BRITISH OPEN SQUASH CHAMPIONSHIP 2009
Men's Player Biographies:
KARIM DARWISH is more than just the most surprising player of 2008. He is proof
that, despite the faster, more explosive nature of the modern game, in which top players have tended to be younger, they can mature late.
The new World No.1 will be twenty-eight this year, and his burst to the top in the last three months of last year stunned many people. Because he had spent forty-five of sixty-five months in the top ten without getting higher than five, many thought he had peaked. A major contribution to the new surge came from the security, stability and self-confidence generated by marriage to Egyptian squash professional Engy Kheirullah.
His athletic movement has become supplemented by a more consistent mixture of accuracy and short-swing deception than ever before. It brought during 2008 six World Tour finals and three titles, with a grandstand finish in which he was runner-up in the World Open, won his first Super Series title, the Qatar Classic, and earned $37,000 at the Saudi International, the world's richest event.
Don't expect him to spend it. He and his wife Engy had already set up a big house in Maadi for three generations of the family, with an ultra-modern living room, a classic English and French reception, and a big plasma TV.
GREG GAULTIER is a huge part of the Gallic squash miracle. Despite coming from a country with few players and little squash tradition, he became the first Frenchman to
win the British Open (2007) and only the second, after Thierry Lincou, to win the Super Series Finals title (2008).
Gaultier is a player with a rare mixture of versatile skill and physical ability, with the capacity to carve opponents up or wear them down. But alongside his two biggest triumphs, Gaultier has two heroic near misses. He reached World No.1, but has yet to make the last step; and he lost the most exciting World Open final of them all, in 2006, when he held five match points and was frustrated by a mixture of David Palmer's bravery and eccentric refereeing. Since then, “I have changed a lot mentally,” Gaultier says. “I focus differently, and on different things. I am more relaxed.” Expect more great things from him – quite possibly this week.
He has an interesting favourite book: Tintin and Milou (or Snowy). One could describe it is as the story of a young world traveller with the unexpected knack of learning and teaching us things.
AMR SHABANA is the greatest player of the modern era. A measure of this is the extent of the surprise when, after fully thirty-three consecutive months as World No.1, he lost the top spot at the start of this year.
Although sometimes characterised as the glittering shot-maker who dazzles at the front of the court, Shabana often drowns opponents deep and tight in the corners with beautifully timed drives, or jerks them around till they are stranded in no-man's land.
Easy though it is to see his determination which helped him to three World Open titles, it is sometimes overlooked that this martial quality is combined with a pacific graciousness which Shabana often had to summon during a difficult 2008. Often he was below par physically, perhaps a legacy of his exhausting finish to 2007, in which he won five successive tournaments. Despite this, Shabana will join a pantheon which includes Amr Bey, Mahmoud Karim, and Abou Taleb, the Egyptian legends created over a period of seventy years.
Shabana has given up so much to do it, there are moments when he dreams of hisbeach house in Alexandria or " anywhere with sun and white sand beaches - it’s a bonus if there’s no squash court!"
NICK MATTHEW made an indelible mark on squash history when the Englishman, seeded six, upset third-seeded Frenchman Thierry Lincou in the final of the British Open in Nottingham to become the first home-grown champion of the world's most prestigious event for 67 years!
"This has to be the pinnacle of my achievements," said the Yorkshireman who beat Lincou 11-8, 5-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6 in 82 minutes to become the first true English champion since Jim Dear in 1939.
The triumph rounded off a sensational year for the 28-year-old from Sheffield, which began when he won the British National title for the first time - later becoming the only person to hold the National and Open titles simultaneously.
The disappointment of failing to retain his British Open title in September 2007 - when he lost out to world number one Amr Shabana in the quarter-finals - was tempered by his achievement in New York City two weeks later when he won his maiden Super Series crown.
Seeded six in the US Open, Matthew made his breakthrough in the quarter-finals when he upset Thierry Lincou in five games. In the semis, he avenged his Qatar Classic defeat by beating the event's second seed Ramy Ashour in four games, before celebrating his historic triumph in a straight games win over compatriot James Willstrop.
In December, this time playing alongside Willstrop, Matthew led England to a successful defence of the World Team title, beating Australia in the final.
But in January 2008, Matthew underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right shoulder – and the England international was out of action for eight months until making a winning comeback at the Dutch Open in September.
A month later, he exceeded his seeding to reach the semi-finals of the Qatar Classic after upsetting fourth seed David Palmer 11-3, 11-9, 10-12, 13-15, 11-6 in 111 minutes – which proved to be the longest match of his Tour career!
Making rapid improvement since his layoff, eighth seed Matthew also made the last four of the Saudi International in December after upsetting new World Open champion Ramy Ashour.
Matthew celebrated the first anniversary of his surgery with the beginning of a sensational run in 2009 – firstly by making the final of the Tournament of Champions in New York as the No8 seed (upsetting Shabana, Ashour and Willstrop before losing out to fourth seed Gaultier) – then securing the Swedish Open trophy for the first time after despatching title-holder Willstrop in the semi-finals.
Within a week, he had claimed the British National crown for the second time, and by the end of the February the rejuvenated Englishman had battled through a high quality North American Open field to reach the final of the new Super Series event in Virginia – marking the 26th PSA Tour final of his career. The success propelled Matthew to a career-equalling-high No5 in the world rankings in March.
DAVID PALMER is the most successful player in the two most prestigious tournaments in more than a decade. He is twice World Open champion and four times British Open champion, something which not even the two recent greats, Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power, can equal. It makes Palmer the best Australian since the great Geoff Hunt left the tour a quarter of a century ago.
Palmer is notable for the great courage he adds to a solid all-round game and a smothering volley. Less than a year ago he won the most dramatic British Open final of them all, saving two match points. He also saved two match points in the 2002 World Open final in Antwerp, and fully five match points in the 2006 World Open final at the Giza Pyramids. Each time he toughed it out when many would have folded. His nickname is the Marine. It is seven years since Palmer has won the Super Series Finals, but his strength of character means that few would rule out, even now, a repeat.
The exceptionally long distances and times away from home have been mitigated by a combination of the birth of his daughter Kayla Jane and the use of his webcam, and the knowledge that Aussies don't forget him – he was awarded the Order of Australian Merit.
PETER BARKER is England's newest international - having firmly established himself within the country's top three, alongside Nick Matthew and James Willstrop, the player he battled alongside throughout his successful junior international career.
Steady progress on the PSA Tour since going full-time in 2002 has led to the 25-year-old left-hander from Essex collecting a total of 13 Tour titles from 18 final appearances. An unexpected quarter-final appearance in last year's Qatar Classic saw Barker achieve a career-high world ranking of nine in December.
In a highly successful junior career, Barker was a British, European and World Junior Open runner-up. It was during the two months before he reached the final of the World Junior Championships in India in December 2002 that he won his first three PSA Tour titles - firstly the Saskatoon Boast Open in Canada, then - as a qualifier - the Financially Plumb Open, also in Canada, and finally the Tech Valley Open in the USA!
In August 2005, Barker began an impressive sequence of title triumphs in Colombia, winning the Colombian Open as second seed - and a year later retaining his title. Back in Bogotá again in 2007, Barker clinched his hat-trick, after beating Spaniard Borja Golan in the final.
In his opening Tour event of 2008, Barker reached the final of the Case Swedish Open in Linkoping after beating Alex Gough and Olli Tuominen in the previous rounds. But it was career-long rival James Willstrop that he faced in the climax, where he battled for 38 minutes before going down in straight games.
However, the achievement gave Barker his long-awaited breakthrough into the world's top ten rankings in March.
In May, shortly after making London his home city, Barker reached the British Open quarter-finals for the second year in a row after a marathon 83-minute five-game victory over England team-mate Lee Beachill in the last sixteen round.
He went on to win two Tour titles in the USA against expectations in September – firstly the Chicago Open after beating event favourite David Palmer in the final, then, just two weeks later, the Merritt Properties Open in Baltimore, again despatching the top-seeded Australian in the final.
Barker's consistency paid off in 2009 when he reached the final of the Bluenose Classic in Canada, this time losing out to Palmer.
And, in March, he cruised through to the final of the KL Open in Malaysia – his 18th on the Tour – where he beat England team-mate and fellow left-handed Londoner Adrian Grant to celebrate the 13th title of his career.
It was in December 2007 that Barker made his World Team Championship debut. He took centre stage in the final against Australia when he beat Cameron Pilley in the deciding match to keep the title in England's hands.
THIERRY LINCOU became the first French player ever to crowned World Champion or World No.1 – despite coming from Reunion Island, a small island in the Indian Ocean which had no squash courts when he became interested in the sport. This happened 
while he was on holiday in Biarritz, and it persuaded his father that they should construct their own court. It brought such rapid improvement that Lincou had to move as a teenager to Paris and Marseille to develop his talent.
His capacity for great comebacks, and his qualities as one of the sport’s gentlemen, has made him one of squash's most distinctive legends. Even as the oldest man in the tournament he is adding to his game, honing more of a cutting edge to his attacks. He won the Super Series Finals five years ago, and has twice been a runner-up, and even though he is almost thirty-three years of age, he is still a serious challenger.
Lincou had to leave a paradise to play professional squash and hopes to return there with his wife and two children when he finishes. In the meantime he will continue to be what his mother calls “le messager de la paix” - the great ambassador.
WAEL EL HINDI was the last aboard for the Super Series Finals and may therefore feel that he has less pressure upon him than the others. And although he has so far 
only won one Super Series title, the Petrosport Open last summer in Cairo - only a couple of miles from his birthplace in Giza - there is no question of the intensity of his ambition. No-one who has watched his determination to keep and hold a central T position on the court, and his intimidating movement, would ever doubt it.
El Hindi has refused to allow himself to be overshadowed by the formidable presence of his compatriots Amr Shabana, Ramy Ashour, and Karim Darwish: although he has yet to beat Ashour, he has a winning head-to-head against Darwish and has pushed steadily upwards until he reached the World's top ten for the first time sixteen months ago. He also finished sixth on his debut in the Super Series Finals last year, and is even stronger, fitter, and faster now.
El Hindi has often been eye-catching. He is the only leading player to wear Nadal-style pirate pants and often trains with squash legend Jonah Barrington at Millfield School in Somerset. It's been a good idea - until son Joey Barrington tried to give him a Mohican tail haircut!
ADRIAN GRANT achieved his highest Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Ranking of ten in July 2009 and a highest English National Ranking of four.
Adrian has won twelve PSA World Tour titles; CNS International (2007, CNS International (2006), CIMB Malaysian Open (2006), CAS International (2005), COAS International (2004), Valid Dutch Open (2002), European Open (2002), Odense Open (2002), Italian Open (2001), Tenerife Open (2000), Christchurch & Wellington Opens (2000) and Central Open, New Zealand (2000).
In a distinguished junior career, Adrian was the British Champion at both U/14 and U/16 age groups, culminating in him being crowned European Junior Champion in 1999, and was a key player in the England’s 1996 and 1998 World and European Junior Championship winning team.
In 2004, Adrian made history at the European Team Championships in Rennes, France as the first black player ever to represent England