Willstrop, Matthew set up dream final in World Series squash

World champ Nick Matthew and James Willstrop, who recently ousted him from the world No.1 ranking, will continue their decade of contention in the final of the first World Series tournament of the year. The career-long rivals created a dream final for the Tournament of Champions at Grand Central terminal in New York, an apposite showdown for two Yorkshiremen, in a location voted one of the ten most unusual sporting venues in the world. Matthew repeated his victory in the World Open final in Rotterdam against Greg Gaultier, the former world number one from France, once again in four tight, fraught, and sometimes contentious games. The score was 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-4. Willstrop reached the final by outplaying Daryl Selby, the British national champion, winning 11-2, 11-3, 11-3 against an opponent who had little left after his earlier triumph against Karim Darwish, the former world number one from Egypt. Victory gives Willstrop a chance of his fourth World Series title in a row. "It will be a big, big match," said Willstrop, who considers winning the 2010 Tournament of Champions as the most important title of his career, and clearly prospers from good vibes here. Matthew has never won the Tournament of Champions but appears to have benefitted from his decision to withdraw from the last two tournaments of last year as he looked fresher than Gaultier. The Frenchman also paid too high a price for allowing Matthew a good start to the second game. Although he threatened a comeback in the third, he may have suffered from going the full five games with Amr Shabana the night before. Meanwhile Dipika Pallikal, the 20-year-old Indian who is threatening to break into the top ten, reached the women’s final. She followed her upset of Donna Urquhart, the fourth seeded Australian, with another against Jaclyn Hawkes, the fifth seeded New Zealander, by 11-5, 14-12, 11-9. "I’ve been on the tour since I was 16 and coaches have always been telling me ‘you’re getting there, you’re getting there, and I have to admit it started to piss me off," Pallikal said. "I was thinking ‘when am I going to get there?’ So I am glad things are starting to fall into place." It earned her a final against Natalie Grinham, the four times former World Open finalist, who squeezed past Nour El Sherbini, the 16-year-old Egyptian prodigy, 6-11, 11-5, 11-5, 7-11, 11-4.