Nick Matthew: Determined to take squash all the way to Olympics

You would have thought having just been crowned squash’s World Champion for the third time at the weekend, Nick Matthew would be taking a well earned rest. Not a bit of it.

When we speak the 33-year-old Sheffielder is busy packing for a squash tour to Qatar. And he won’t unpack for a day.

Not unpacking his bag is one of the world number one’s idiosyncrasies which come close to obsession. Others include ensuring all the bottles in his fridge have labels pointing the same way and always tying his left shoelace first.

“Lots of top sportsmen border on OCD. It can help sometimes,” he says, although it does drive his wife of five months Esme mad sometimes. He talks about his obsessive behaviour in his autobiography, Sweating Blood, published to coincide with Sunday’s World Championships which made him the most successful British squash player of all time. And yet, outside of squash circles, Matthew and his fellow professionals are still not widely recognised as household names. Squash is still seen by many as a niche sport, not helped by the International Olympic Committee’s recent decision to refuse squash a place in the 2020 Olympics.

It is a decision which not only baffles, but infuriates Matthew.

“To me squash is everything an Olympic sport should be, It is the ultimate gladiatorial test and shows off fitness and determination.

“Everyone seems to think it should have been an Olympic sport other than those that really matter, the IOC. A lot of people have been working very hard to not only change the image of squash but to make it much more appealing to spectators. But the IOC still didn’t back us. No one has actually come up with a good reason why not.”

Four transparent walled courts, as showcased to those who did tune in to watch the dramatic conclusion to the World Championships, give the spectators and television audience a clear view of the action, which proceeds at a blistering pace.

Although the decision was a sad day for the sport and its supporters, Matthew said it only made him more determined to prove them wrong.

“There is a element of ‘we’ll show you’ I think.

“I’ve been told that more than 200,000 people pressed their BBC red button to watch the World Championships in Manchester which is great. It was brilliant to win on home soil with the home crowd cheering me on.”

Growing up an only child in Sheffield, sport was part of his life from an early age. His dad was a semi-professional footballer and PE teacher at High Storrs School, Sheffield, which Matthew attended.

“It’s not easy having your dad working as a teacher at your school. You become defined by it. More often than not I was referred to as ‘Mr Matthew’s son’. Fortunately my dad was a PE teacher so most kids enjoyed his lessons. God help me if his subject had been maths or chemistry,” he writes in Sweating Blood. But without his parents, who were both teachers, and his grandad, who helped pay for his early squash lessons and to whom his autobiography is dedicated, Matthew knows he would have struggled to become the best in the world.

“My parents and grandad who lived with us, were always very supportive. They would take me to tournaments. My dad was a good squash player and is still one of my advisers. It would not have been possible without them.”

However it was tennis and not squash which first interested a sports-mad young Matthew.It was while having a tennis lesson at Hallamshire Tennis and Squash club that he first got the squash bug.

“I was walking passed the squash courts and I heard the noise of the ball. I went to see what was happening and I was gripped. The players were smashing the ball against the wall and there was so much more going on than in tennis. After a while I stopped playing tennis and took up squash.”

His hard work and commitment to his chosen sport soon paid off. He became the 1999 British Junior Open under-19 champion,

The first time Matthew realised that there might be a future career in squash was when he went to Wembley to watch the British championships.

“I didn’t realise until then that you could actually make a career out of it. I just thought it was a bit of fun.” A bit of fun which has seen Matthew dedicate 15 years of his life to the sport he loves. Often spending six hours a day on court or in the gym, setting himself rigorous training regimes and following strict diets.

“I don’t regret a moment of it,” says Matthew, whose career was nearly cut short in 2008 when he underwent surgery for a shoulder injury. “It was a career- threatening injury,” he says.“But it totally reinforced my love of the sport and made me realise just how lucky I was to play squash for a living .... in many ways, my shoulder operation was a blessing in disguise. It made me more determined than ever to get super-fit, to win tournaments and to climb the world rankings.

“Without a doubt, if I hadn’t suffered that shoulder injury I would never have become the player I’ve since become.”

He was out of action for eight months and had to watch his rival, fellow Yorkshireman, James Willstrop from Pontefract, take the glory. The pair have vied to become world number one and both admit to not being friends.

“Watching James win made me even more determined to get back to the top of my sport,” says Matthew who admits to having been a bit of a hot-head in his early days. Sometimes his aggression on the court has not always won him friends.

However, with the help of sports psychologists from the English Institute of Sport Matthew has been able to focus his mind as well as his body.

Although he has no plans to retire any time soon he is preparing for the day it comes. He has launched the Nick Matthew Sports Academy in Sheffield where he lives with Esme, who is a physiologist working with the British Olympic Cycling team.

“At least one of us has managed to get to the Olympics,” he jokes.

He’d like to set up a charity to make squash more accessible and he still hopes one day to see it become an Olympic sport.

“It would be the icing on the cake to be able to say to a young person who’d never played squash before ‘work hard and you could win an Olympic medal.’ Maybe one day.”

Sweating Blood by Nick Matthew is £10 from www.isportstore.com

Twitter@ypcscott

Nick Matthew: Triple Champion

1999 British Junior Open under-19 champion,

2006 became the first English player to win British Open men’s title since 1939.

Won the British National Championship title in 2006 and 2009.

2010 topped the world rankings for the first time.

December 2010 won the World Open men’s title

Matthew won the PSA 2010 World Open, defeating James Willstrop of England in the final by three games to one in 74 minutes at The Sunset Beach Resort in Saudi Arabia on Friday 10 December 2010.

2011 won second World Open

2012 won 3rd British Open title

2013 won third World Open