Excerpt,
Rob Dinerman'sSelected
Squash Writings Volume 1
This is the introductory passage to an
article about great rivalries in squash that focuses on three specific
rivalries that defined the 15-year period from 1970-85 during which
squash in North America had some of its greatest growth.
In professional sports, the careers of two athletes often become
intertwined. This phenomenon normally evolves from a combination of
chronology, continuity and confluence from which a shared legacy
emerges in the public perception. They may be friends, and may even
have similar backgrounds, but when locked in competition they feel the
intense rivalry that develops between them. Mutual respect is created
between many pairs of players, while mutual hostility festers between
others, but the rivalry, particularly when it exists at the top
echelon, can be powerful enough to define an entire era in the history
of the sport.
The differing courses that a rivalry can take over the span of a career
are often influenced not only by ability but also by the personalities
of the duelling duo. Subtle weaknesses can become glaring shortcomings
to one who learns how to exploit them: a fear of defeat, a predilection
with the flashy shot, a hesitation under pressure, a hot temper, an
inability to react promptly and properly to changing tactics. This
constant interplay of strategic and psychological adjustments causes a
competitive relationship of unique intimacy to develop between the two
athletes, a relationship forged in part by the cruel knowledge that
their rivalry will neither permit them to become strangers, nor allow
them to truly be friends.
Thus have such legends as Ali and Frazier, Evert and Navratilova, and
Russell and Chamberlain marched in uneasy but permanent alignment into
history's expanding ledger and thus have the battles they waged
impacted the annals of their sports in a manner that far outweighs the
statistical measurements of their formidable achievements.
In squash, a trio of rivalries during the 1970's and 1980's truly stand
out for the role they played in the development of the North American
professional game. It was during this period, beginning with the early
1970's and extending to 1992, that the WPSA Tour, which was in its
infancy as the 1970's began, rose to prominence before merging with the
world PSA softball tour in the mid- 1990's.
Many factors can be cited for this expansion, from the promotional
expertise of the WPSA business office in Toronto, under the leadership
of Clive Caldwell, to the technological advantages of the
three-glass-wall portable Tour Court, to the vision displayed by those
companies whose active sponsorship had enabled the once fledgling tour
to grow.
But it is the players themselves whose styles and performances have
truly constituted the sport's headlights. The sparse ten-man ranking
list of 1972 metamorphosed by 1990 into a 100-player computerized
system, and the undulating rhythms of lifelong rivalries constantly
showed up in the weekly shifts of these rating charts.
This article focuses on those three head-to-head rivalries that
commanded special prominence during this crucial time in the WPSA
expansion. As it happens, this set of rivalries are of similar duration
and spaced fairly evenly throughout the period we have been describing.
But what they really share is the quality of having defined the tour's
ongoing evolution.
