martin Heath, the fourth seed from Scotland. After slipping down the
rankings last year, Heath has recently enjoyed some good results to surge
back into the top 10. Always trailing by no more than two points in the
first game, Martin managed to level the score at 13-all only to see the game
slip away in the next two points. Boswell then played near faultless squash
to take the second game and the match seemed to be all over, especially with
the Scot becoming increasingly frustrated with the referee's decisions.
However, Heath drew on all his experience and fought back well, dominating
the third game with a mixture of solid basic squash and exciting shot play,
executed with great precision and accuracy. The fourth game showed that
Boswell is one of the new generation of players who will soon be challenging
for the top position in the world. Pushing further up the court, he took the
ball earlier, attacking the ball and keeping Heath behind him. His variation
of shot out-thought and wrong-footed the Scotsman several times in what was
to be the final game. Boswell comfortably took the game to become the first
player to gain a place in the final with a 15-13 15-10 7-15 15-9 scoreline.
In the second semi final, John White - a Scotsman born in Australia and
living in England - faced Joe Kneipp, an Australian who nearly changed his
allegiance for his native country to play for the Netherlands 18 months ago.
The first game was tight all the way through and played in a good humour,
except for two occasions when Kneipp left the court to remonstrate with the
referee for not giving him a let on each occasion - decisions which
television replays later confirmed were entirely appropriate! White was
lucky to win the first game when he hit a forehand volley that caught the
corner between front and side walls to spin out at an angle that Kneipp could
not retrieve.
The top seed then ran away with the second game in just nine minutes to go
two games up. Unforced errors by White in the third, finally allowed Kneipp
to bring the score back to 2/1 - but White got off to a great start in the
fourth game, streaking into a 5-1 lead. Joe reduced this to 5-7 before
levelling the score at 13-all - but at match ball up, White received a stroke
off a loose shot from Kneipp to clinch his place in the final with a 15-13
15-6 11-15 15-13 victory.
Whilst the Swedish final will mark the 16th PSA Tour climax of White's
career, and the 17th of Boswell's, neither has claimed a title for more than
two years. White, runner-up in last year's World and British Opens, scored
his most recent triumph in the Flanders Open in February 2001, whilst it was
in May 1999 that Boswell claimed his last trophy in the Bolzano Open in Italy.