SQUASHTALK TODAY
WISPA Vassar
NAO Doubles
WISPA Greenwich CT
WISPA Rye NY

RECENT EVENTS
Junior Mens Worlds
Men's World Open
US 5 Man Teams
Weymuller US Open

CURRENT CONTENT
Hall of Fame
News Index
Club Links
Gear Links
E-boast Newsletter
    (sign up now free)

JOHN WHITE:
March Player of the Month

John White beat Peter Nicol in the semi-final of the Flanders Open and then beat former Australian colleague Paul Price in the final to win his first ever Super Series tournament.

COLLEGE USA
Schedules
Team previews

DEPARTMENTS
Latest news
Tournament Calendar
Bronstein Global Gallery
Player of the month
Videos
History
Pakistan Squash
School Squash
Camp Index
Features Index
Player Profiles
Worldwide Clubs
Worldwide Links
Rankings
Jobs

More Good stuff:
About Squash
   Just starting
Books
Juniors Squash
Women's Squash
Regional Reports

March 1, 2001, London. © 2001 SquashTalk

By Martin Bronstein
Although White now flies the Scottish flag, he was brought up in Queensland, Australia where his parents owned a squash club. Not surprising then that he became a squash player, turning professional in 1991 at the age of 18.

But his rise was anything but meteoric: he admits that he didn't enjoy the circuit too much then, the probable explanation for his slow rise up the rankings. It took the tall, lean White six years before he started to attain the sort of results that would turn him from just another top 100 player into a top ten contender.

When John White is playing at his most confident, he can take your breath away with the ease of his stroke play and his audacious winners from anywhere on the court. But as with most shooters, White tried to shoot his way out of trouble, the sort of self-made trouble caused by lack of mental and physical fitness.

Things began to fall in place in 1997 when he won his first two PSA titles, two smaller tournaments in Italy. Nevertheless, he had mounted the winner's rostrum and together with reaching the final in three other tournaments, White began his climb to the top. In 1998 he won the Flanders Open and the Mega Italia Open, reached the quarter finals of the British Open and by the end of the year had broken through to the top 20. But 1999 was a disappointment managing only two semi-final placings. Not that he played badly - his losses were mostly in five and he must have ended the year beating his brains for a way to win the fifth game. He lost to Paul Johnson (then ranked fourth) 8-15 in the fifth in Hong Kong; he lost to Mark Chaloner 10-15 in the fifth in the Al-Ahram; he lost to Ahmed Barada 13-15 in the fifth in Heliopolis but then beat Barada 17-15 in the fifth in the US Open where he went on to beat Paul Johnson in five in the quarters, losing to Power in the semi-final. His final tournament of 199 was the last-minute British Open in Aberdeen where he lost to Omar Elborolossy 11-15 in the fifth.

Nevertheless, White had done enough to move up the rankings to number ten. White started 2000 in great form with a semi-final appearance at the Greenwich Open and making the quarter-finals of the Tournament of Champions. In March of that year, White had broken through to the top ten for his highest ever ranking of 8. But the fifth game bug haunted him; he lost to Marshall, Byron Davis, Power, Ong Beng Hee (twice) and Simon Parke in five game tussles. A back spasm put him out of one tournament, but was looking for a way to get rid of his jinx. In April he moved from Amsterdam to Nottingham, mostly for family reasons. (He now has two children, Kyra, 6 months and a boy, Tyler, 2) But it was in Nottingham that he found what he was looking for in the form of fitness expert Vaughan Williams at Nottingham University.

"He gave me a programme of Plyometrics and strength work. Plyometrics is jumping over boxes and stepping up on to them. Always on your toes ready for the next jump and you're getting that explosive power all the way up from your Achilles to your hips. I was seeing Williams two or three times a week before I went to the States.

The result is that going into the fourth or fifth game I still have that explosive power which allows me to still play at a quite a high pace. If you don't have that, you lose that half a second going for the ball or reading the game," White explains.

The results speak very loudly for themselves. White won the Greenwich Open beating British Open champion David Evans in four. In the preceding rounds he had beaten Walker in four, Boswell in three and Nick Taylor in five. A week later he was in New York for the Tournament of Champions and yes! he beat Peter Marshal 15-12 in the fifth. He met Nicol in the second round - that's the luck of the draw - and lost in four. But revenge was not long in coming and a week later in Antwerp he beat the world champion in four in the semi-finals before going on to win.

White spoke exclusively to Squashtalk about his victory:

"I'd beaten Nicol a few months ago when I played him in the German Bundesliga.

"All that fitness training, endurance and strength work that I did for a month and half before I went to the States all came into place when I played Nicol. Even though I had beaten Beachill 17-15 in the fifth a couple of days before, at the start of the first game against Nicol I felt OK. I told myself to be a lot more patient than I would normally be. Keep the ball tight and keep him to the back and not go for any silly shots. I told myself not to try and get myself out of trouble by trying to hit winners left, right and center."

But aren't winners are part of your game?

"Right and I still hit quite a few winners against Nicol because he gave me a lot more opportunity than he normally gives me when we play each other. So if the ball was in the middle of the court and I felt comfortable, I'd go for it, but if it wasn't there, I'd just keep the rallies going and hopefully he would make the errors and he did make a few unforced errors at the vital part of each game, which is not part of his normal game. This gave me more confidence.

"It was like a role reversal with him normally keeping the rallies going and me making the errors. I was up 11-7 in the first and he came fighting back and I lost 12-15. Coming up for the second game, I told myself 'if you get a lead to take one point at a time - don't think about being three points away from game ball or match ball'. I followed my own advice and everything fell into place and as the game went on I felt as strong as I did at the very beginning.

"I didn't think I was going to win until 16-all and then I got the stroke and Jack Allen, the referee, said 'match to Mr White.' When I heard that, I got goose bumps to start with and then I put my hands and yelled 'Yeah;! Then I shook Peter's hand and the crowd went wild because I had a lot of supporters in the crowd which made it even more exciting."

You've now beaten a player who is very mentally strong.

"That's what makes Peter Nicol so good. Even if he loses the first game he's twice as hard as his opponent and when he gets into the fourth or fifth game he can pick the game up another notch, starts looking for volleys and puts you under more pressure and if you can't go with it, a lot of balls are going to get past you and behind you so you end up retrieving everything. But now I could stay with him and when I felt like pushing him up a notch I could do it and it paid off big time."

You've been up as high as eight in the rankings and you are now 12. Where do you think you should be ranked?

Definitely top four. I've played everybody above me and beaten 75% of them. I've proved myself against Barada, beaten him three out of five. I've got a good record against Parke. It's two each against David Evans and now I've beaten the world champion, it gives me a lot more confidence. I've won my first Super Series event beating the world champion in the seminal...you can't ask much more than that!

"Now I've got to string the results together and stay even more focussed. Doesn't matter whether you've got a good draw or bad draw, you've got to beat everybody."

You are approaching your 28th birthday...is that getting old or are you still coming to your peak?

"No I feel I'm getting stronger and getting to know the game better. I feel strong minded and just as keen to keep on playing the tour."

© 2001 Squashtalk