I am watching a replay of the PSA World Open 2010 final between James Willstrop and Nick Matthew on PSA Squash TV and impressed with Nick Matthew's position on the 'T'. He is playing such a high 'T' position and putting so much pressure on James Willstrop that he won the first game with some absolutely astounding accuracy, but he still had to work so hard to do it. The second game was close to about 5 but after that Nick opened up a huge lead mostly because of the work James has had to do to that point.
The high 'T' position really allows Nick to attack short when he chooses, especially on his forehand side. The width that James has to get on a crosscourt drive to prevent Nick from volleying it is unbelievable. He is having to nearly catch the side wall at the centre of the court to get it behind Nick. Even when he does attain that width Nick only has to take a couple of steps back because of the angle and still play it without really having to give up too much ground.
Nick is also using a great hold on his drives while being so high on the 'T'. This is forcing James to have to recover so quickly to the centre of the court, because he has to respect the drop before being sent to the backcourt to retrieve Nick's drive.
Nick's use of the high 'T' position really put so much time presure on James Willstrop that it really broke him down by mid match. James did have a much harder time getting through to the final than Nick did which definitely contributed to the fatigue but Nick's play truly exposed it. A brilliant display of good tactical squash. Definitely shows that value of recovery to the 'T' quickly to dictate play.
