How important is Game 1?
Clearly all squash players want to win the first game. But in a sport in which stamina is prized so highly, just how important is it to win the opener?
We took a look at all the matches played by the world’s best 50 male players in the past two years. This information is dutifully recorded by the definitive squash resource SquashInfo.
The player who won Game 1 went on to win the match on 78% of occasions. The message is clear: start quickly and you’ll reap the rewards four times out of five.