The top eight seeds all marched smartly into the Men’s quarter-finals in the Men’s Open of the Trident Insurance Barbados Squash Open last night (Wednesday) at the Barbados Squash Club?s Marine Gardens courts.
The match of the night was the clash between the newly crowned national squash champion, Shawn Simpson, and the evergreen Mark Sealy, the eight-time former champ. It was an interesting clash of styles: Simpson, is a wiry 6 foot 4 inch tall, southpaw and hits the ball with tremendous power on both wings, but can also play with a deft touch. Sealy is right handed and looks to control the centre of the court with accurate shot placements and sets up many of his winners with delicate drop shots. Simpson rushed to an early 2-0 lead before Sealy found his rhythm and in a 20 minute third game in which he never trailed he clawed his way back into contention by winning 10-8 to cut the deficit in half. Simpson, who is also a national volleyball player, responded in the fourth and final game by the injection of more pace and ran away to victory by three games to one (9/5 9/1 8/10 9/3) in 45 minutes.
The remaining quarter finals all went according to the form book with comfortable wins for the higher seeded players. The top seeded Johan Bouquet (France) looked very comfortable and won in straight games in a hard hitting encounter with Guyanese Ray Chan-a-Sue. Bouquet?s French compatriot, the #2 seed Arthur Poupel dismissed Marlon White for the loss of only three points and the defending champion, Shawn Badrinath (Guyana) seeded #3, showed only some of his wide repertoire of shots against the Barbados and Caribbean over-40 champion Nigel Griffith.
The top ranked local player, Gavin Cumberbatch, took it easy on his younger brother Rhett and dropped one game, while national captain, Andy Gill, had to withstand a late rally from Bryant Cumberbatch before winning in four games. In the other Men’s quarterfinals, Guyanese Robert Fernandes and St. Lucian, Charlie Sonson, were not extended by their opponents and won easily in straight games against John Cumberbatch and Fabien Magne (France) respectively.
In the four ladies quarter-finals played, top seeded Canadian Ruchika Kumar defeated Kathy Shuffler (Guyana) 3-0, the #2 Karen Meakins, the four time local national champion, dropped two points against Trinidadian Gen Shim and #3, Sonia Perkins comfortably defeated Lilianna White in straight games. The best ladies encounter matched Karen Anderson (Jamaica) against three time local national champion Andrea Goodridge in a hard hitting affair. Goodridge made a late surge to take the first game to the delight of the local fans but as the experienced Anderson became more accustomed to the court conditions she rarely was troubled again and dropped five points in the next three games to run away a 7/9 9/1 9/1 9/3 winner.
Full results were as follows (all Barbados players unless otherwise indicated):
Men’s Main Draw first round:
# 1 Johan Bouquet (France) defeated Ray Chan-a-Sue (Guyana) (3-0) 9/5 9/4 9/1
# 5 Charlie Sonson (St. Lucia) defeated Fabien Magne (France) (3-0) 9/4 9/1 9/8
# 7 Andy Gill defeated Bryant Cumberbatch (3-1) 9/4 9/1 6/9 9/7
# 4 Gavin Cumberbatch defeated Rhett Cumberbatch (3-1) 5/9 9/1 10/8 10/8
# 3 Shawn Badrinath (Guyana) defeated Nigel Griffith (3-0) 9/5 9/3 9/5
# 8 Robert Fernandes (Guyana) defeated John Cumberbatch (3-0) 9/1 9/7 9/2
# 6 Shawn Simpson defeated Mark Sealy (3-1) 9/5 9/1 8/10 9/3
#2 Arthur Bouquet (France) defeated Marlon White (3-0) 9/1 9/2 9/0
Ladies? Quarter-finals:
#1 Ruchika Kumar (Canada) defeated #6 Kathy Shuffler (Guyana) (3-0) 9/4 9/3 9/3
#3 Karen Anderson (Jamaica) defeated #5 Andrea Goodridge (3-1) 7/9 9/1 9/1 9/3
#4 Sonia Perkins defeated #7 Lilianna White (3-0) 9/2 9/5 9/2
#2 Karen Meakins defeated #8 Gen Shim (Trinidad) (3-0) 9/1 9/0 9/1
Men’s Plate second round:
Ricky Edwards defeated Frank Jordan (3-0) 9/1 9/3 10/8
The top eight seeds are in action tonight (Thursday) June 24th at the Barbados Squash Club?s courts in Marine Gardens, Christ Church, in the Men’s quarter-finals beginning from 5:45 p.m. The eight men seeded from 9 to 16 also play tonight in the Men’s Consolation Plate. The top four ladies seeds will play again on Friday evening in the semi-finals.
