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David Palmer Overpowers Peter Nicol
By Martin Bronstein © 2003 Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved.
October 5, 2003           [Career Head-to-Head]

PALMER WINS OPEN
It will come as no surprise that David Palmer won his second British Open (he also won in 2001) when he beat Peter Nicol in the 2003 final in Nottingham. The surprise is that Nicol made an appearance at all as a living, breathing human being rather than with rouged cheeks lying in a coffin. His efforts in beating Jonathon Power in the semi-finals were so enormous, so life-sapping that when he hit the final point, his eyes were blank and his body empty.

An Estimated 800 fans packed historic Albert Hall in Nottingham for Sunday's finals .(photo: ©2003, Fritz Borchert)

But there he was today on court facing the totally fit David Palmer, who had spent four months out of the game because of his appendix and some questionable medical care. He says he lost 10 kilos in hospital (My god! What a huge appendix!) but the break was good, the first time he had given his body a real break. He thinks he is back to where he was and now looks to improving on that.

Despite the difference in the states of health of the players, Nicol pushed his opponent all the way in the first game, still pulling out some super shots and wonderful retrievals and looking as fast as ever in his reactions. Palmer played his normal game of good length and going for the shots as soon as they were on. Which was strange — he made the usual number of errors (not a lot) but each one was a bit of hope to a tired Nicol. Which is why Palmer won the first game by a mere two points ,15-13, rather than by a chunk.

Nicol Fought Gamely On.(photo: ©2003, Fritz Borchert)

We waited for Nicol too collapse, but again he surprised us by playing his usual game and actually leading the second game 10-8 and 13-11. This man is incredible! At 13-13 there was a huge, wonderful rally, rather like a firework display, with Palmer finishing it with thunderous forehand slam into the nick to get to game ball. This finished with an exchange of feather drops at the front left corner of the court with Palmer just getting the final touch to win 15-13.

Fatigue finally showed in the third and Palmer played steadily, impeccably to make sure that he wasn’t punished by the sight of the winning post, as Power had been the night before. In 12 minutes he had the game 15-8 and his second British Open title, more than compensation for dropping down to third in the rankings. On the stage, accepting his trophy and $6,400 cheque he said that this was the best day of his life.

It had been a good British Open, far better than we had a right to expect for a tournament that had less than ten weeks to prepare. John Bedddington and John Nimick should be heartened by this and hopefully build on it for the next one.

Men's Finals:
[2] David Palmer (AUS) bt
[1] Peter Nicol (ENG) 15-13, 15-13 15-8

Peter Nicol - David Palmer head-to-head (Nicol leads series 9-4) :