England's Nick Matthew looking to claw his way back to world number one ranking
Although he surrendered his Dunlop PSA number one world ranking to Egypt's Ramy Ashour back in August, Britain's Nick Matthew continues to be successful in 2010 after winning a gold medal in the men's singles event and capturing a second gold medal in the
doubles event with partner Adrian Grant. The Commonwealth Games victory is another of Matthew's many achievements over the last ten years and his sixth major tournament victory of 2010.
Recent Success
It is the fourth time since the sport was added to the Commonwealth games in 1998 that a British player has brought home the title and a jubilant Matthew was honored to carry on the winning tradition.
"Four years ago, a legendary English squash player Peter Nicol got two golds – and I delighted to have been able to emulate him," Matthew said about his double victory. "Winning two gold medals is an amazing feeling – and doubles is so different from singles
squash. It’s all about camaraderie with your partner. You almost feel that the racket isn’t attached to your arm – you are just doing it for your partner.
"And when we got our heads back together after the second game, we were amazing.
"It’s definitely the biggest moment of my career," he added. "I didn’t get the chance to celebrate my singles success, but now I will be able to as I made a good decision not to play a major Tour event in Egypt later this week. I put aside thoughts of regaining
my world number one ranking for the sake of two gold medals."
World number one Ramy Ashour will be at the 2010 El-Gouna International Squash Open looking to retain his number one ranking, which he won back from Matthew after winning the 2010 Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial HK Squash Open in Hong Kong last August.
In Hong Kong Matthew made a disappointing exit in the quarter-final after losing to fellow countryman Peter Barker.
Rise to number one
Matthew began turning heads on the professional squash scene as a 19-year-old, and shot up the rankings over the last year going from number 12 to as high as number four at the end of 2009. It was Ashour, himself, who brought an end to Matthew's meteoric
rise when he defeated Matthew in five sets at the 2009 Quatar Classic Open.
When 2010 began, Ashour and Matthew were ranked number one and two in the world. Matthew finally got to number one, and was the first British-born player to do so in the last six years, after he won the 2010 Sky Open at the end of May. He then successfully
defended his number one ranking by defeating Ashour in the final of the 2010 Australian Open back in August.
"Becoming world number one is every sports person's dream and it's something I've worked towards every single day of my life since I turned professional in 1998," Matthew said of his success.
In 2006 Nick Matthew became the first home-grown English-born player to win the British Open since 1939 when he defeated Frenchman Thierry Lincou in the final. He repeated the feat three years later by defeating fellow countryman, and currently ranked number
four, James Willstrop.
The Matthew-Ashour rivalry
Despite becoming one of the most successful players in English history Nick Matthew is still looking up at the number one ranking.
There are only four players in the world that Nick Matthew has faced more times than Ashour, and Matthew's record against the Egyptian currently stands at five wins and six defeats. But Matthew has won the last two head-to-head meetings and will be looking
to be successful at the 2010 Kuwait Open in which both are competing in opposing brackets setting up a possible final.
Matthew will have a tough test ahead of him if he hopes to get to the final with a potential quarter-final meeting against Frenchman Gregory Gaultier who defeated Matthew in last year's Kuwait Open.
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