The Rise Of Richie

The Rise Of Richie

It’s been a great 12 months for the young AWsome Sports man from London.

2014 began in a disappointing way for Richie losing a messy encounter to fellow English player, George Parker in the quarter finals of his last British Junior Open.

He quickly moved on and the year has been a phenomenal success since.

In February, whilst still a junior he gave audiences a clue of how good he is with superb performances in The British Senior Closed Championships. From qualifying he reached the last 16 of the prestigious event, pushing World No.29 Joe Lee all the way, just losing out 3-2.

He signed off his fantastic junior career becoming English Junior Champion in March (gaining revenge over George Parker in the final) and then in April he became European Junior Champion. An incredible title to win. Then he began his assault on the Men’s professional tour……

Starting 2014 ranked 133 in the World. In the first half of the year he battled through qualifying in every event. Reaching every main draw of every tournament, he then went on to score many great wins, showing his true class and potential against players inside the World’s Top 60. This year his victories include beating Alan Clyne (WR 40), Zahed Mohamed (WR 41), Greg Lobban (WR 55) and older English rival, Ben Coleman (WR 70).

Richie’s demonstrated his ability to beat highly ranked players on the World tour, shown absolutely no naivety in taking on established world tour professionals, and all for a young man of 19! His improvement after each tournament was evident in his performances. This led to him reaching 6 Semi-Finals and 2 Finals over the year on the PSA World Circuit. He won one of those finals, The Pilatus Cup in Switzerland, his first tournament victory on the PSA Tour (first of many I’m sure).

Now in January 2015 he is ranked No.78 in The World, jumping 20 places over the last 2 months alone.

I’m sure 2015 will prove to be an equally impressive year for the AWsome Man.