Born: Sheffield, England

July 25, 1980

Resides: Sheffield

Best Ranking: 1

June Ranking: 2

Titles: 22

    Every decade or half-decade seems to produce a new headline rivalry in Squash. We have two of them in our Showdown this year. If asked to name a big one of the late 90s in the early 2000s - you’d all get the Nicol-Power matchup.

    Now it’s Matthew and Ashour - trading squash’s No. 1 in 2010 and into 2011 - with Nick Matthew having the best of it - as far as holding the No. 1 spot is concerned in recent months. He and Ramy have been either No. 1 or No. 2 since January of 2010. Nick was on top for three months in 2010 and was No. 1 until January of this year.

    The personable young man from Sheffield was seen as a ‘sure bet’ for stardom not long after he turned pro in 1998. But a spate of injuries delayed achieving his full potential until he broke into the PSA Top 10 in March of 2004. He’s remained among the pro squash elite for the past seven years - slipping out of the Top Ten for only three months during that span.

    He’s been in almost 120 PSA ranking events and has made 38 finals. Nick has won 20 titles to date with the promise of more to come.

    Among his career highlights are a few dandies achieved last year - including the World Open title, a couple of Commonwealth Games gold medals and stepping up to the PSA No. ! ranking for the first time which had been a career-long goal. As he said: “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.” Nick thus became the first Englishman to top the pro squash rankings for six years.

    Nick also has three of the much sought-after British Open Championship trophies on his shelf, won in 2006 (the first Englishman to do it in 67 years), 2009 and 2012- a proud accomplishment for a ‘home’ player. British Open titles for British players have not been a common achievement.

    He’s been on something of roll for the past year or so. Nick won 7 titles last year and has tucked away three so far this year - 10 of his career total of 20.