New academy gives Matthew fresh drive

The 32-year-old world No 2 held two masterclasses for youngsters earlier this week and plans to hold further events later this year.

It was part of a busy festive period for the Yorkshireman, who also found time to get engaged.

While he admits he made the most of his short break from the game, he was happily back into his training regime come Boxing Day in readiness for the first major event of the year.

The round robin format of two, four-man groups at The Queens Club sees the 32-year-old play the first of three group matches against defending champion Amr Shabana on Wednesday.

Further matches against Group A opponents Mohamed El Shorbagy and Peter Barker come before the weekend when the semi-finals and final will be staged. Leeds’s world No 3 James Willstrop is also taking part, placed in Group B along with Simon Rosner Gregory Gaultier and Karim Darwish.

“I’m buzzing after doing the academy earlier this week,” said Matthew. “It has inspired me in a different way and there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for it.

“I’ve had to fit my training around it so we’ve had some long days. I also got engaged and maybe had a few too many glasses of champagne. So, come Boxing Day, I was keen to get back into my training regime and start getting healthy again.”

Matthew admits the three-game format of the Finals is welcome due to the quality of opposition in the tournament.

“You usually have to win five matches to win any tournament,” said Matthew. “But you don’t normally play five matches against the top eight players in the world.

“It’s Amr (Shabana) to start with so you’re really thrown straight into it right from the off.”

Harrogate’s Jenny Duncalf will also be in action today in the women’s event that is running concurrently.

The world No 12 – a semi-finalist last time around – will begin her bid for glory on Wednesday afternoon against Egypt’s Raneem El Weleily before going on to play Camille Serme and Nour El Sherbini.