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 The British Open Preview
By Dan Kneipp

A few famous British Open winners: Roshan, Azam, Hashim

The British Open is incorrectly named. It would be more appropriate to call it ‘The tournament played on British soil, but usually won by Pakistanis and occasionally Egyptians’. The tournament started seventy-two years ago but because of war stoppages has been hosted sixty-six times. Of those sixty-six events a ludicrous thirty titles have gone to Pakistani players. Egypt is a distant second with thirteen and the only other country to have more than nine victories. Australians have won it nine times (eight Hunts and a Palmer). Jonah Barrington's 6 titles represent the only Irish victories. A Scotland-born player has won it twice, and a Canadian (Power) and a Welshman (Evans) have both had one-off victories.

So the British Open has been won a ridiculously small number of times by British men. Without Jonah Barrington efforts, only 7 trophies have remained on home soil, with Barrington's 6 helping out the locals' average considerably.

Players from only 8 different countries - Pakistan, Egypt, Australia, Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada and Wales, have won the title. Which is not many countries considering that in this year’s tournament alone (and the main draw is half the normal size) there are fourteen countries represented - Australia, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Pakistan, Scotland and Wales.

A few of the players who have hoarded the British Open, including Azam, Hunt, Hashim, Barrington, Roshan, Mo

Despite the event being held sixty-six times, only nineteen men have won the title. Eight players have won four or more titles with the record standing at ten by Jahangir Khan. For such an old and prestigious tournament, that’s a lot of dominance by individuals. The level playing field of today's game is emphasised by the inability of one particular player to dominate this tournament in the same manner that has happened in the past. Nicol is the only player in today's game to win more than one British Open. Not only did it take Nicol a while to win his second British title, but the last four victories have been won by four different players.

Here’s how the first round looks:

Peter Nicol (England) versus Martin Heath (Scotland)

Over the past three and a half years Nicol has played something like 153 matches over 37 PSA tournaments. Obviously the more times you win in a tournament, the more matches you’re going to have in your career. Heath over the same period of time has actually played three more tournaments, has been ranked as high as five so is obviously winning lots of matches, but has still played 66 less matches than Nicol. The reason I’m bringing up these obscure (and painstakingly difficult to work out) figures is this: during these three and a half years Nicol has only been beaten by eleven men - and Martin Heath is one of them. Scotland’s two top players (of birth) have played each other five times over the past few years. Heath’s sole victory was at the Tournament of Champions of 2000. These two haven’t played since March last year – Nicol won their semi final encounter at the Pakistan Open

If Nicol’s play at Boston is anything to go by, this first match will be very unpredictable. Joe’s first round match at the US Open was directly after Nicol’s match with Beachill, so I got to see most of the match. Nicol lost the first game fairly easily. He was struggling to read Beachill’s shots, especially when he was holding the shot, but uncharacteristically Nicol’s body language was bad. He was kicking the ball, yelling at himself, getting unusually bothered by decisions and looking considerably less composed than normal. Naturally he pulled himself through it and ended up with the victory. In the quarter finals he was down 2-0 to Ryding. Yet he won both these matches and when the final came he played incredible squash to defeat an in-form Palmer. But it looked like he wasn’t going to get past the first round. If Heath steps on court ready and eager to win, and Nicol isn’t concentrating properly then an upset is possible here (but a long shot).

Jonathon Power (Canada) versus Mark Chaloner (England)

Power has always said that he doesn’t play good squash in England. His sole British Open victory was in Scotland. Last year he put that negative stigma behind and won the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and will be hoping to continue that form in Nottingham with his second British title. His opponent is Mark Chaloner who so far has had a very quite year, only managing to play four tournaments. Marriage has prevented him from hanging out with the boys as much (actually it has been a wedding clashing with a tournament and injury problems). His current ranking (September) is 16, his worse in three years.

Chaloner hasn’t beat Power in a PSA tournament. He has lost their last five encounters, the more recent in Toronto at the Canadian Classic in November.

John White (Scotland) versus Mansoor Zaman

McWhitey was the British Open finalist last year. He has won two of the past three tournaments he has played and will have the enormous home advantage of being able to return to his wife, kids and own bed after his match. The more calm and collected McWhitey is the more often winners come flying off his racquet.

His opponent is the #1 Pakistan player – Mansoor Zaman. The six year drought since Pakistan last won this title (Jansher beat Nicol) must seem like an eternity for Pakistan squash players and fans, looking to find the halycon squash days of old. Eight Pakistanis began this tournament with seven entering the qualifying tournament. Only Mansoor remains. He hasn’t played in a British Open before, which is surprising for a player that has been ranked in the 30s or better for the past three years. Mansoor has very good racquet skills and likes hitting winners. McWhitey has been known to hit the occasional winner himself. This could be the most entertaining shot-making match of the first round (which is different from the best squash).

David Palmer (Australia) versus Amr Shabana (Egypt)
Another great match. Palmer won this event in 2001. Shabana won the Spanish Open in June and has shown that he can beat most men on the tour. Both of these players have a diverse game and love attacking and dominating. Shabana’s racquet skills are probably better, but Palmer is a much more consummate player.

Over the past three years Palmer has only lost once in the first round of a tournament. That was in January 2001, two months before he won his British Open title. His victor on that occasion was Shabana. It was the only time the two have played in a PSA tournament. While it would be a tad brave to bet on an upset here, no one expected Shabana to win recently in Spain when Nicol, Ricketts, Beng Hee and Darwish were all at the tournament.

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