Norman forced out

Press, 23 November 1987, Page 23

Norman forced out

PETER O’HARA

By 1

NZPA correspondent London

The top New Zealand squash player, Ross Norman, was forced out of the Swiss Masters tournament in Zurich by a throbbing, swollen racket arm which is now being tested by London doctors. Norman was due to meet the Australian, Chris Dittmar, in the semi-finals but flew back to his London base where his elbow was diagnosed as suffering from infection. "It is throbbing like crazy and has blown up pretty badly," he said in London yesterday. The right-handed former world champion initially had the arm put in plaster by a Zurich hospital. “They thought It was an Inflammation and put it in plaster to immobilise it for a few days tn the hope it would go down,” he said.

"When I got back to London I went to see a rheumotologist and he took it out of plaster and prescribed a course of antibiotics for an infection."

Norman said that the condition was "quite bad” and doubly disappointing because his game had been In good shape recently. The result of blood tests to determine the nature of

the infection would be known tomorrow. Norman said that in the meantime, he was "taking 32 antibiotics a day.” The Kiwi has ruled himself out of an important British club match tomorrow' and is now in doubt about a trip to Muscat in Oman for the Al-Falaj Grand Prix tournament this week-end.

Norman’s withdrawal from the Swiss Masters came after he beat the Australian, Chris Robertson, 9-6, 9-6, 4-9, 9-3 over four sets in the quarterfinals. Robertson and Dittmar played an exhibition match in Zurich to fill in the programme slot left empty by Norman, while the Pakistanis, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan contested the other semifinal. The New Zealander, Stuart Davenport, lost in the first round to the Australian, Rickl Hill, 5-9, 2-9, 3-9, in his last big tournament before retiring from top squash. The world champion, Jansher Khan, aged 18, fought back from two games and matchpoint down to beat his arch rival, Jahangir Khan, 7-9, 2-9, 10-8, 9-1, 10-9. It was Jansher’s fifth win in a row against Jahangir, the once-invinc-ible king of the squash courts. ■ The top seed had only

himself to blame for the end of his bid to win the title for the sixth successive time and restore his bruised reputation. Two games up and at matchpoint in the third, he let his six years younger opponent off the hook.

It was still open in the nail-biting fifth game as first Jansher and then Jahangir went to matchpoint. But Jansher proved his mettle again.