Willstrop ready for difficult task at the top

Official confirmation that the 28-year-old, from Leeds, had usurped fellow Yorkshireman Nick Matthew as No 1 in the PSA World Tour rankings came on Saturday.

It followed three straight tournament wins at the end of last year for Willstrop, the final one coming at the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters in New Delhi, which saw him edge ahead of his 31-year-old Sheffield-born rival, who had topped the rankings since January 2011.

Willstrop, trained chiefly by his father at Pontefract Squash Club, will get his first opportunity to compete as the new world No 1 in a tournament when he begins his attempt to land the prestigious ATCO PSA World Series Finals at the Queen’s Club in London, on Wednesday.

Former world No 1 Ramy Ashour’s continued injury problems have already forced the talented Egyptian to withdraw, with Matthew expected to announce his withdrawal later today as he continues to recover from the adductor injury which forced him to miss out in New Delhi after pulling out at the last-eight stage in the Kuwait PSA Cup in November.

While Willstrop is now the man to beat, the Yorkshireman said he saw his new-found status as just another challenge.

“I think I’ll be comfortable in that position,” he said. “I’d rather be in the position I am now than not.

“It’s a new challenge for me, but something that is really exciting and something in which I can have confidence about myself and knowing what I am capable of.

“When you start out as a youngster being world No 1 is the sort of thing you dream of but, as I’ve always said, it’s almost like a secondary target in a way because if you continue to do well in tournaments on a consistent basis, the rankings will take care of themselves.

“Being world No 1 is the clearest indicator there is of being the most consistent player around which is one of the most pleasing things about being there.”

Willstrop’s rise has come as no surprise, least of all to himself, after a string of semi-final and runners-up placings saw everything eventually come together in triumphant style for the first time in 20 months when he lifted the Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open in November.

A second triumph followed at the Kuwait Cup before his crowning glory in New Delhi a week before Christmas.

With the Tournament of Champions in New York – one of Willstrop’s favourite events – to follow this week’s action in London, it is likely he will start 2012 the same way he finished the previous year, although he knows he has become a marked man.

“There are a number of top quality players who will want to knock me off my perch,” he added. “But at the same time I have the confidence knowing I can beat them.”