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NICOL CRUISES INTO FINAL
Peter Nicol had beaten Stewart Boswell in all four of their PSA
meetings, the last one being last year's Cathay Pacific semi-final, and in
today's match Boswell never looked like stopping the sequence.
Nicol started strongly, taking the ball early and making
Boswell work hard to stay in the rallies, and took an early lead which he
maintained to claim the first.
Boswell, clearly fatigued after yesterday's marathon,
sensed this was not going to be his day, and according to one observer was
less than fully committed in the next two games. Nicol will be grateful
for the relatively easy passage into the final.
"Last night's match took the edge out of me. I was not
moving well at all today and I couldn't put any pressure on Peter," said
Boswell.
POWER ENDS PALMER'S REIGN
Jonathon Power improved his career statistics over
David Palmer to 6-1 to set up another match with arch rival Peter
Nicol.
As defending champion Palmer was not going to give in
lightly, and took the match to the in-form Power from the start. Power
eased away from 7-7 to take the first, but Palmer battled back to level
the match.
As usual with these two there were a number of
collisions and arguments. Initially Power was light-hearted - when asking
for a let he knew he wouldn't get, he followed up with "don't suppose it
was down, was it?", much to the crowd's amusement. As the match got
tighter the arguments became fiercer, and the services of the court
cleaners were in heavy demand.
Power took the third at a canter, with Palmer making
errors, but the fourth was close all the way.
Power was cut accidentally over the right eye by
Palmer’s racquet in the fourth game with the match tied 6-6. The referee
wanted to stop play so Power could get medical attention but neither
player wanted an interruption.
At 13-all Palmer was denied a let. "I was unlucky not to take it to five.
That call didn't cost me the match because Jonathon was playing well. But
it might have cost me the fourth game," said Palmer.
The Hong Kong title slipped from Palmer's grasp as the Australian saw an
attempted winning drop just clip the top of the tin at match-ball down.
"I thought it was one of our better matches," said
Power. "I’m in better shape than I look and I can’t wait to face Peter."
The Final - preview and reports
Nicol and Power - the
full head to head
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