Quarter Finals Report by Alex Wan

Kitchen upsets Geaves to setup showdown with Atkinson

 Shelley Kitchen, the world number 14 from New Zealand today upset world number 6 WISPA veteran Fiona Geaves to make her second consecutive appearance in the semi-final of the YTL Malaysian Open 2004. In a bizarre match where it took less than 30 minutes to complete, given the fact that it was over four games, the exotic looking Kitchen started off very strongly, taking the first few points before Geeves started to settle down, after 0-2 down in fact. Geeves came back to take the third, allowing Kitchen only a single point, in barely six minutes. Kitchen came back storming in the fourth with a merciless 9-0 game to complete the upset.

 Top seeded Vanessa Atkinson meanwhile, booked her semi-final berth by disposing Rebecca Chiu, who had just won the Singapore Open crown prior to coming down to Kuala Lumpur. Playing a fast paced game, Chiu found it hard to keep up. After winning the first game rather easily, victory seemed to be in the bag. However, Chiu slowly got into the momentum and gave a better fight in the second, and was leading in the earlier part of the third game. Atkinson, hoping to land her second title on Malaysian soil in as many tournaments this year, got her killer instinct back soon and wrapped up the third game.

David beats Nimmo for a chance to avenge defeats to Elriani

Local darling Nicol David took to court against Scottish champion Pamela Nimmo, who had a tough match last night where she had to come back from two games down against Egyptian qualifier Eman El Amir. David played a smart game combining tight drives, volley drops and angle boasts to move Nimmo around the court. Nimmo’s tiredness was clearly showing as David raced to a quick two game lead. Nimmo came back a totally different player in the third and was chasing everything David threw at her. The game was close but Nimmo sneaked in to win. A pep talk from coach Raymond Arnold during the ninety seconds seemed to have done wonders as David came back to win the fourth commandingly.

 In the last match of the day, it was a contest between two hard hitters. The recently married Linda Elriani was to face USA’s Latasha Khan for a place against Nicol David tomorrow evening. The first game was a breeze for Elriani, dropping just three points to Khan. At 3-0 up, Elriani questioned the referee in disbelief after a rather clear let (and possibly stroke too) was ruled a no let! Some tips from David during the break saw Khan fighting back in the second from 0-5 down to 6-5, but it just wasn’t enough for her to wrap it up. In the third, the same case seems to happen, with Khan crawling back slowly. Sensing this trend, Elriani tightened her

Semis preview

Tomorrow’s semi final matches promise a lot of excitement. First match on the all-glass centre court of the National Squash Centre here in Kuala Lumpur would be between top seed Vanessa Atkinson and Shelley Kitchen. Atkinson, a familiar face here after denying Nicol David the KL Open crown in February will be out to continue her unbeaten record for the year in this city. Last year’s losing semi-finalist to David, Kitchen will be out to go at least one step further this year. She has been playing well here and looks strong enough to yet cause another upset.

The entire nation will be behind Nicol David in her match against Linda Elriani. David has reached the final of the last two WISPA events held on this court but has not won one. She has also lost to Elriani the last two times, so revenge is definitely on her mind. Elriani has dropped to number seven in the latest WISPA rankings, having been in the top five most of last year, with a career high of three back in October.