Canary Wharf not Cut and Dried
by Martin Bronstein in London, Mar 22, 2004 © 2004    Draw  

Twelve months ago we could have looked at the line-up for the new Canary Wharf Classic and forecast quite easily who would be in the final. It was all cut and dried and the pecking order at the top of the PSA tree was accepted by all. The winners knew they would win, the losers knew they would get sympathy. But things have changed; my, how they’ve changed! There were murmurings of out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new for the last 12 months, with odd, surprising losses by Peter Nicol, John White and David Palmer. Jonathon Power was out with injuries for much of that period. When it came to the huge World Open, not one of those four were in contention in the final. Instead that tournament produced more upsets in a week than normally happens in a year.

The year ended with Amr Shabana as world champions and Thierry Lincou the new world number one.

Since then neither of those players had produced the form that their titles demand. Lincou was knocked out early in Qatar, New York and then Bermuda where he suffered the indignity of a first round loss to Nick Matthew, the man who knocked out Amer Shabana in the quarters of the same tournament. Nicol also went out in the quarters at the hands of David Palmer and John White, the latest world number one, found Jonathon Power too clinical and also went out in the quarters.

Shabana and Power are not playing Canary Wharf – too far to travel – but the line-up is full of potential fireworks. The three names that will be watched are James Willstrop, Lee Beachill and Nick Matthew, three Yorkshireman who will almost certainly comprise England’s team for years to come.

Beachill is finally finding the consistency that he so badly lacked and with his win in Bermuda is starting to stake his claim for top spot. He finds himself in the same groujp as White, Palmer and Willstrop, which is by far the toughest group. Any one of the four could win that group and nobody would be one bit surprised.

Opening day finds White facing Palmer, and what a cracking opener that will be for the tournament. Beachill will play Willstrop and that is one match I can forecast: Beachill will win because Willstrop still has to get over the ‘big brother’ complex. They train together and Beachill was on the world circuit while Willstrop was just a junior, and the incredibily talented Willstrop – still only 20 years old – has to start regarding Beachill as the enemy. In successive days when they go on to play each other, anything can happen. They have all had victories over each other and nothing in recent form suggests that one has forged ahead. So, an interesting three days for the Canada Place Group.

The Jubilee Place Group is a little easier: Peter Nicol and Nick Matthew will fight it out for top place leaving Lincou and Ong Beng Hee to pick up the crumbs. Lincou is simply not playing enough matches and that iron-hard consistency that allowed him to reach the semis or finals of every tournament he played in last year, has not been recovered. Ong Beng Hee, too, is trying desperately to regain the form (and enjoyment) that took him the top five two years ago.

Nick Matthews is still under-rated even though he has been collecting scalps at a great rate.

For some reason he doesn’t have glamour boy image. But he should worry; he is climbing the rankings, playing a good all-round game and gaining confidence by the minute. He has yet to beat Nicol, but that should happen very soon. He handed Lincou a beating in five games over 90 minutes in Bermuda and, waddya know?, they meet again on the opening day in Canary Wharf. Unless Lincou has done some really serious training, I back Matthew to win.

Nicol always bounces back from a bad loss to produce winning form in the next tournament so I expect him to win the Jubilee Group with Matthew second, Lincou third and Beng Hee fourth.

The other point to add to the handicap mix is the fact that as an eight-man invitational event, there are no ranking point at stake, just pride and money (and not a great deal of that). But there is no doubt the new boys have arrived and are here to stay; The pecking order has been thrown away and we are starting with a clean sheet. More hints and knowledge will be obtained from the Canary Wharf matches and I shall be there everyday bringing live reports to Squashtalk.

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2004. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 409 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 102, Acton, MA 01720 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2004 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.