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The top two take it
to each other again
Day Two singles, by Richard Eaton
There was one hilarious moment when Sarah Walker produced a
nicely disguised lift which forced Elizabeth Cann to
back-pedal quickly in their semi-final – only for the retreating
champion to discover that the haste was not entirely necessary
as her opponent no longer had a racket.
 Walker
had somehow managed to drop it, just at the crucial moment,
although she at least rescued a little humour from the situation
by launching quite a professional-looking kick at the shuttle as
it came sailing past.
This description is not intended to be unnecessarily facetious
or to belittle a promising player, but when you are 19 and your
opponent is the titleholder it can be little mental weaknesses
and strengths which are difference between winning and losing.
Certainly Walker played well enough in a good first game of her
21-17, 21-10 loss to have had a chance of taking it, in which
case much might have been different.
True, Cann was more creative in attack, but there was not a lot
in it, and the difference was mostly that Walker is still
learning to make the most of her fine movement and uncertainly
burgeoning potential.
Cann is now one step from a £1,200 first prize which is equal to
the men's for the first time and which she admitted that she had
set her sights on getting.
She looks better, and more aggressively focussed than she ever
has, but one thing which has remained the same is the opponent,
which once again in the final will be the remarkable part-timer
Jill Pittard.
The calibration engineer from Coventry admits she “probably
doesn't get enough sleep” most nights because she is combining
such a demanding job with such good quality badminton, but
despite this she has still been too much for three much younger
opponents.
The last of them was Helen Davies, the 22-year-old who made her
England debut in the match against Poland recently and who
earned a place in the squad for the European team championships
the week after next.
But Davies had a hard test to get past a quarter-final with
Fontaine Chapman four hours previously which may have
contributed to her getting to grips only intermittently with
Pittard's cleverly-crafted game, and losing 21-11, 21-13.
 This
means that both singles finals will be between the top seeds,
for Rajiv Ouseph, the men's holder, and Carl Baxter,
his rival, will face each other, as they have often done when
they are sparring.
Neither has been greatly tested and neither has dropped a game,
and both have generated some recent momentum which has edged
them up the world rankings, perhaps in part generated by the
competition with each other.
This should add some adrenaline to the confrontation. There is
also a good contrast in styles. Ouseph is tall, deft, and full
of velvety combinations, while Baxter is energetic and fluent in
his movement. It could be an interesting final.
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