A couple of years ago the top boys had it easy. Peter Nicol would turn up, beat his opponents in three or four, collect the check and trophy and go home. Not any more: the world number one played the world number seven, Anthony Ricketts in the quarter-final of the world open and had to battle through 93 minutes to achieve his victory after almost losing it in the fourth. World number five John White had it slightly easier when he faced Simon Parke, ranked 21 places below him, and rather than a quick 3/0 victory in 30 minutes he was on court 72 minutes before winning in four.

Had anybody offered me half -decent odds, I would have bet on Ricketts and Parke to win. Ricketts is improving at a tremendous pace and that fifth game scoreline of 15-8 is all about experience: Nicol has been there many times before and knows how to keep his head. It is in the fifth game that you have to be not at your most brilliant, but at your steadiest. The same thing happened to Ricketts in the US Open in September and he admitted that he got just that little bit tense and rushed things.

After this victory Nicol confirmed the foregoing: “Anthony was within a couple of points of winning the whole match in the fourth, but fortunately I got a couple of points at the right time and kept in the match. In the end it came down to in me having that bit more experience," said Nicol. "I've played matches like this in big tournaments many times. Anthony's only 22, and I know he'll be playing a lot more matches at this level."

Despite the new directives to referees to jump on dissent and bad behaviour, there were two incidents in this match, one got punished one didn’t. At 12-all in the first Nicol, unusually, came out of the court to protest that a ball that hit his shoe would not have reached the front wall for the stroke that the referee gave to Ricketts. Players are allowed to open the door of the court to hear what the referee is saying, but leaving the court is now a conduct stroke. Nicol was not punished while Ricketts was quite rightly docked a stroke for telling the referee to Piss off.
But the general consensus was that it was a gripping game of attacking squash that left the paying customers more than happy.

John White lost the first game 16-17 and switched to his scintillating winners to win the second and then take command to take the final two games comfortably from a tiring Parke, who was finally feeling the effects of two hard five-game matches to reach this stage. If White’s winners had not been working, there might have been another story, but more and more White is acquiring consistency and now only rarely loses to a lower ranked player.

White plays Nicol in the semi-final, but fortunately for Nicol, who is defending the title he won three years ago, he will have a day’s rest to get over his five-setter. Tomorrow sees the other two quarters with an on-form Martin Heath playing David Palmer and Jonathon Power facing the tough Thierry Lincou of France.