WORLD number one Jansher Khan proved he is in a class of his own by crushing Scotland's Peter Nicol yesterday to reclaim the Cathay Pacific Unisys Open title and declared afterwards that he is still the 'King'. The 25-year-old Pakistani was upset by reports that Nicol would be taking over his number one position and he silenced the critics with a convincing 15-7, 15-10, 15-6 win at the Hong Kong Park Indoor Games Hall. 'Now we know who the king is,' said Khan, winner of the Hong Kong event for the sixth time in eight years. He missed the 1992 tournament and his only defeat in the territory was to Rodney Martin last year. 'Peter beat me at the Leekes Classic and everybody is saying he is the next world champion, but winning one match or tournament doesn't make him king. To become king you would have to be the number one for seven years or more, like Jahangir [Khan] or me. 'Peter has improved a lot and he can be one of the top four players along with Peter Marshall and Rodney Eyles, but for the next four to five years I will still be the king. They may win tournaments, but not the number one position.' Khan was determined from the start to put Nicol in his place, keeping the 21-year-old Scot on the defensive with deep rallies. He strolled through the first game in 15 minutes and continued to control at the Tee until midway through the second when Nicol tried to pick up the pace by going for the volleys. Left-handed Nicol, who is seventh on the Professional Squash Association chart, recovered from 2-8 down to trail 10-13 but Khan quickly pulled out two winners. Apart from winning the first point of the match, the only time Nicol was in front was at 4-3 in the third game. But his lead did not last long as Khan reeled up seven points without reply and swept to an easy 15-6 win, closing the match with a backhand cross-court drive. A deflated Nicol admitted he was beaten by a better man on the day but was still confident he will, sooner or later, become the world number one. 'I didn't play that well because Jansher didn't give me much to hit,' said Nicol, who is from Inverurie, near Aberdeen. 'He kept the ball tight and straight, cutting down all the angles. He's tough to break down once he gets into his rhythm and he was just too good today. 'At the moment I feel confident of becoming the world number two or three but I'm still confident of going on to become the number one. I'll learn from this defeat and I look forward to playing him again.' Meanwhile, the squash fraternity were disappointed to learn that their sport had lost out to triathlon and taekwondo in their bid to get into the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Heather Deayton, executive officer of the Hong Kong Squash Racquets Association, said: 'The Aussies are leading squash players in the world and I would have thought they would choose squash. 'The World Squash Federation had put up a wonderful presentation and it's actually quite surprising that squash would have lost out to taekwondo.' Nicol also expressed surprise, saying: 'I would have thought squash would have been in because it is so popular in Australia. And it's so surprising since pelota got in last time in Barcelona. It's just not fair.' The Australian players, however, had expected the outcome. 'It's all personal influence,' said 20-year-old Byron Davis, claiming a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee is the president of the world taekwondo association. 'It's fair enough triathlon got accepted because it is always strong in Australia. But squash is one of the top three most participated sports in the country whereas taekwondo is not even in the top 10 or top 20.' But top Hong Kong professional Faheem Khan was philosophical, saying: 'That's no big deal. They don't give prizemoney at the Olympics.'
