The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Clyne gets his campaign on rails at Grand Central
Squash: Inverness ace and partner Lobban open against Mexican opposition
Inverness squash ace Alan Clyne hopes to kick-off his 2019 PSA World Tour campaign in style tomorrow when he competes in the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York.
The eight-times Scottish national champion takes on Mexico’s Cesar Salazar as the $180k Platinum event begins.
The tournament attracts the best squash players in the world with matches played in the Grand Central Terminal.
Clyne has been based in New York since December 20. He said: “I’m well acclimatised and I’m really looking forward to the event.
“Grand Central is obviously an iconic venue and I’ve played in the glass court there a few times.
“You have people in the station walking past frontofcourt”
“You have people in the station walking past the front of the court so in terms of reaching out to new audiences it’s great.
“I love it and having such a big event at the start of the year is brilliant.”
He added: “I had about a week’s break after December’s Black Ball Open in Egypt where I lost in round two against world number three Simon Rösner.
“Then I was back into training at Oriam in Edinburgh working on a few things with Paul Bell (national coach), mainly focusing on my movement.
“There’s a number of players based here in New York so since late December I have been getting in lots of practice matches against different players and different styles.
“So I’m feeling good and hopefully I can put into practice what I’ve been working on.”
On his round one opponent Cesar Salazar, Clyne said: “I’ve beaten him before but we’ve not played for a while.
“He has a fast all–round court game and good movement and a deceptive touch.
“All the players on tour now are tough to play and it’s hard to find a weakness.”
Clyne returns to Scotland later this month to compete in the Edinburgh Sports Club Open beginning on January 31 before heading back stateside for the Pittsburgh Open then the PSA World Championship in Chicago – which has a record prize pot of $500,000.
“It’s a busy start to the year but exciting as well,” said Clyne, who is currently ranked 46 in the world.
“2018 was quite a hectic year with the Commonwealth Games and also getting married which was great.
“My squash wasn’t the best but I’m aiming to push on in 2019 and get my ranking back up.
“The key for me is finding consistency which requires a lot of quality.”
Clyne’s doubles partner Greg Lobban, also from Inverness, is in action tomorrow at the Tournament of Champions against another Mexican, Arturo Salazar.