"I was given a wildcard into the Ciutat de Barcelona in Spain, and beat the second seed Peter Genever in the first round, and quickly found myself in the final!" His remarkable fairy tale PSA debut ended when he lost to the top seed Olle Poutiainen, but his name was already one that other seasoned professionals would have to take seriously.

It was in January 1994 that Nick Matthew first appeared in an international competition – the U-14 British Junior Open, in which he reached the quarter-finals. By the end of 1995, aged just 15, he made his debut in the England U-19 rankings, and in January 1996 made the semi-finals of the U-16 British Junior Open, losing to Malaysia's Ong Beng Hee, the current world junior champion and fellow Dunlop player whose path he would regularly cross.

Two years later, in January 1998, the 17-year-old from Sheffield in Yorkshire fought through to the semi-finals of the U-19 British Junior Open, where he again fell to the eventual champion Ong Beng Hee.

By now Matthew was in training for the summer's World Junior Championships in Princeton, New Jersey - an experience which was to be "the highlight of my life so far".

He was 4th seed, and duly reached the semi-finals after a quarter-final victory over England team mate Lee Jemmett. "I then had a really tough battle with a relatively unknown Egyptian Wael El Hindi, and fought back from 7/0 down in the fifth to reach matchball at 8/7, only to lose 10/9," said Matthew. "The most disappointing thing was to miss out on the chance to play Ong Beng Hee again in the final - and stop him winning the world title!"

The individual disappointment was tempered by the elation of leading England to their successful defence of the world team title. "The atmosphere in the hall around the Perspex court for my earlier semi-final match was fantastic - and it was even more uplifting for the team final against Egypt," recalled Matthew.

England were 1-0 down when Matthew went on to face Egypt's top string Mohamed Abbas, whom he had comfortably beaten in the earlier pool matches. The trophy began to look out of reach when Matthew also went 2-1 down, but the plucky youngster fought back - "it was pure adrenaline" - to win 10/8 1/9 4/9 9/4 9/3 in 92 minutes. Team-mate Lee Jemmett then also pulled off a sensational comeback to give England a momentous 2-1 victory.

"In the end, England had the edge on all its competitors with the fantastic preparation we had, including sports psychology, physiology, nutritional support, etc - and this is what helped us hold on to that title under such enormous pressure," said Matthew, who played more than 30 times as an England junior international without losing a single match.

Nick's final appearance in a British Junior Open event resulted in his winning the U-19 title in January this year - but not in the way he had hoped. " Both Ong Beng Hee and I won our semi-finals, and I was looking forward to meeting in the final. He was struck down by flu overnight, which meant that, sadly, I won my first British open title by default."

Only a few weeks later, Nick hit the headlines in the UK when he qualified in the British National Championships in Manchester, then fought back from 2-0 down to defeat the event's 4th seed and world No9 Welshman Alex Gough in the first round.

Later, in March, he learnt a valuable lesson, competing in the European Junior Championships. "It was the first time I had been seeded to win a tournament, and somehow this made me complacent. I lost to France's Gregory Gaultier in the semi-finals, but came away from the tournament a much stronger and more mature player, having learnt to be much more consistent in my approach to matches."

Still in his first year as a full-time player, Matthew has reached a further two PSA Tour finals - both times as a qualifier. In March, he made the final of the Swiss Open after beating the second seed in the opening round, then in Italy's Castellanza Open in April, he toppled the No1 seed Michael Fiteni in the first round and went on to reach the final where he lost to Ong Beng Hee. His success propelled him to No83 in the August 1999 Dunlop PSA rankings - his highest position to date.

"My target is a place in the world top 50 by this time next year," said Nick, who has been working with his coach Mark Hornby for the past eight years. "My immediate focus is the World Open in Egypt, for which I am first reserve in the qualifiers."

Dunlop's Paul Walters commented: "Nick clearly has a big future on the international squash circuit"