Badrinauth makes successful defence
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
July 5, 2004
In this Lawrence Fanfair photo, the respective winners of the Guyana Squash Association's Senior National Squash Tournament strike a pose. From left are; Andrea King, Robert Fernandes, Kathy Shuffler, Shawn Badrinauth, Tiffany Solomon and Damien DaSilva.
Leading men's squash player Shawn Badrinauth made a successful defence of his title while aunt, Kathy Shuffler, beat her niece, Andrea King, in three straight games to become the new national ladies champion.
In the men's final played at the Georgetown Club yesterday, Badrinauth defeated Robert Fernandes (9-6, 9-4, 9-5) for the third consecutive year to win the men's title, while Shuffler beat King 9-5, 9-1, 9-1 to claim the ladies crown.
In the men's third place play-off, Damien DaSilva came from one game down to defeat former men's champion Regan Pollard 7-9, 9-1, 9-1, 0-9, 9-0.
The ladies third place play-off saw Tiffany Solomon blowing away Junior Caribbean Under-17 champion Kristina King 9-2, 9-2, 9-1 to take third place.
The men's Plate trophy was won by Ryan Farnum who defeated Peter Michael DeGroot in the final.
In the men's main draw, Badrinauth who used the game as his final warm up before going to compete in the Jamaican Open next week, started shakily and allowed Fernandes to race to 6-0 lead. However, having regained his composure, Badrinauth won the hand out after a six-shot rally.
He subsequently took the score to 5-6 but lost a 22-shot rally that gave Fernandes the serve.
After several hand outs, Badrinauth drew level at 6-6 then went on to win easily.
The second game also saw both players engaging each other in long rallies, some of them as much as 26 shots. However, Fernandes forced Badrinauth to make some unforced errors, using a soft touch to the bottom left of the front wall which won him three points.
Several hand outs followed but Fernandes failed to convert his to winners, allowing Badrinauth to draw level with him at 4-4. The champion then went on to win at 9-4.
Game three was not much different than the previous two. There were long rallies, Badrinauth made errors, Fernandes capitalised but in the end, it was Badrinauth registering his third consecutive win in the Guyana Squash Association's national senior championships.
After his victory, Badrinauth told Stabroek Sports Fernandes put up a good fight but he was not tired. He admitted making a few unforced errors.
Asked about the long rallies, Badrinauth said "he was working me, trying to make me make mistakes, but I hung in there with him and in the end it paid off."
Badrinauth who leaves for Jamaica tomorrow, compliments of Nestle Milo, said he would be taking his winning ways to Jamaica with him.
Badrinauth just recently won the Barbados Open title for a third consecutive year, beating two top French players in the semi-final and final.
Fernandes said he stuck with his game plan which caused him to open a 6-0 lead in the first game, but his body started to tire late in the games.
"You can't play shot for shot with Shawn, you have to play tight and force him to make mistakes. Don't mind what game plan you have, Shawn always has a way to beat you."
In the ladies final, King at one point led 3-1, but Shuffler brought her experience into play and after having three game balls in the first game, she converted her fourth game ball to win 9-5.
In the second game, Shuffler had three game balls in her 9-1 win while in game three, she (Shuffler) had two game and match balls before winning 9-2.
Badrinauth defeated Pollard 9-0, 9-6, 9-2 in a semi-final fixture while in the other semi-final on Saturday night, Fernandes beat DaSilva 9-2, 9-3, 9-7 to reach the final.