DAVID PALMER - Australia's Rising Star |
DAVID PALMER, the young Australian who stunned the squash world by winning his first British Open title earlier this year, is raring to go as the new season approaches.
Here, in an exclusive eyesquash.com interview with Alan Thatcher, Palmer tells of the impact his victory made back home, and, incredibly, he reveals how he had to fight the system Down Under. He insists that, instead of encouraging him, certain Australian Institute coaches deliberately undermined his progress and told him he would never make it. Well, he certainly stuffed that argument back down their throats by winning the British and reaching a career-best ranking of three in the world.
He is looking forward to appearing in the season's curtain-raiser, the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open, and is looking forward to more glory in the World Championships on home soil later this year. Then, maybe those Aussies who doubted his potential will wake up to his tremendous ability once and for all.
Alan Thatcher asks the Questions ... |
... David Palmer Replies |
Q1: |
Very exciting, I got a lot of press when I arrived home, also my family and friends were very happy for me. |
Q2: |
I didn’t see him, but I still talk to him once a week. He always wanted to coach a British Open winner, so I was happy for him to get a lot of recognition for my win. |
Q3: |
Still not 100%. I am staying out of it now, but I know Joe is still trying to prove what really went on. |
Q4: |
Yes that is true. |
Q5: |
Yes I will be, I was selected in the team about 2 weeks ago. I think we have a very strong team and a great chance to win it. |
Q6: |
Definitely, it’s the first big tournament in Australia for some time, so it will be great to play in front of my family and friends, who don’t get to see me play to often. |
Q7: |
I think my training got a lot more professional and now we are planning our training months in advance. Being able to hit with Shaun everyday is probably the biggest difference. |
Q8: |
Shaun is from Queensland Australia, he went through the institute with guys like Hilly, Eyles, Martin. His highest ranking was 30. Financially he had trouble travelling the circuit, so he started coaching, and has been coaching in Europe for about 8 years now. I met him through Joe Shaw and Peter Pastijn. I was travelling with Joe, and we were looking for a European base for me. So we have known each other for about 4 years now, became good friends and the coaching developed from there. We are very good friends off court as well, which also helps. |
Q9: |
I was very surprised to see Power lose because in Hurghada I thought he was playing the best I’ve every seen him. As for Peter I was expecting to play him in the semi, but Lee has been playing well all year, but overall it was a surprise. I think the new glass court has nothing to do with it, I think the pressure of winning the British Open has more to do with it. |
Q10: |
I was more focused on my game and I was very determined to make it into the final, since I lost in the semi’s last year. Lee has been playing well all year, and we haven’t played much before, but after his win over Peter he was probably under a lot more pressure to back it up against me. So it was important to get a good start, which I did, then I managed to play my game for most of it. I thought it was my best match all tournament. |
Q11: |
Hard to say, he had no pressure all week, and got more confident as the week went on. |
Q12: |
I think that it’s very hard to play for as along as Chris has on the tour, so the break probably made him relax more. |
Q13: |
I was trying not to, but I was in the first game. |
Q14: |
We were talking about playing my game, not his. I thought I started to play better towards the end of the second, but the no let definitely got me pumped up, but Shaun was still confident I could win. |
Q15: |
I was surprised, but I thought I did play a great game, and he really only stopped with a few points to go. |
Q16: |
My main thought was to keep the tempo high and rush him as much as I could, not to let him get the rhythm that he had at the start of the match. When I got to 8-2, I wasn’t going to let this chance slip away. |
Q17: |
I practice a lot of volleys with Shaun, and it’s become one of my favourite shots. We finish with nick practice at the end of each session. |
Q18: |
My goals for the rest of the season are to maintain my no. 3 position, and put a lot of pressure on Jonathon and Peter at every tournament. Winning the World Open would make a nice double for the year. |
Q19: |
I don’t think that I have any problems with referees, the 2 matches with Power were both rough and a bit loud, but at the end of the day they were great matches. We are both big guys and both play very fast and physical games, so sometimes we will have problems. It really depends how the referee controls the match. At the end of the day we are still friends, and I’m sure we will play more rough matches in the future. |
Q20: |
It’s a good idea to analyze the match from the Super Series. But unless the referees can travel to every major tournament with us, and see us play more often then its going to be tough to raise the level of refereeing, but financially this is difficult to do so. |
Q21: |
Yeah, it has been a great year for Australia in Sports. I always have a great time when I get home, so I’m really looking forward to Melbourne. I’m sure the rest of the guys will have a great time as well, and hopefully they will get to watch a few Australian Rules games while they are there. |