After a hugely-successful 2002 - in which he leapt from 18 to 7 in the Dunlop PSA World Rankings over the year - Anthony Ricketts consolidated his success the following year by rising to world No6 in October 2003.
But a knee injury following his appearance in the Apawamis Open in January 2004 caused the Australian to return to Sydney from his UK base in Reading for treatment. He returned to the PSA Tour seven months later - at the English Open in Sheffield - and just over a year later clinched the British Open title for the first time and rose to a career-high world No3.
Ricketts first came to international notice in the 2000 Hong Kong Open when he came through the qualifiers to reach his first Super Series event semi-finals. Later in the month, he beat top seed Paul Price in the final of the Australian Open to claim his domestic Open title for the first time.
In 2003, he won the Dayton Open title in the US, beating Thierry Lincou in the final - but, after his injury layoff the following year, dropped to 14 in the world rankings.
As his confidence grew in late 2004 after his comeback, so results began to come his way:
He progressed beyond his seeding in the Hungarian Open, the Canadian Classic and World Open in Qatar, and reached the final of the Pakistan Open in Islamabad as the tenth seed!
And the following February in New York, where he was also seeded ten, he beat third seed Peter Nicol, then Amr Shabana in the semi-finals, before defeating world champion and world No1 Thierry Lincou in the final of the Tournament of Champions.
"This is a big moment for me, I've been waiting for this for a long time," said the Ricketts after beating the Frenchman 11-10 7-11 11-9 6-11 11-7 in 89 minutes to take the biggest title of his career to date.
But best was yet to come: In the 2005 British Open in Manchester, the sixth-seeded Ricketts beat Peter Nicol in the semi-finals, then another Englishman James Willstrop in straight games in the final to earn the most prestigious title of his career.
The success took Ricketts to No3 in the world rankings - making him the top-ranked Australian for the first time - and he maintained his momentum through to November's Qatar Classic where he reached the semi-finals as seventh seed. |