28-Apr-04:
NICOL WITHIN REACH OF
YET MORE CAREER LANDMARKS
Tom Maidment looks at the Super Series
Finals Draw ...
 Having
only recently returned from a two-week expedition to the Himalayas,
England’s Peter Nicol will be seeking to scale the heights once again
when, in twelve days time, he embarks on a record-breaking ninth
successive appearance at the $75,000 Brit Insurance Super Series Squash
Finals at London’s Broadgate Arena from 10th to 14th May.
The London-based World No.2, a three times winner of this prestigious
8-man event, hopes to have cause for double celebration by the time the
tournament gets underway after his 48th career victory in the Qatar
Masters last Sunday all but guarantees him a return to the familiar
position of World No.1 in the May PSA Rankings. Securing title No.49 at
the Broadgate Arena on May 14th would see the 31-year-old achieve yet
another remarkable career landmark by equalling Jansher Khan’s record of
four Super Series Finals crowns.
The 2004 Brit Insurance Super Series Finals will be contested by the eight
leading point scorers from the 2003 PSA Super Series Tour – all of whom
are currently ranked in the world’s top 11.
The official draw, announced today, sees the players divided into two
groups of four, Harrow and Fleet, for a three-day round-robin qualifying
stage before the knock-out phase begins on day four.
Peter Nicol, seeded 3, lines up in Harrow and will launch his
record equalling title bid with a match against Nick Matthew,
Sheffield’s 23-year-old Super Series Finals debutant currently rated one
of the game’s fastest rising young stars.
Topping the Harrow Group will be incumbent World No.1 John White,
Scotland’s No.2 Seed, who has benefited of late from coaching assistance
by former Great Britain rugby league star Ellery Hanley. His crunch
encounter with Nicol on day two will be one of the most eagerly
anticipated clashes of the tournament.
The final Harrow Group place is taken by Australia’s Anthony Ricketts
who makes a welcome return to the professional arena after a four-month
absence through injury. *** WITHDRAWN, REPLACED BY JONATHON POWER **
The Fleet Group will be headed by France's world No.3 Thierry Lincou,
the tournament’s top seed. His first match sees him tackle Australia’s
Joe Kneipp, one of two debutants in the Fleet Group. The other,
Egyptian World Open Champion Amr Shabana, will play England’s No.4
seed Lee Beachill – the Qatar Classic champion - in the
tournament’s opening match on Monday 10th May.
The 2004 Brit Insurance Super Series Finals will go down in history as the
first event to pilot the PSA’s newly announced scoring system, which sees
a reduction from the traditional 15 points, point a rally, to 11 points,
point a rally. The new system represents the first change to men’s
professional scoring for 16 years.
The five Super Series Tour qualifying events from 2003 were: The
Tournament of Champions in New York, The PSA Masters in Qatar, The
Canadian Open, The Qatar Classic and the World Open in Lahore, Pakistan.
How the
players got here
2004 marks the second year of title sponsorship by UK General Insurer,
Brit Insurance. British Land, owners of the Broadgate Arena,
are Presenting Sponsors for the sixth successive year.
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Draw and Order of Play
(Seedings in brackets)
FLEET GROUP
THIERRY LINCOU, FRA (1)
LEE BEACHILL, ENG (4)
AMR SHABANA, EGY (5)
JOE KNEIPP, AUS (6)
HARROW GROUP
JOHN WHITE, SCO (2)
PETER NICOL, ENG (3)
NICK MATTHEW, ENG (7)
JONATHON POWER, CAN (8)
Monday 10th May
5pm Shabana v Beachill
6pm White v Power
7pm Lincou v Kneipp
8pm Nicol v Matthew
Tuesday 11th May
5pm Nicol v White
6pm Lincou v Beachill
7pm Matthew v Power
8pm Shabana v Kneipp
Wednesday 12th May
5pm Lincou v Shabana
6pm Nicol v Power
7pm Beachill v Kneipp
8pm Matthew v White
Thursday 13th May
SEMI-FINALS
Friday 14th May
FINAL
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