Nick Matthew
Confirmed As
New World Number One
The June
Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, published by the
Professional Squash Association, confirm that Nick Matthew is the new
world number one for the first time.
The
29-year-old from Sheffield becomes the 16th man to top the list since the world
rankings were first introduced in the mid-70s - and the first Englishman since
Lee Beachill was world number one in December 2004, which followed fellow
countryman Peter Nicol's 60-month run between 1998 and 2004.
Matthew
clinched the sport's premier position after winning last month's Sky Open,
the third PSA Super Series event of the year in Egypt. The triumph marked
his fourth Tour title of the year - and moved the British National champion
ahead of rival Ramy Ashour, the Egyptian who had topped the rankings
since January. Favourite Ashour suffered a surprise semi-final defeat in front
of his home crowd in Cairo.
"Becoming
world number one is every sports person's dream and it's something I've worked
towards all of my squash life since I turned professional in 1998," said Matthew
on hearing the confirmation of his achievement. "The enormity of it certainly
hasn't sunk in yet (there's something about being a squash player that keeps
your feet firmly on the ground!) and at the time it certainly came out of the
blue, as I had prepared myself to have to beat Ramy in front of all his fans in
the final if I were to achieve my goal!
"Squash
missing out on London 2012, and Rio 2016 for that matter, was a massive blow and
hopefully this will give the sport of squash a much-needed boost in this
country. England squash is currently enjoying its most successful period ever
and hopefully, as a group, we can inspire the next generation of players.
"With the
season being over now, it's a great time to have achieved this," Matthew added.
"It means I can put my feet up for a few weeks and then come back refreshed and
ready for the new challenge of holding on to the top spot. When I come back I
will be reassessing my goals - and becoming World Champion and winning
Commonwealth gold will be very high on the agenda."
Alex Gough,
the former world No5 who is now the PSA CEO, added: "There is no one out there
at the minute that deserves this more than Nick. Over the last three or four
years he has had more setbacks than anyone - but he has never once complained.
"Instead,
fearlessly and relentlessly, he has come back time after time with this as the
main goal in mind. It will have meant everything for him to reach world number
one and he will not want to let this feeling go. The other guys on the Tour are
going to have to double efforts to get it back from him.
"Squash is in
a fantastic place at the moment, as any one of five or six players can win one
of the major events - and this is leading to very high quality matches and
tournaments. The second half the year starts again in Canberra, Australia for
the Australian Open in August - and all eyes will be on Nick Matthew
to see how he handles the extra pressure."
|
|
|
Rank |
Prev |
Player |
Pts |
Ctry |
| 1é |
[2] |
Nick
Matthew |
1283 |
Eng |
|
2ê |
[1] |
Ramy Ashour |
1190 |
Egy |
|
3 |
[3] |
Amr
Shabana |
968 |
Egy |
|
4 |
[4] |
Karim
Darwish |
858 |
Egy |
|
5é |
[6] |
Gregory
Gaultier |
700 |
Fra |
|
6ê |
[5] |
James
Willstrop |
681 |
Eng |
| 7é |
[8] |
Thierry Lincou |
549 |
Fra |
| 8ê |
[8] |
Peter Barker |
519 |
Eng |
|
9 |
[9] |
Daryl Selby |
412 |
Eng |
|
10 |
[10] |
David Palmer |
395 |
Aus |
| 11é |
[12] |
Wael El Hindi |
380 |
Egy |
| 12ê |
[11] |
Laurens Jan Anjema |
372 |
Ned |
|
13 |
[13] |
Adrian Grant |
334 |
Eng |
|
14 |
[14] |
Mohamed El Shorbagy |
333 |
Egy |
|
15 |
[15] |
Alister Walker |
330 |
Eng |
|
16 |
[16] |
Cameron Pilley |
326 |
Aus |
|
17 |
[17] |
Stewart Boswell |
310 |
Aus |
|
18 |
[18] |
Azlan Iskandar |
285 |
Mas |
|
19 |
[19] |
Ong Beng Hee |
266 |
Mas |
|
20 |
[20] |
Omar Mosaad |
255 |
Egy |
|
|
| 
