Miguel Angel Rodriguez – January Player of the Month

Just weeks after breaking into the top ten on the PSA World Rankings for the first time in his career, becoming the first South American player ever to do so, Miguel Angel Rodriguez went on to celebrate the most successful month of his career in January.

“I achieved my dream of being a top ten player and that has given me a lot of confidence. When I was young my dream was always to be top ten but now I have a new dream which is to be top five.”

“I’m a bit more professional and disciplined now about my game and how I play. I used to play a lot of long matches and run a lot, but I knew that if I wanted to reach the top I had to change my game.”

The always flamboyant and entertaining Colombian began the first PSA World Series event of 2015, the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions, with a new found maturity and composure to his game and he displayed his dangerous potential in dramatic styling with a victory over then World No.6 Peter Barker in the second round, his first ever victory over the Englishman.

Not content with that, Rodriguez then produced the best performance of his career against French World No.2 Gregory Gaultier, coming from 2-1 down to complete a remarkable victory that delighted the capacity crowd, who had by then adopted him as their favourite, and secure him a first ever appearance in the semi-finals of a World Series event.

He fell to eventual runner-up Nick Matthew in the last four, but regathered his composure to begin the Suburban Collection Motor City Open 2015, PSA International 70 event, full of confidence.

Victories over Saurav Ghosal, Cameron Pilley, Mathieu Castagnet and Stephen Coppinger followed as he stormed to the biggest ever title win of his career, moving up to a new record high of World No.6 in the process.

He will now go into February’s Guggenheim Partners Windy City Open, the second PSA World Series event of the year, hoping to continue his momentum and challenge the top five players in the world.