Grayson: “I Feel I Can Push For Another Two Seasons”

Having made it into the top 25 for the first time in his career, and having represented his country at the WSF World Men’s Team Championships in December, Campbell Grayson had a very good 2019-2020 campaign.

The New Zealander, who has now been on the PSA World Tour for over 17 years, believes that as long as he tays fit and healthy, that he has another two seasons left in the tank.

“I am 34-years-old now and overall, I am happy with how I am still playing. Realistically if I look after my body well and keep doing the work I am doing with my strength and conditioning coach, I feel I can push for another two seasons,” Grayson explained.

“The World Championships, British Open and a lot of the great events we have on the tour are very motivating, however the World Teams Event being held in New Zealand and the 2022 Commonwealth Games are great events to keep pushing for and target as potentially my last events.”

That World Team Championships in New Zealand will come two years after the event in Washington, D.C., where Grayson was a part of the Kiwi side that made it into the quarter-finals at Squash on Fire.

Grayson, along with World No.5 Paul Coll, World No.88 Evan Williams and Lwamba Chileshe, helped the national team to a 5th placed finish, their best performance at the tournament since 1993.

“It’s always great to represent New Zealand at the World Teams Champs or in any event and I love playing for my country!!” he exclaimed.

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“Whenever I have played for New Zealand, we always have a good team atmosphere and get along well and we were excited going into the event. We also had a good support crew from back home which was nice.

“It was good to improve on our positioning from 2017 with a 5th place finish and we all enjoyed the event. It was also good having Lwamba [Chileshe] as the newcomer in the team as it was great experience for him and I’m sure he will be improving quickly.”

On an individual level, Grayson had one of his best seasons on the PSA World Tour. The New Zealander breached the top 25 for the first time in his professional career.

He made it as high as World No.24 in February, off the back of a great start to the campaign where he won the Northwestern Mutual Life Time Houston Open, claiming the 14th title of his career.

“The Houston Open win was important for me as it’s great to start the season well and it was a good confidence booster for sure leading into the bigger events that followed after that tournament,” the Kiwi said.

“It was also important to get some matches under my belt and mentally made me trust the training I had been doing over the off season going into the event. It also helped get my ranking back to the top 35 which put me in a better position for the start of the season.”

The New Zealander admits that following on from that victory, in which he defeated Scotland’s Alan Clyne in the final, he went on to succeed in one of his key goals for the season, which was breaking into that top 25 bracket.

“After winning the Houston Open my goal was to try and reach the top 30, top 25. Once I did that I wanted to take each tournament one at a time and make a push for the top 20 so reaching the top 25 was definitely a goal achieved for this season,” the 34-year-old explained.