Marshall-Nicol match worth looking forward to

At the outset, I want to express my pleasure at being back in Mumbai once again, and it's that time of the year which all squash players lo...

At the outset, I want to express my pleasure at being back in Mumbai once again, and it’s that time of the year which all squash players look forward to. It’s good to see that the players have had a busy schedule lately, but this tournament is definitely shaping up to be a big climax for a lot of reasons.

We’ve the world No 1 Jansher Khan here for the first time and he will be looking forward to prove why he is the best player in the world. In the recent past, he lost in Kuwait to Peter Nicol, missed the

World Open at Kuala Lumpur and then was beaten by Jonathan Power at Qatar. He had a tremendous win in Pakistan and will be looking at having a very good tournament here, which I’m sure he is capable of.

This is the fifth edition of this tournament and I, alongwith all the squash professionals, want to thank the sponsors Mahindra and Mahindra for supporting the game of squash. I’m sure that next year’s Mahindra World Open will also be a great tournament and something to look forward to.

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I’m very happy with my victory at the World Open. It’s been something I was chasing for a long time. I’m pleased and satisfied with my form and am feeling very relaxed coming into this tournament.

This tournament is very exciting for squash at the moment because it creates a lot of interest with a lot of different players ending up with the silver ware at the end of the week.

Looking at the draw, one of the special matches of the first round on the Thunderdome will be that of local wild card Arjan Singh. He’ll he hoping to do well in front of his home crowd.

One of the great match-ups is between the ex-world No 2 Peter Marshall and the current world No 2 Peter Nicol. Marshall is on his comeback trail after getting on top of a battle with chronic fatigue syndrome which kept him out for two years.

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Right now, he’s a popular player in Mumbai with the spectators due to his determination and unique two-handed style of playing. I am not one for predictions, but again it has to be said that the in-form players to look out for are Jansher Khan, Jonathan Power, Peter Nicol and yours truly. But if any of us were to look too far ahead it could be fatal.