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PSA PLAYER BIOGRAPHY Name: Nick Matthew Country: England Date of Birth: 25 July 1980 Height: 183 cms Place of Birth: Sheffield Place of Residence: Sheffield Current World Ranking (Feb 04): 6 Highest World Ranking (Oct04): 5 National Ranking: PSA Titles: 4 PSA Final Appearances: 16 |
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After a promising junior career – in which he represented England in both the European and World Team Championships and was runner-up in the 1998 European Junior Open and winner of the 1999 British Junior Open – Nick Matthew exploded into the senior ranks in 2003 with a string of remarkable successes on the PSA Tour which saw him leap to a career-high No5 in the Dunlop PSA World Rankings in October 2004. Born and raised in Sheffield in Yorkshire, Matthew enjoyed an excellent run in 2003 – reaching the quarter-finals of both the English Open (in his home town) and US Open as a qualifier – thereafter making his senior England debut in the World Team Championships in Austria – where he was unbeaten as England secured a bronze medal finish. The best was yet to come, however, as Nick claimed two of the biggest scalps of his career in the Qatar Classic, beating fifth seed Jonathon Power and third seed David Palmer to reach the semi-finals of the Super Series event. Matthew continued his progress in 2004, exceeding his seeding in the Swedish Open to reach the final after wins over 4th seed Joseph Kneipp and 8th seed James Willstrop before finishing as runner-up to Egypt’s Karim Darwish. He pulled off two sensational victories in the Bermuda Open in March – firstly despatching top seed Thierry Lincou, the Frenchman who became world No1 in January, then defeating Egypt’s world champion Amr Shabana to reach the semi-finals. In April, Nick claimed his first PSA Tour title for almost two years when he upset second seed Greg Gaultier in the final of the Windy City Open in Chicago – then the following month, in his first appearance in the Super Series Finals in London, he trounced two former world number ones Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power to reach the semi-finals – eventually taking fourth place after losing to another former world No1 John White in the play-off for third place. Matthew celebrated his first appearance in a Super Series event final in September when he engineered a major semi-final upset over David Palmer took him through to the final of the Hong Kong Open. This time Lincou was too strong, winning in straight games. As the year reached its conclusion, injury woes began to hamper Matthew's progress – and, after reaching the quarter-finals of the Tournament of Champions in February 2005, his back problems surfaced again as Nick had to concede his match against Thierry Lincou midway through the third game after winning the opener. |
NICK MATTHEW TOURNAMENT SUCCESSES: Feb 05 Quarter-finalist *Tournament of
Champions USA |