For Queen and Country

By Brett Erasmus

Just imagine you play a sport that your country pretty much invented and the pinnacle of achievement in that sport is the national championship. And your homeland has the most depth out of any nation worldwide and boasts more of the top professionals than any other. But, for some reason, your players struggle to win the national championship. In fact nobody on the home team has won it since before the Second World War. Then, by sheer grit and determination you get to the finals of the event and play the man who was world number one for all of the previous year. He is not from your country. You are not favored to win. But you do.

Nick Matthew beat Thierry Lincou in the British Open in 2006 and won squash’s oldest and most sought after title. This was the pinnacle of achievement in his chosen sport. Where does he go from here one may wonder? Well, this victory would have inspired him immensely and brought the confidence and self-belief that he needed to get to world number one. Since then being top of the world would have been one of his primary goals. For a few years, while Egyptian players held the top spots, Matthew battled to break through into the top 5, and then unfortunately tore ligaments in his right shoulder (his playing arm) and had to go for surgery in January 2008. He could not play for 9 months after this and his ranking dropped to 12. This would have knocked the wind out of anyone's sails.

I mean, Matthew must have thought seriously about his ambitions during this period. You see, he would have looked at the competition and realized that he does not have the shots that Ashour does. And the touch that Shabana has. Nor does he have the reach that Willstrop has. What he does have though is a rehabilitation plan, a professional approach and a burning desire to succeed. Fueled, in no small part I am sure, by the hopes of a nation.

One can only wonder exactly what he did in the off-time though, because he came back stronger than ever and won a slew of events all around the world to climb up the rankings to number 2 by the start of this year. Most notably, he won the British Open again last year, where he beat compatriot and this year’s ToC winner, James Willstrop, in a thrilling 2 hour finale in Manchester. Seeing 2 local lads vie for the title must have been a wonderful experience for the home crowd.

Well, I don’t know how many English fans were actually in the stands at the Sky Resort in Cairo last weekend, but they would have seen Matthew finally become the world number one squash player. Add to that his current British Open crown and more Super Series points than any other PSA player and you realize that Matthew is firmly the best squash player in the world right now. No mean feat for a guy who could not swing a racquet owing to injury just 2 years ago.

Nick Matthew has done his country extremely proud and will no doubt work very hard to maintain his number one ranking for as long as possible. Hopefully long enough to meet with the Queen (for a little appointment, dare we hope).

But, there is one thing for certain - there are at least 3 Egyptian players who are not going to take this lying down. I wonder how long he can keep them at bay. It is going to be awesome to watch and find out.

Reposted courtesy of Brett Erasmus from Brett's Squash Blog www.brettssquashblog.com