Nick Matthew Collects PSA Player Of The Year Award by Nathan Clarke
photo Squashpics.com
March 26, 2014 - England’s World No.1 Nick Matthew has been named the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Player of the Year for 2013. The 33-year-old from
Sheffield capped off a triumphant year by claiming his third World
Squash Championship crown on home soil in November, beating Frenchman
Gregory Gaultier in a thrilling 3-2 final in a year which also saw him
marry partner Esme and release his autobiography ‘Sweating Blood’. Alongside recapturing
the World Championship trophy, Matthew also won his first ever Hong
Kong Open in December to add to runner-up berths at the 2013 US Open,
Swedish Open, North American Open and Qatar Classic. “It’s an amazing
honour and a privilege to win the Player of the Year award,” said
Matthew, who was presented with the award at the Canary Wharf Classic
at London’s East Wintergarden today. “I’ve had some great
battles with most of the players so it’s very humbling to have been
voted as the player of the year by them. “If you’d stopped 2013
half-way through, you would have said I had an ok year but hadn’t
pulled up any trees. Then I ended the year very strong, starting with
the World Championships, and it shows how your year can change on one
week or one result. “It’s also great to
collect this trophy in front of a packed audience at Canary Wharf. It
sort of feels like I’ve won the tournament so I need to re-focus on the
event now and try to add a fourth title here.” Promising Egyptian
youngster Karim Abdel Gawad collected the PSA Young Player of the Year
award after an impressive 2013 campaign in which he broke into the
World Top 20 for the first time. Gawad, currently
ranked a career high 16, follows in the footsteps of World Top 4
compatriots Mohamed Elshorbagy and Ramy Ashour in collecting the Young
Player of the Year award in recent years and he is hoping emulate their
success in the senior rankings. “I’m really happy to
win this award,” said Gawad. “There are so many talented players coming
through so to win title means a lot to me. “2013 was a good year
and breaking the top 20 was a huge achievement for me as I‘ve dreamt of
being a top 20 player in the world. “I finished college in
2013 and that allowed me to practice more and I think having a
full-time focus on squash helped me improve and move me up the rankings. “I just hope to keep improving now and hopefully I can reach the top 10.”
