This time a year ago Derek Ryan hadn't won a world ranking squash tournament since he triumphed at the Hungarian Open in 1993. By the early hours of Monday morning he'd won four in 12 months, when he beat Finland's Juha Raumolin in the Apawamis Open final in Rye, New York.

Safe to say, then, that the 29-year-old Dubliner is getting the hang of this tournament-winning business. "I am, I suppose - but it's about time, isn't it?" he said, on his return to Dublin yesterday, where he collected his Texaco Sports' Award for his achievements in squash in 1998. On the evidence of his performances in Rye, and his successes last year, Ryan's new-found ability to dig deep in moments of crisis, and find that little bit extra, has led to his transformation from being a "useful" player to one who can now be rated as world class.

In his first-round match, in the Long Island town, he recovered from going two sets down to beat Australian Stewart Boswell and in the final he fought back from a 1412 deficit in the fourth set to finish off Raumolin. The world number 31 (and rising) is a resilient competitor himself, one who had ousted number two seed Chris Walker in the semi-finals after going 2-0 down - he had also beaten Ryan in one of their previous two meetings, five years ago.

"He fought back really well but I knew I just had to win, simple as that," said Ryan. "I lose the points I picked up for winning the Hartford Cup this time last year in the next rankings so I needed to replace them, which I've done by winning this tournament."

Ryan dropped from 10 to 14 in the last ranking list, after his first-round exit from the World Open, but this victory should push him close to regaining his top 10 position, which he reached for the first time in his career last month. "I desperately needed a good start to the year so I just trained as hard as I normally do over the season through Christmas and didn't take a break - this win makes that sacrifice worthwhile."

And what's this we hear about a stretch limo? "Oh yeah. The tournament organisers knew I had to get to the airport for my flight to Heathrow within 90 minutes of the end of the match, so they said they'd arrange some transport for me. I came outside expecting a cab but here was this stretch limousine, complete with bar and telly, so I thought `Mmm, this'll do'."

Ryan returns to the land of stretch limos next Wednesday to prepare for the Tournament of Champions, one of the major events on the squash calendar, which is again being staged in an all-glass court in New York City's Grand Central Station. The event, which will feature the world's leading players, will be watched by the one million commuters who pass through the station each day. A puzzled expression on every face.