James Willstrop
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Willstrop (born 15 August 1983, in North Walsham, United Kingdom) is a professional squash player from England. In Squash, he is recognized as a young talent with a big future ahead of him. Along with an unusual squash built of 6'4" and 91 kgs.
[edit] Biography
James Willstrop crowned a sensational junior squash career in 2002 when he claimed his third consecutive British Junior U19 National Championship title to establish himself as England’s most successful junior player of all time - having won National titles at all age groups U12, U14, U17 and U19, and British Junior Open trophies at U14, U17 and U19. In the same year, he established himself as the world's top junior, claiming both the European and the World titles.
James has gone on to be one of the youngest players ever to play for the senior England team, representing his country for the first time at both the European and World Team Championships in 2003.
But the tall Yorkshireman has made rapid progress on the senior stage: In 2004 he won the Pakistan Open title in Islamabad (upsetting Amr Shabana in the quarter-finals) in his first appearance in a Super Series final, and in 2005 reached the final of the British Open for the first time, as the seventh seed, then followed this by outplaying a top-quality international field in Doha to lift the Qatar Classic trophy in only his second Super Series final appearance!
This first-time success led to Willstrop leaping six places to a career-high world No2 in the PSA World Rankings published in December.
The new ranking catapulted Willstrop to the position of top-ranked Englishman – which led to his promotion to squad number one in the England team for the 2005 World Team Championships in Pakistan later in the month, when he led the team to victory for the first time in eight years.
In the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne this March, Willstrop partnered Vicky Botwright to a silver medal in the Mixed Doubles.
In May, in his second appearance in the Super Series Finals in London, Willstrop registered his first PSA Tour win over England team-mate Peter Nicol.
Later, in the English Open in Sheffield, Willstrop bowed out of the biggest PSA Tour event in his home county when beaten by Pontefract club-mate Lee Beachill in the finals.
