WORLD SQUASH NEWS

Nicol Within Reach Of Yet More Career Landmarks

Having only recently returned from a two-week expedition to the Himalayas, England's Peter Nicol will be seeking to scale the heights once again when, in twelve days time, he embarks on a record-breaking ninth successive appearance at the $75,000 Brit Insurance Super Series Squash Finals at London's Broadgate Arena from 10th to 14th May. 

The London-based world No2, a three-times winner of this prestigious eight-man event, hopes to have cause for double celebration by the time the tournament gets underway - after his 48th career victory in the PSA Qatar Masters last Sunday all but guarantees him a return to the familiar position of world No1 in the May PSA Rankings.  Securing his 49th PSA Tour title at the Broadgate Arena on May 14th would see the 31-year-old achieve yet another remarkable career landmark by equalling Jansher Khan's record of four Super Series Finals crowns.

The 2004 Brit Insurance Super Series Finals will be contested by the eight leading point scorers from the 2003 PSA Super Series Tour - all of whom are currently ranked in the world's top 11. 

The official draw, announced today (28 April), sees the players divided into two groups of four, Harrow and Fleet, for a three-day round-robin qualifying stage before the knock-out phase begins on day four.

Peter Nicol, seeded 3, lines up in Harrow and will launch his record-equalling title bid with a match against Nick Matthew, Sheffield's 23-year-old Super Series Finals debutant, currently rated one of the game's fastest rising young stars.

Topping the Harrow Group will be incumbent world No1 John White, Scotland's No2 seed, who has benefited of late from coaching assistance by former Great Britain rugby league star Ellery Hanley.  His crunch encounter with Nicol on day two will be one of the most eagerly-anticipated clashes of the tournament. 

The final Harrow Group place is taken by Australia's Anthony Ricketts who makes a welcome return to the professional arena after a four-month absence through injury. 

The Fleet Group will be headed by France's world No3 Thierry Lincou, the tournament's top seed.   His first match sees him tackle Australia's Joseph Kneipp, one of two debutants in the Fleet Group.  The other, Egypt's World Open champion Amr Shabana, will play England's No4 seed Lee Beachill - the Qatar Classic champion - in the tournament's opening match on Monday (10th May).

The 2004 Brit Insurance Super Series Finals will go down in history as the first event to pilot the PSA's newly-announced scoring system, which sees a reduction from the traditional 15 points, point a rally, to 11 points, point a rally.  The new system represents the first change to men's professional scoring for 16 years. 

The five Super Series Tour qualifying events from 2003 were: The Tournament of Champions in New York, the PSA Masters in Qatar, the Canadian Open, the Qatar Classic and the World Open in Lahore, Pakistan.

2004 marks the second year of title sponsorship by UK General Insurer, Brit Insurance Holdings PLC.  British Land, owners of the Broadgate Arena, are Presenting Sponsors for the sixth successive year.

Draw and Order of Play:
Fleet:
[1] Thierry Lincou (FRA), [4] Lee Beachill (ENG), [6] Amr Shabana (EGY), [7] Joseph Kneipp (AUS)
Harrow:
[2] John White (SCO), [3] Peter Nicol (ENG), [5] Anthony Ricketts (AUS), [8] Nick Matthew (ENG)

Monday 10th May; 5pm, Shabana v Beachill; 6pm, White v Ricketts; 7pm, Lincou v Kneipp, 8pm, Nicol v Matthew
Tuesday 11th May: 5pm, Nicol v White; 6pm, Lincou v Beachill; 7pm, Matthew v Ricketts; 8pm, Shabana v Kneipp
Wednesday 12th May: 5pm, Lincou v Shabana; 6pm, Nicol v Ricketts, 7pm, Beachill v Kneipp; 8pm, Matthew v White