England's Peter Nicol, who regained his place at the top of the world rankings last week, has thrown down the gauntlet to his rivals at next week's Brit Insurance Super Series Squash Finals which take place at London's Broadgate Arena from 10^th 14^th May. 

"I'm playing extremely well at the moment and I'm very happy with my form," said the 31-year-old, three-time Super Series Finals Champion. "All I need to do is ensure that I'm there physically because if I'm fit, I'm going to be very hard to beat."

Nicol has shown some excellent form coming into next weeks tournament. After storming to victory at the PSA Qatar Masters in Doha two weeks ago - taking his total career wins to within two of the 50-mark - he then swept aside France's former world no.1, Thierry Lincou, in the final of the European Team Championships in Rennes on Saturday, helping England's men to an impressive victory over the event hosts.

Nicol is all too aware, however, that he won't have it all his own way when the tournament gets underway at the Broadgate Arena on Monday. Tuesday's call-up of defending champion Jonathon Power as a late replacement for the injured Anthony Ricketts means that he will face stern tests against two former world no.1's on consecutive evenings during the round-robin group stage.  He lines up against Scotland's John White - the man he deposed of the no.1 spot less than a week ago - in his second Harrow Group match on Tuesday evening before facing Power the following night in a repeat of last year's final.

"The Brit Insurance Super Series Finals is a tough event," he said.  "It's been proved before that any one of the top four or five seeds is capable of winning the event and outside of that you've got players who can win the big one-off matches against the top guys, so every match is crucial."

One player looking to defy the formbook is England's Brit Insurance Super Series Finals debutant, Nick Matthew, who Nicol describes as "a fabulous prospect".  The Sheffield-based 23-year-old has shot up the world rankings during the course of the past 12-months and is now widely recognised as England's fastest rising squash star. The pair face each other on Monday evening. 

Matthew is one of three debutants to feature in next weeks Brit Insurance Super Series Finals. The other two, Joe Kneipp of Australia and the Egyptian World Open Champion, Amr Shabana, have both been drawn in the Fleet Group alongside top Seed Thierry Lincou and England's Lee Beachill.

"Shabana is probably the biggest threat of the three debutants and you've got to give him respect," said Nicol.  "He's the world champion so he's proved he's got the ability to win a major event."  

Kneipp and Matthew have done exceptionally well throughout the year and made good progress up the rankings, but both are yet to win a really big event.

Nicol's performances this year, which have also seen him win the Kuwait Open and The Tournament of Champions in New York, have been enough to take him back to the top of the world rankings after his unbroken two-year reign came to an end in January. He is philosophical, however, about the four-month period he spent in the unfamiliar positions of no.2 and no.3 in the PSA rankings.

"It was good not being the world no.1," he said. "It's all part of life and all part of being a squash player. 

"The most important thing is to enjoy squash and to enjoy life.  That's a slight change in focus for me but as long as I'm playing as I want to and performing to the best of my ability, then I've got to be happy with how it goes.

Victory next week would see Nicol equal Jansher Khan's record of four Super Series Finals titles.  He launches his record equalling title bid against Nick Matthew at 8pm on Monday 10^th May.

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