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NICOL: I KNOW I'LL HAVE TO
WORK EVEN HARDER IN 2002 |
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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. |
Peter Nicol Green
Magic offer |
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 -
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Peter Nicol Green
Magic offer |
Peter Nicol's site - pnsquash.com |
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