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PSA PLAYER BIOGRAPHY Name: James Willstrop Country: England Date of Birth: 15/8/83 Height: 6ft 4 Place of Birth: Norfolk Place of Residence: Pontefract/Manchester Current World Ranking (Jan 05): 8 Highest World Ranking (Jan 05): 5 National Ranking: 5 PSA Titles: 4 PSA Final Appearances: 6 |
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James Willstrop crowned a sensational junior squash career in
2002 when he claimed his third consecutive British Junior U19 National
Championship title to establish himself as Englands most successful junior
player of all time - having won National titles at all age groups U12, U14,
U17 and U19, and British Junior Open trophies at U14, U17 and U19. In the
same year, he established himself as the world's top junior, claiming both
the European and the World titles. After representing England with distinction at all junior levels, captaining the England U19 junior team to victory in the 2002 European Junior Team Championships, James has gone on to be one of the youngest players ever to play for the senior England team, representing his country at both European and World Team Championships in 2003. It was sandwiched between his national and European junior triumphs in 2002 that the tall Yorkshireman claimed his first PSA Tour title, winning the Swiss Open in Geneva. He went on to reach the final of the Odense Open in Denmark as qualifier then in December picked up the Santa Barbara Open trophy in the USA. He enjoyed a hugely-successful 2003, creating upsets in most tournaments in which he played finishing the year by securing the Dutch Open title in November after overcoming local hero Tommy Berden in the final in Maastricht. However, Willstrop made enormous strides in 2004, beginning the year at 18 in the rankings and twelve months later finding himself at five! A qualifier in the Kuwait Open in January, he brushed aside significant experienced opposition such as Omar Elborolossy, Ong Beng Hee, John White and Jonathon Power to reach the final where he finally found his match in top seed Peter Nicol. His next significant scalp was Egypt's world champion Amr Shabana in the Swedish Open then the former world champion David Palmer in February's Tournament of Champions. As the rest of the year progressed, so his reputation improved and the upsets continued: Earlier losses to John White in the Tournament of Champions and Bermuda Open were converted into a win over the Scot in August's quarter-finals of the English Open. After reaching the quarter-finals of the World Open in Qatar in December, he went on to the Pakistan Open in Islamabad. Seeded eight, Willstrop played the tournament of his life as he despatched Alex Gough, Olli Tuominen, third seed Amr Shabana and second seed Nick Matthew before beating Anthony Ricketts 6-11 11-9 11-10 11-3 in the final to collect his maiden Super Series title. Remarkably, Willstrop leapt from 13 to 5 in the January 2005 rankings and began the New Year as one of the most feared opponents. He notched up another win over Ricketts to reach the Windy City Open quarter-finals in Chicago and later made his first appearance in the British National Championship's final, only to lose to his close friend and Pontefract training partner Lee Beachill. |
JAMES WILLSTROP TOURNAMENT SUCCESSES: Feb 05 2nd round *Tournament of Champions USA Jan 05 Quarter-finals Windy City Open USA Dec 04 Winner *Pakistan Open PAK Dec 04 Quarter-finals *World Open QAT Nov 04 1st round Canadian Classic CAN Nov 04 2nd round British Open ENG Sep 04 1st round US Open USA Sep 04 2nd round *Hong Kong Open HKG Aug 04 Semi-finals English Open ENG Apr 04 2nd round *PSA Masters QAT Mar 04 1st round Bermuda Open BER Feb 04 Quarter-finalist Tournament of Champions USA Feb 04 Semi-finalist Swedish Open SWE Jan 04 Runner-up Kuwait Open KUW Nov 03 Winner Dutch Open NED Oct 03 Quarter-finalist British Open ENG Jun 03 Quarter-finalist Spanish Open ESP Oct 02 Winner Santa Barbara Open USA Aug 02 Semi-finalist Colombian Open COL Aug 02 Semi-finalist Brazil Open BRA Apr 02 Runner-up Odense Open DEN Mar 02 Winner #European Junior Championships FRA Mar 02 Winner Swiss Open SUI Mar 02 Winner #British U19 Nationals ENG Jan 02 Winner #British Junior Open (U19) ENG Sep 01 Quarter-finalist Spanish Open ESP Apr 01 Runner-up #European Junior Championship BEL Mar 01 Winner #British U19 Nationals ENG Jan 01 Runner-up #British Junior Open (U19) ENG Jul 00 Semi-finalist #World Junior Open ITA Apr 00 Runner-up #European Junior Championship GER Mar 00 Winner #British U19 Nationals ENG Dec 99 Winner #British Junior Open (U17) ENG Feb 99 Winner #British U16 Nationals ENG Jan 99 Runner-up #British Junior Open (U17) ENG Feb 98 Winner #British U16 Nationals ENG Nov 97 Winner #British U16 Nationals ENG Jan 97 Winner #British Junior Open (U14) ENG Oct 96 Winner #British U14 Nationals ENG Oct 94 Winner #British U12 Nationals ENG |