Matthew Makes It 30 At Canary Wharf Classic

England's world No1 Nick Matthew took just 51 minutes to see-off long-time domestic rival and fellow Yorkshireman James Willstrop in straight games in the final of the 2014 Canary Wharf Classic, the PSA International 50 squash event at East Wintergarden in London.

Matthew's 60th appearance in a PSA World Tour final resulted in the perfect outcome of a 30th title - and his fourth Canary Wharf Classic crown since 2010, equalling world No5 Willstrop's achievement.

The World Champion from Sheffield was in immaculate form as he restricted Willstrop to just five points in each game, showing the hunger and desire that has led him to three World Championship titles.

"I'm feeling elated at the moment," said Matthew. "That was one of the best performances of my career.

"My dad said that you only get four or five 'best' performances like that in your career and I think I definitely used one of them tonight.

"I think it was little things that made the difference: I didn't make many mistakes, I attacked well and moved well and tried to keep the game simple and it paid off tonight - but there's a lot of other big events coming this year."

With the prestigious British Open on the horizon in May and prospect of winning another Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow this summer, Matthew is hoping to use this latest victory as a platform to further success.

"I'm over the moon with the result tonight but I'm wary not to get too over excited," said the 33-year-old.

"You always try and enjoy these highs but I have a lot more goals to work towards this year so I'm going to try and keep my feet on the ground.

"Canary Wharf may not be a World Series but it had the feel of a World Championship final with the crowd atmosphere the build-up this week.

"It was great psychologically to get everything right this week like you aim to do in the major events and that will give me confidence going forward for hopefully plenty more big matches."

England's newly-crowned women's world champion Laura Massaro made a surprise guest appearance at the final: "I said to Laura she was going to inspire me this week so when you say something like that you have to back it up.

"I'm so proud of her."

Pictures courtesy of SquashPics.com