Simon Parke on the Doorstep: He outlines his approach to Martin Bronstein

8.30.00 London

In the last 12 months Simon Parke has ousted Paul Johnson from the world number four spot and made it his own. He has noticeably matured over that period and demonstrated the skill to beat every player on the circuit. SQUASHTALK caught up with Simon in Santa Barbara where he was playing in Robert Graham's Santa Barbara Open, an invitation tournament. .

Are you feeling confident about the British open?

Yes, I'm looking forward to it. I had a bit of a kick up the arse in Hong Kong, so I'm eager to make up for that.

Well, you had a bit of a setback in Cairo at the Al Ahram. You suddenly fell apart in the second game against Peter Nicol in the semi-final. What happened?

It was conditions that got to me. I was struggling to get my breath after the first game. Just couldn't breathe.

So what happened in Hong Kong?

I just got taken by surprise by Anthony Ricketts. I'd had a very good match against Peter Marshall, I was playing really well. I had to play on the Perspex court and then the glass court and back to the Perspex which was a lot slower. But not to take anything away from Ricketts - he played at a very fast pace, and that tournament was the best he'd ever done.

How do you prepare for the British Open?

Obviously the conditioning is already there; you can't suddenly say 'I'll get fit in the next week.' It's maintenance and make sure you do the right things and prepare for that point in time. Always in the back of your mind is that this is the time you want to peak.

How many hours will you spend on court every day?

Not too long. Right now I'm doing one session per day, that's about two hours, plus the stretching. Yesterday I did some solo practise, some court sprints and ghosting. This coming weekend I've got two hard matches, Del Harris and Alex Gough, which I think is good preparation as well. I won't get back to England until Tuesday, so that's a lot of travelling. That will give me a week before my first match in the Open so I will be taking it fairly easy.

It was towards the end of last year that you hit your peak, beating Nicol and Power in the US Open. Do you know how you got to that point?

Well, as you can guess, it is not an exact formula. It seems to click once you've been working hard and enjoying yourself. The key is to want to go on court and want to win. If you feel like that long enough, it all comes together.

Simon Parke on a streak at the US Open (Photo © Vaughn Winchell)

"...as you can guess, it's not an exact formula ..."

In the European Club championships last weekend, I felt that you had trouble getting yourself motivated.

I'd been working really hard and the only thing on my mind is the British Open. I would have been very unhappy had I lost to David Palmer and Olli Tuominen in a ranking event. I won't have any trouble for motivation in Birmingham. I've got a qualifier first round and then probably Paul Price who has had an injury and has not been doing too well lately. If I beat him I shall possibly be playing Martin Heath if he beats Shabana. I haven't played Martin since the US Open when he stopped because he had a little problem with his heart.

And a possible semi-final meeting with Peter Nicol.. Looking forward to that?

Well I hope I get that far. But yes, I'm look forward to it. Looking for revenge? I always am against Peter. My results against Peter in the last couple of years are I'm 7/1 down. A couple of those were very close - especially in the Super Series final. Power was saying that he likes the glass court because it rewards the shotmaker. Do you find all that difference between glass and Perspex? Yes. In Hong Kong, where they had both, it was dead on the Perspex court and quite quick on the glass court. It doesn't always work like that. I usually prefer the Perspex court because it is livelier.  •

Parke (below) likes to move his opponents up and then work with the lob that's thrown at him (© 2000 Vaughn Winchell)

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