PREVIEW OF PSA MASTERS IN QATAR

Amr Shabana — reigning world champion photo © 2004, Fritz Borchert for SquashTalk

Back to Doha and the big bucks for the PSA Masters and Thierry Lincou and Amr Shabana need to show the world that their results in the last big bucks tourney, the World Open in Lahore in December, were not an aberration in the usual order of things.

The fact was that with so many ranking points in one tournament, just one very good results can do amazing things to a player's ranking. Now it is true that Lincou had a very good year, reaching the semis or final of every tournament, but he still needed that bundle of points given to a finalist in Lahore to overtake the top players and take the number one spot. Shabana, for once, got his act together in a very big way, won the tournament and is now the reigning world champion.

Sadly, since last December they have done very little in the way of results. Lincou admitted a lack of match sharpness earlier this year, and Shabana has had injuries to various parts of his legs, which stopped him from performing at maximum level.

Lincou, seeded one has an interesting top half: when it gets to the quarters he will be facing either Shabana or James Willstrop. Right now, the young Englishman is on such a terrific roll, with his confidence mounting by the minute, that I would not bet against him in any match. Remember Willstrop beat Lincou in the final of the Canary Wharf Classic, and even though that wasn't a totally serious tournament, Willstrop will use that victory to complement his mountain of confidence.

CAN KNEIPP PSYCH OUT WHITE AGAIN?
John White is seeded two to head the bottom half and unless he has one of his periodic brainstorms, he should beat Adrian Grant of England in the first round, to face the winner of Joe Kneipp and Davide Bianchetti. If Kneipp keeps his concentration he should beat the talented Italian, but an upset is possible.

Should Kneipp win as expected he could pose a bit of a problem over White whom he beat the last time they met. Kneipp has White psyched out so should they meet, it will be worth following their match. David Palmer will almost certainly be waiting for the winner in the quarters. There is still a bit of question mark over Palmer?s full recovery from his nightmare experience with his appendix last year. A White/Palmer match is always worth watching ? very little argument, a lot of very fine squash.

IS POWER READY?
And so to Jonathon Power: last year he lost to Darwish in the second round, so reaching the quarters will improve his rankings — he's now seventh. So far this year Power has entered four tournaments and lost in the semis each time. He will be hungry to get a victory and a first place finish here will do wonders for his ranking, confidence and clothing sales. He should beat Simon Parke and then Ong Beng Hee to find himself facing Lee Beachill in the quarters. That'll be a tough one because Beachill has now put together a good string of results and has built a consistency that has eluded him for the last four years. On confidence I would put Beachill to win, but there is still a lot of life in Power and his legendary shotmaking and strategy are still very much in evidence.

So, putting my head on the block, I see the quarter-final line-up in Doha something like this:

Thierry Lincou vs James Willstrop
Peter Nicol vs Karim Darwish
Jonathon Power vs Lee Beachill
David Palmer v s John White.

However, I have been known to get almost everything wrong before.

One more factor: White, Nicol, Lincou and Palmer are just a hairbreadths apart at the top of the rankings, separated by the second decimal point. This means that whoever finished highest (even though they may not win it) will almost certainly take over top spot. The next big tournament, the $120,000 Cathay Pacific is not until September, which puts even greater pressure on the top four to do well in the coming week.

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