| Jonathon Power was the
first big-name player to arrive in Hong Kong, and immediately set about the
task of talking up his prospects of winning here, regaining the world number
one spot, promoting his new range of shoes, and meeting up again with
Jansher Khan. Power's confidence is high, having won
the last four meetings with arch-rival Peter Nicol, who the Canadian is
seeded to meet in the final.
After a 15-hour flight from Los Angeles Power shrugged off
his jet lag to appear on court proudly displaying his new shoes before the
assembled ranks of the press.
"All these wins have come this year, I hope to try and
ride this confidence and use that psychological edge in Hong Kong," Power
told the South China Morning Post.
"My immediate aim is to win back the world number one
position. I have two reasons for this. First is if I'm world number one, it
will help me promote squash in North America. The other is it will also help
market my line of squash shoes," said Power.
"I have held the world number one position every year
since 1998. I need to get it back now so that I can continue this streak. To
do this I have to win in Hong Kong next week and also the US Open next
month."
Last year Power was forced to withdraw on the eve of the
tournament with food poisoning. "I think I ate something bad and swallowed
some bad air. Hopefully it won't happen again. I'm strictly on a water diet
this time," laughed Power.
WELCOME BACK JANSHER
Power is also looking forward to the return of squash legend Jansher Khan to
the circuit.
"It will be like Michael Jordan coming back to basketball.
It is great news that Jansher will return. He is probably the best player
that ever played squash and his comeback will help boost the professional
game."
"I played Jansher nine times. He won seven of them. It is
a pity that I couldn't play him at my peak. His return will definitely raise
the interest level in the game and also be good for Pakistan squash which is
currently struggling," said Power.
Had Jansher's announcement of a return been made earlier,
he may have been granted a wild-card entry for Hong Kong, revealed
Heather Deayton, Hong Kong Squash executive director. "It would have been
great to have Jansher back. After all, he won this tournament on seven
occasions. But our entries closed last month. If this had happened earlier
we would certainly have considered a wild-card request. He would have been a
huge drawcard." |
