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NICOL: I KNOW I'LL HAVE TO WORK EVEN HARDER IN 2002

PETER NICOL ended his competitive year on a high note by winning the YMG Capital Classic in Toronto. With the cancellation of the WSF World Championship in Melbourne and then PSA World Open in Mumbai, the Canadian event assumed increased significance. "At first I wasn't going to play Toronto," Nicol admitted. "It would have been too much with all the other events that were scheduled. However, as soon as it became clear that they were not going ahead I made sure my name was down."

Nicol certainly had a point to prove, having lost to Jonathon Power in last year's Toronto final and surrendered his number one ranking earlier this year, first to Power and then to Australian David Palmer.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Nicol tells ALAN THATCHER of his feelings about his rivals and his plans for 2002.

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Peter Nicol's site - pnsquash.com

It's always interesting to see how players react after winning a major tournament. Peter Nicol followed up his win over Stewart Boswell in the YMG Classic in Toronto by spending an hour in the gym the following morning. It's not something you could imagine Jonathon Power doing. David Palmer maybe, but Power? Never.

It's not that Nicol is a killjoy and doesn't know how to celebrate. He had certainly enjoyed a late night after the final, in company with a large number of the PSA stars in Toronto, and was in the gym after just a few hours' sleep.

Let Peter take up the story. "After the tournament reception party at the BCE Place, a lot of the players and their friends headed to a bar, then off to a nightclub. We were a bit surprised to see the shutters in the bar come down promptly at 2am and most of us were still up for some action. One of the locals said he knew of a bar that stayed open late, so we all piled into a fleet of taxis and headed miles across town. Sure enough the bar was open, and there was a great band on stage playing old Rolling Stones numbers, but I felt really out of place wearing a suit. It was a real redneck bar and I just thought 'Oh my God. What am I doing here? I'll get killed.' However, I got a major shock when I saw that all these hard-looking guys were drinking orange juice and soft drinks. Just like the nightclub we had left, this place had to stop serving alcohol at 2am. It was a surreal experience."

So Nicol was still fairly compus mentis as he worked out the following morning after a punishing final against young Australian Boswell the night before. Mind you, when we met for lunch at the CN Tower on the Saturday afternoon, Nicol admitted: "I feel awful right now, really s--t." We had planned to travel to the top of the Tower with film-maker Jean De Lierre, but with Peter starving and the restaurant surprisingly not opening until 5pm we grabbed a bite in the downstairs cafe. The world champion insisted on paying.

After a pizza and salad, with Peter adding a bag of crisps for an extra carb-load, we chatted about his contemporaries, the changing appearance of the PSA rankings, and his plans to combat the young bucks racing up the rankings to challenge the likes of him, Palmer and Power.

"I honestly can't see Jonathon sticking around at the top for too much longer." he said. "He admits he doesn't like training and is probably still surviving on the work he put in four years ago. "Nicol had to battle back from 2-1 down to beat Power in a hugely entertaining semi-final that finished with Nicol screaming in delight and Power hurling his racket out of the back of the court and into a nearby bank foyer. "It might be enjoyable for the fans but I don't like playing Jonathon," he admitted. "I hate it. He really gets on my nerves. I haven't felt like that since I played Ahmed Barada in Egypt a couple of years ago. Jonathon was getting up to all his old tricks and I was letting him get away with it. I was letting him get to me and I was losing concentration. I was angry with myself for playing such rubbish squash but Lee Beachill came over into my corner after the third game and gave me some useful advice. He just told me go back on court and start keeping it straight again, tidy things up and stop letting Jonathon get in at the front. Luckily it worked."

Nicol advanced to match ball at 14-9 in the fifth game but once again Power launched into a massive comeback in the hope of matching his miraculous recovery the previous evening when he had hit back from 14-9 down in the fifth to beat Australian Paul Price. This time Nicol just held it together to squeeze home 15-13 with Power claiming a broken string had affected his concentration in the final rally.

Earlier in the tournament, Nicol had to withstand a concentrated attack from young Australian Anthony Ricketts before enjoying a more straightforward victory over Malaysian Ong Beng Hee, one of his training partners at the Connaught Club in London. "I felt that was the best Bengy has ever played against me," said Nicol. "We have played each other a lot in tournaments and he got to me a bit more than usual. As for Ricketts, I thought he was gone after the second game. I was a bit lucky to pinch the first 17-16 but I made him do a lot of work in the second. But in the third he looked across at me and saw I was puffing a bit and somehow managed to get himself up again to take the third. I was glad to have a rest day before facing Bengy."

As for the final, Nicol was impressed with the advances Boswell had made in his game since their summer meeting in the final of the Scottish Open, which Peter won in straight games. He said: "Stewart has had a good year and has improved probably by five per cent since the Scottish Open. That is a big improvement to make in such a short space of time and he likes to go short and attack. But the threat from guys like him means I will simply have to work even harder in 2002. I expect to regain my number one ranking from David Palmer sometime early in the new year but I can't afford to be complacent. I will be training hard between now and Christmas. In fact I will probably celebrate Christmas early and then get back into training for the US Open early in January.

"Palmer has had a great year but I know how he feels. Toronto was probably just one tournament too many for him after the year he's had but I expect he will come back refreshed and trying something new next year. I have beaten him five times in a row and Lee Beachill showed out here just how vulnerable David can be and how dangerous Lee can be when he's firing on all cylinders and getting his perfect length. I know because I was on the receiving end of it in the British Open. Lee knows that to win major tournaments he has to work on being able to put three or four of those performances together in a row. But all these guys are improving, so, as I say, I will just have to work even harder to get my number one ranking back and hold on to it."

Nicol only played Toronto because of the cancellation of the World Championships in Melbourne the World Open in Mumbai. He was delighted with the stand that his fellow professionals  took at a PSA meeting in Qatar, when they received the news that would-be World Tour backers Fablon were offering only half the prize money agreed for the new Melbourne event. "I was glad the players stuck together," he said. "It would have looked ridiculous to have accepted the lower offer so soon after playing for the world's richest purse this year in Qatar. It would have sent out the wrong messages. In the end it was all down to whether Jonathon and I would agree to play in Australia and we both said No. Had we agreed then other promoters might have tried to knock down prize money accordingly."

After the long flight back through the night from Toronto to Heathrow, Nicol allowed himself the luxury of a day off on the Sunday. He was picked up from the airport and went straight to the Brands Hatch motor circuit in Kent, where he watched a friend put his new racing car through its paces. Then it was up to London in the afternoon to watch Arsenal beat Manchester United 3-1 in the battle of English soccer's giants. After battling through the crowds at Highbury, it was off to The Ivy, one of the city's swankiest restaurants, to celebrate his win in Toronto.

So this boy does know how to party, after all. And in some style. There was more to come, with a big family gathering in Germany a few days later to celebrate his grandmother's 80th birthday near Paderborn, where Nicol, whose late mother was German, plays his Bundesliga squash.

An audio file of Peter Nicol's interview will soon be available.

 

 


Nicol v Boswell
Scottish & Toronto final wins

 

 


Nicol v Palmer
5 wins in a row for Nicol

 

 


Nicol v Power
Tournament of Champions 2001 final

 

 


Nicol v Power
Al Ahram 2001 final

Nicol now leads 14-11 in
head-to-head series

 


That old Green Magic -
special offer for SP readers

Peter Nicol Green Magic offer

Peter Nicol's site - pnsquash.com