SITTING in a hotel room in a provincial city in Sweden makes James Willstrop no different from any other off duty English athlete, except for two things. One is that Willstrop, the world No 6, has already claimed three of the major titles in world squash in the past year, including defending the prestigious team world title in Chennai with victory over the Australians. The second is that his closest brush with fame and fortune last week was a pro-am match against Stefan Edberg, the former Wimbledon champion, at the Swedish Open.

Edberg, Willstrop reported, was in fine trim and a more than a decent player, even if his backhand needed shortening from a tennis-like sweep to a squash-like flick. Edberg, never one to court media attention, has slid back into the shadows since his retirement, but Willstrop, who has been ranked in the world’s top 10 for the past four years, was a junior world champion and former world No 2, has spent much of his life in sport’s shadows.

“I don’t even bother to watch the Sports Personality of the Year programme now,” he said. “Andy Murray, someone I respect a lot, is put up for the award and we won the team title for the second time, beating the Aussies, but I know we won’t get a mention. It’s incredibly frustrating.”

Willstrop has a point. Squash’s Olympic ambitions have been put on hold for the moment, but it is still a sport that requires the dedication, skill and commitment so seemingly absent from our beleaguered tennis players. Nick Matthew is world No 5, one place ahead of Willstrop. Britain have four in the top 12, and still the publicity refuses to settle over this strangely intense game, inaccessible to television perhaps, but no less than tennis a sport that reveals character and nerve.

Willstrop, who will defend his national title in Manchester this week, a domestic prelude to the world championships at the same SportsCity venue later in the year, has suffered and enjoyed his “Ashes moment” as keenly as any English cricketer in the high summer of 2005. It came in Chennai late last year when, in a best-of-three match in the final of the world team championships, he took to the court knowing defeat would seal England’s fate.

“It was a feeling of complete and utter sickness and tremendous excitement,” he says. “It was always the ultimate challenge in my career because, as well as the crowd and all the pressure from that, there were seven of my teammates at the side of the court. I’ll always remember it as a highlight of my career.”

Willstrop came through his “yes or no” moment with flying colours and, soon after, England had defeated Australia to retain their crown, the result being acknowledged live at the Sports Journalism Awards lunch in London.

Glimpses of recognition are rare in squash, though a number of sporting authorities would do worse than make a journey north to the Pontefract Squash Club, the spiritual home of the sport in the UK and the training home of both Willstrop and his long-time colleague and rival, Lee Beachill, to see how an obsession for a sport can be spread to the local community through the sheer energy and total dedication of the membership. Why Pontefract? Why squash?

“We’ve so many people completely committed to the plight of squash,” he explains. “Besides all the junior players and the internationals, it’s a brilliant social centre. You don’t have to be great to play, anyone can come along, the kids congregate, play a sport and don’t take drugs. It’s about accessibility too. They can play in the next court to a top international.” James’s father, Malcolm, is the head coach, the obvious reason why James himself developed a serious obsession with the sport.

“I can’t quite explain it,” he says. “There are times when I feel like packing it in, for sure, when I feel like killing someone, usually myself, after I’ve lost, but I’m still in love with the game.”

The bare facts, a former world No 2 now fallen to No 6, might suggest a natural decline in Willstrop’s career. That is in part due to his phenomenally successful junior career, after which anything less than a rise to the top of the world rankings would be deemed a failure, and partly to the increasingly competitive world of international squash. Ramy Ashour, a 20-year-old Egyptian, has risen to second in the world with prodigious ease, forcing some of the veterans – and, at 24, Willstrop has a number of miles on the clock – to reassess their game and their standards. It’s a daily process of renewal, Willstrop insists, not just down to the precocity of one brilliant, young player.

“Rami’s come in and taken the squash world by storm,” says Willstrop. “He’s exuberant and young and there’s a lot to like about him. He’s setting the standard and we have to learn from that.”

Willstrop will not have to worry about Ashour this coming week, only old bogeymen like Beachill, who, for years, he could not beat for love nor money. He got bored answering questions about it. “Tiresome,” he says. “But I beat him last year for the first time and it’s been 1-1 since. I didn’t do anything much different, I just had faith in myself.” Maybe the rest of us should have more faith in Willstrop too.

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