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[final men's draw]      [final women's draw]

Nicol Turns White to Grey
Manchester April 15 2002 © 2002 SquashTalk.
Photos special to SquashTalk by Fritz Borchert, © 2002

“Everything he volleyed turned to gold,” said John White of Scotland after being beaten three games to zero by world champion Peter Nicol in the final of the 2002 British Open.

I doubt if any journalist could sum up the match more succinctly. Nicol was simply astonishingly good, from any angle, from any height from any part of the court. He could take everything that White could dish out and send it back with punishing accuracy.

Nicol told me after the game he played far better tonight than all week confirming my earlier reports that he was not the Nicol we saw in New York. “I injured my thigh there and for two months it bothered me. It was even hampering me earlier this week, and as the week wore on it felt better and better,” he said. It certainly showed and after half a game you could only sympathise with the plight of White, having to peak again after the superb performance against Power just 24 hours ago.

White knew his short game had to be brought into play but the long and short of it in the first game was that the tin had grown several feet: White made an unbelievable nine errors against four winners to lose 15-9 in 14 ½ minutes.

To describe what happened would mean repeating myself: Nicol was simply impregnable, volleying with venom, picking up White’s wonderfully tight drops and putting them in the back corner, and, when taken short, almost fondling the ball with his racket for unplayable drops. With Nicol leading 8-5 in the second, there was a rally of monumental proportions with White hitting some wicked shots, sure-fire winners under normal conditions, but Nicol was miraculously (there’s no other word for it) getting his racket to the ball to keep it in play. Nicol finished it with a forehand drive and as the spectators applauded, I knew that it was really all over.

Nicol’s pressure was relentless and from that moment on White made another five unforced errors finally hitting the ball out of the court to give Nicol the game 15-8 in 12 minutes. White came out shooting lower, trying to keep the ball low to the back court to put pressure on Nicol, but Nicol handed that with ease. If ever he was in ‘the zone’ this was it and had there been a flood, Nicol would have been walking on water.

Inexorably, from 2-2, Nicol drew ahead and real frustration started to show on White’s face until, at 7-11 he hit three errors – attempted drops – into the tin to put Nicol at match point. In a last gasp White put enough pressure on Nicol to force an error on a backhand volley but it was all over on the second match ball with a winning backhand volley from the man who peaked at the right time to claim his second British Open title. While Nicol was interviewed White walked around the running track throwing his racket in the air in anger and from his body language, roundly cursing himself. When he got back to the seat he was his normal civil self.

“Peter was picking up unbelievable balls and when I tried to get some quick points it just didn’t work. Yesterday Power gave me something to work with but Peter didn’t give me a thing today. I wasn’t tired but it was a real mental challenge after the first game when I realised what I was up against. Even my best shots he returned and put me under pressure. I started hitting it lower in the third and tried to take him short, but that never worked either,” he said. Nicol knew from the beginning that White would crumble.

“I though he was tired after the second game against Power in the semis; It is very hard to play at that standard for two days running, so I knew that if I kept the pressure on him he would crumble. I really enjoyed my game tonight - I played far better tonight than I had all week,” Nicol told Squashtalk.

BRITISH OPEN MEN’S FINAL [view men's draw]
Peter Nicol (Eng) beat John White (Sco) 15-9, 15-8 15-8 (48 mins)